A rural city bets on water access and landscape amenities as the keys to economic revitalization.
By Kim O’Connell
The project coincides with a decision to remove a defunct hydraulic dam. Photo courtesy City of Danville.
Throughout its history, Danville, Virginia, has been a pass-through city?a place where people and products were often headed someplace else. Located on the North Carolina border, this small industrial city is bifurcated by the Dan River but remains largely cut off from it.
During the Civil War, Danville was a railroad hub moving soldiers and supplies for the Confederacy. A postwar industrial boom, fueled by textile mills and tobacco production, lasted well into the 20th century. In recent decades, those industries dried up or moved elsewhere, leaving Danville with economic losses, a stagnant population, and a moribund urban core. A new riverfront park, now under construction, is poised to change all that. A major design imperative was not just to provide views of the river but to allow users to engage with it. Image by Site Collaborative.
Using public and private funds, the city has invested in a prominent land parcel where Main Street crosses the Dan, connecting the city?s two halves. Designed by Site Collaborative?a firm based in Danville and Raleigh, North Carolina? the four-acre Riverfront Park will provide access for paddlers and fishers, play structures, seating areas, an elevated river overlook, and rock-climbing walls. Danville is at a geograp...