Edges, Episodes, and Expectations

Drone shot over the completed Downtown Riverfront Park Plaza (photo from the City of Eugene. All other photos by me unless noted otherwise).

This weekend marked the grand opening of Eugene’s Downtown Riverfront Park Plaza, a civic milestone years in the making. I attended the festivities on Saturday, eager to see how this new public space performs under the weight of real use.

The plaza is the latest installment in Eugene’s broader riverfront redevelopment—a transformation of the former EWEB utility yard into a three-acre park that reconnects the city with the Willamette River. Portland-based landscape architecture firm Walker Macy designed the project, which has earned multiple accolades: the 2022 Oregon ASLA Honor Award and People’s Choice Award, the 2023 ORPA Design & Construction Award, and recognition from AIA Eugene. Clearly, others saw promise in its layered narrative, sculptural landforms, and potential to serve as a civic anchor.

Walker Macy's rendering of the Downtown Riverfront Park Plaza in the context of the built-out neighborhood development. Only the Heartwood (top building in the image) is in place now; the other buildings are pending. 

My takeaway? It’s too early to assess the plaza’s success. Its ultimate character depends on the completion of the surrounding development. The planned restaurant pavilion and multi-family housing blocks (in addition to the already occupied Heartwood) are essential to framing the space and giving it definition. Without them, the plaza feels more like a clearing or pathway than a square.

The plaza doesn’t immediately read as a space intended for large public gatherings. Unlike traditional urban squares, which rely on clear geometries and proportional relationships to foster collective experience, this plaza feels episodic. The elements—adventure playground, splash pad, works of art—are engaging but discrete. The shiny metallic Riverfront Plaza Pavilion that terminates 5th Avenue stands apart compositionally and lacks integration with the nominal plaza. Likewise, the proposed Across the Bridge commemorative fountain, which will honor Eugene’s displaced Black community, is planned for a site north of City Hall along the riverfront path—far removed from the plaza. Its presence would have physically and symbolically bolstered the space’s significance as a civic marker of place and history.

The primary plaza area.

Interactive sprayground.

Adventure playground.

Integrated interpretive pavement display.

Untitled sculpture by Volkan Alkanoglu.

The bottom line: there’s no central focus, nor is the plaza configured to frame grand civic rituals or celebrations. I could ask people in the know whether the intent was for the space to serve in this capacity, but I haven’t yet. Perhaps I should.

If the City did envision this plaza as a major public assembly space, it’s worth examining how it compares to notable precedents. Robert F. Gatje’s book Great Public Squares offers a useful lens. Consider Venice’s Campo dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, which Gatje includes for its compelling spatial dynamics. One end of the square opens directly onto the Rio dei Mendicanti, yet the space maintains a strong sense of enclosure thanks to the surrounding architecture—the basilica, the Scuola Grande di San Marco, and the Colleoni statue. It accommodates both movement and gathering, with a clear civic identity.

Campo dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (photo by Abxbay - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27901807)

Closer to home, Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square provides a contemporary counterpoint. Designed in the early 1980s by Willard Martin and his team, the square occupies a full city block and is framed by transit corridors, retail, and civic buildings. Its open-air design and amphitheater-like steps invite both casual use and large-scale events, earning it the nickname “Portland’s living room.” It’s a space that gathers, not just entertains.

Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland (photo by Cacophony - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2335737)

These examples underscore the importance of proportion, edge definition, and narrative coherence in successful public squares. Eugene’s Downtown Riverfront Park Plaza, by contrast, feels more like a collage than a composition. That may reflect a different ethos—one rooted in play and informality—but if the goal is to create a civic heart, the design must do more than amuse. It must hold.

Of course, it’s possible that the City and Walker Macy intended the design’s episodic nature, that the plaza was never meant to function as a traditional civic square. In contemporary landscape architecture, fragmentation and informality often reflect a desire to accommodate diverse uses and avoid prescriptive spatial narratives. If that’s the case, then comparing the plaza to historic European squares or even Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square may not be entirely fair. Still, if the term “plaza” carries civic expectations, it’s worth asking if the design fulfills them.

The City’s intent for the space is unclear. “Plaza” may simply be a convenient label for what is, in practice, a hardscape node within a larger park system. If so, I should adjust my expectations for its civic role accordingly. In time, the surrounding development may lend the space greater definition and purpose. For now, it remains an incomplete element—its long-term significance still to be determined.