Beale Street Landing

Beale Street Landing’s intent was to create a landmark capable to reconnect and join together Tom Lee Park, the historic Cobblestones, the Blues coming down Beale Street and the Mississippi river, the main protagonist. BSL proposes a 5 acres qualified public space, in order to bring back the Community to the riverside and enjoy it again. At the same time, the project is the city gateway for thousands of tourist every year. It is the first postcard when approaching the city form the river. The project tries to be gentile with the riverfront by designing a topographic landscape with smooth and curved geometries, while extending Tom Lee Park over the terminal building to minimize its impact. Our goal was to celebrate the river, therefore most of the design solutions reflect this concept. Visitors should be able to overlook the river from everywhere, with no interference. Thats the reason why, we minimized all vertical and obstructing elements and why the terminal building was surrounded entirely with a clear storefront to allow river views thru it. As another way to celebrate the river, the terminal building service core, which penetrates the roof was wrapped with a photo of the river during sunset. The image was then pixelated in 20 colors and built with aluminum colored panels. Furthermore, the colored concrete floors zigzagging refer to the water level movements. The Docking Facility area is formed by: a bridge, a helical ramp, resembling the 19th century paddle wheelers and a floating pontoon. This last, in lieu of the typical dolphins, is supported by a unique in the world mooring arm system. Again, free river views. The 2 islands as guitar pics refer to Beale Street’s blues.