Tom Lee Park honored as a 'World Changer' by Fast Company Magazine
The newly redesigned Tom Lee Park has snagged another top honor, this time from Fast Company Magazine.
Named one of the magazine's top three finalists for the World Changing Ideas Award, the accolade is the latest one bestowed upon the city's primary hub of interconnected riverfront parks in Downtown Memphis among international submissions.
The award, according to Fast Company, is meant to shine a light on efforts that encapsulate "innovation and ingenuity necessary to make the world more accessible, equitable and sustainable for everyone.”
The overall winner of the category is the Texas Medical Center's Helix Park — a mixed-use, $5 billion, 37-acre project in the heart of Houston. Their budget dwarfed Tom Lee's 90 times over.
Prior to Fast Company's praise, the park designers also snagged an honorable mention from The Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Awards, Unbuilt ― Landscape Category in 2019.
The world and nation have been taking notice of Tom Lee Park since plans for a complete overhaul of the park's face and functions were shared with the rest of the world, with articles devoted to the ambitions of Memphis and the architecture firm Studio Gang, which oversaw the redesign plans. The park has been the focus of articles in The New York Times, a PBS documentary, and myriad other mentions.
The end of May this year marks the first run of the inaugural RiverBeat Music Festival and international barbeque competition, SmokeSlam, in the park following the redesign. Participants of both expressed contentment with their new space for hog-noshing and crowd-thrashing.
Components of both of the new events were designed to be in tandem with the park's new terrain and features, utilizing the open spaces and folding in protective terrain coverings and other measures meant to keep the park functional for patrons in the immediate aftermath of Memphis in May.
Since the park reopened to the public in September 2023, according to Memphis River Parks Partnership, the official tally has clocked some 500,000 visitors — likely an undercount — from more than 128 ZIP codes.
Fast Company's honor for Tom Lee Park is the latest instance that underscores that Memphis' riverfront and Downtown core is changing.
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is still in the process of building a new art museum that will peer over the edge of Downtown Memphis into Arkansas. That project is slated to be completed late in 2025.
In 2027, the city's tallest building that has sat shuttered since 2014, 100 N. Main, is scheduled to reopen with a $216 million overhaul, transforming the 37-story building into a mixed-use space housing a hotel, office spaces, apartments, and more.
In May, plans were submitted to the planning division for a 15-story, 191-room, mixed-use development called the Blues Note Hotel, which will be situated catty-cornered from FedExForum, which is also slated for renovations. The site will also contain 65 apartments and 360 parking spaces — a valuable commodity for a Downtown that is poised to draw in more tourists and residents within the next several years.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tom Lee Park in Memphis recognized by Fast Company Magazine
