Downtown Riverfront Tour

Downtown Riverfront Tour June 2021

The community's vision to reconnect downtown Eugene to the Willamette River is unfolding before our eyes. Construction crews began working on the 16-acre Downtown Riverfront property in 2020 and continue to make great progress.

Take this virtual tour for a glimpse of the site's amazing evolution from the comfort of your home. All images in this presentation were taken on June 8.

Infrastructure Update

Above: looking east towards the river along the 5th Avenue extension and under the Ferry Street Viaduct.

The 5th Avenue extension will soon welcome people walking and biking from downtown to the Willamette River. Once developed, housing will go to the right of the 5th Avenue walkway. Commercial space is currently planned for the left side of the promenade.

The current development plan for the Downtown Riverfront site.

Stylish street lights line the new streets in the development. These will be used throughout the Downtown Riverfront.

Thousands of plants are thriving in rain gardens throughout the site. These rain gardens will remove pollutants from water that runs off from the streets and sidewalks before making its way to our stormwater system.

Construction crews focus on the smallest of details. Below you can see crews clearing away dirt around recently installed bollards. To the right, they're adding grout between truncated domes which help visually impaired people detect when they're entering or leaving the sidewalk.

This new section of Ferry Street is one of the last sections of paving remaining for completion of the phase one infrastructure work.

Phase two of the infrastructure project includes building Eugene's three new streets: Annie Mims Lane, Wiley Griffon Way, and Nak-nak Avenue. All of the infrastructure work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Left: A rain garden sits at the west end of the future Wiley Griffon Way. Middle: A rough cut out of the new Nak-nak (pronounced "knock-knock") Avenue leads to the river. Right: Large equipment is used to excavate for and bury new service pipes and conduit.

Downtown Riverfront Park

The new 5th Avenue overlook supports the first vertical construction on the Downtown Riverfront site. This steel frame structure will serve as support for future artwork framing the entrance to stunning views of the Willamette River and Alton Baker Park.

The pavilion is just feet from the Willamette River.

Above is the artist's rendering of the completed pavilion with steel ribbon artwork to be added in the coming weeks.

A lot of planning and hard work goes into creating a park of this scale. Nearly a year into the construction of the park, crews continue to fine tune the irrigation infrastructure.

In addition to irrigation, rain gardens have been constructed throughout the park, including between the two lanes of the bike path. These specialty planting areas will clean water running off of paved surfaces and minimize pollution into the nearby rier.

With two months left until the scheduled opening of the park, crews are hustling to install a wide variety of surface finishes, site furnishings, plants, and much more.

Hardwood decks provide an alternative - and warmer - surface than concrete in many areas of the new park. The design incorporates Black Locust, a hardwood from the Midwest, which will eventually weather to a silver gray color.

On the southern end of the park, separated paths designate where to bike, run and walk. These paths will allow for people to move at their own pace - whether speedily biking home through the park or taking a stroll closer to the riverbank.

This walking path will bring visitors closest to the river to enjoy new bank plantings, and both filtered and panoramic views of the Willamette River.

Water rushes over rocks on the Willamette River in this view from the future deck overlook near Wiley Griffon Way.

Looking north, you can see the different "layers" of path.

There is still a lot to be done as we prepare for the August opening and celebration to the community back down to the river. We're thankful for all the crews at Brown Contracting who continue to build this legacy project, a regional park we will enjoy for decades to come.

Next month we'll share more on the art pieces that will soon be installed at the park, as well as the latest happenings from the three-acre site. You can find more information on the Downtown Riverfront development and Park on the City's website.

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