Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Urban park in downtown Portland, United States.
Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a 36.59-acre park on the west bank of the Willamette River in downtown Portland, Oregon, bounded by RiverPlace to the south, the Steel Bridge to the north, Naito Parkway to the west and the river to the east. It covers 13 tax lots owned by the City of Portland and is divided into five zones, including a paved Esplanade along the river, the grassy Bowl south of the Hawthorne Bridge, and the concrete plaza around Salmon Street Springs.
The park opened in 1978 after Harbor Drive, a freeway built along the riverbank in 1940, was removed starting in 1974. Governor Tom McCall set up a task force in 1968 to study replacing the road with parkland, and ZGF Architects was hired in 1971 to design it. The park was renamed for McCall in 1984.
The park hosts the Waterfront Blues Festival, the Oregon Brewers Festival, the Gay/Lesbian Pride Festival and the Bite of Oregon, and stages many Rose Festival events. The Bowl, a lawn sloping to the water south of the Hawthorne Bridge, serves as an informal amphitheatre for Oregon Symphony concerts and annual dragon boat races. The John Yeon building, next to Salmon Street Springs, houses the Portland Rose Festival Foundation.
The park runs along the west bank of the Willamette River, bordered by the Steel Bridge to the north and RiverPlace to the south. It is busiest from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and again from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, when bike and pedestrian commuters use it as a car-free route through downtown.
The Salmon Street Springs fountain operates with a computer-controlled system of about 185 jets that create different water patterns throughout the day. This interactive feature draws crowds especially on warm days when visitors cool off in the changing spray.
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