Urban Waterfront Promenades

Some cities have long treasured waterfront promenades, many have recently built them as urban waterfronts have de-industrialized, and many others are considering them as opportunities arise. Beyond connecting people with urban water bodies, waterfront promenades offer many social and ecological benefits. They are places for social gathering, for physical activity, for relief from the stresses of urban life, and where the unique transition from water to land eco-systems can be nurtured and celebrated. The best are inclusive places, welcoming and accessible to diverse users. This book explores urban waterfront promenades worldwide. It presents thirty-eight promenade case studies—as varied as Vancouver’s extensive network that has been built over the last century, the classic promenades in Rio de Janeiro, the promenades in Stockholm’s recently built Hammarby Sjöstad eco-district, and the Ma On Shan promenade in the Hong Kong New Territories—analyzing their physical form, social use, the circumstances under which they were built, the public policies that brought them into being, and the threats from sea level rise and responses been made.

Based on wide research, Urban Waterfront Promenades examines the possibilities for these public spaces and offers design and planning approaches useful for professionals, community decision-makers and scholars. Extensive plans, cross-sections, and photographs permit visual comparison.

Elizabeth Macdonald, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Urban Design in the Departments of City and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture/Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. She is author of Pleasure Drives and Promenades: A History of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Brooklyn Parkways (Center for American Places, 2012) co-author of The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards (MIT Press, 2002) and co-editor of The Urban Design Reader (Routledge, 1st edition 2007, 2nd edition 2013).