For nearly a century—since the city’s first master plan in 1928—Evansville residents have sought stronger, more accessible connections to the Ohio River. However, protective walls, levees, and raised roadbeds built to prevent flooding severed community access to the river. The Ohio Riverfront Visioning and Strategic Plan marks the first regional effort to revitalize the Ohio River frontage and reverses that separation. The plan creates a multi-generational, well-programmed riverfront designed to reconnect the city to its riverfront for the long-term prosperity of the surrounding communities.
The Ohio River Vision and Strategic Plan by Sasaki is a blueprint to energize the Evansville Region with new investment and stronger connections to the Ohio River in Posey, Vanderburgh, and Warrick Counties in southwest Indiana.
The plan—backed by state funding from the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) grant program administered by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC)—envisions an invigorated 50-mile stretch of interconnected riverfront communities anchored by Mount Vernon, Evansville, and Newburgh. It lays out a bold redesign and expansion of the park spaces and plazas along the riverfront, introducing new uses to support a diverse array of public activities and community events. Proposed investments in downtown infrastructure, mobility networks, and public spaces aim to enhance connectivity between these areas and the riverfront, establishing the riverfront as an integral part of the downtown experience…