Pueblo is a steeltown on the prairie that never gave up, not even when layoffs and closings in the smelting industry drove unemployment beyond 20 percent in the 1980s. Since then, this city of 107,000, located about 40 miles south of Colorado Springs, Colo., has diversified its economy, restored its historic downtown and attracted a new convention hotel, children’s museum, and other cultural venues.

The crowning achievement of Pueblo’s comeback is the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo (HARP), a $24-million effort to restore the historic course of the Arkansas River downtown as the centerpiece of a 26-acre park and mixed-use development.

After the Pueblo flood of 1921 drowned more than 100 people and left downtown Pueblo 11 feet under water, the Arkansas River was moved, encased in levees and underground pipes several blocks away. HARP re-creates 2,220 linear feet of the historic river channel downtown. Streets and utilities were re-routed for several years while the historic channel was carved out. It now flows with water diverted from the river’s main channel and from an adjacent cooling pond.

“People [are] able to sit outdoors and enjoy the water year-round,” said James F. Munch, Director of the city’s Department of Planning and Development.

Design Studios West, Inc., (DSW) a Denver-based landscape architecture and engineering firm, served as lead designer and planner of HARP. DSW specializes in reclaiming urban waterfronts and has also contributed to successful projects in Estes Park, Colo., Stockton, Calif., and Sarasota, Fla. Landscape Architect James E. Keeter, a guiding force behind the San Antonio Riverwalk for the past 45 years, assisted DSW in the project's design. Like the San Antonio project, HARP provides a landscaped waterfront setting for river cruises, entertainment, recreation, restaurants and shops.

The effort to create HARP began in typical Pueblo bootstrap fashion: A citizens' group called the Historic Arkansas River Project Commission created the vision for HARP in the early 1990s, then worked to raise nearly $24 million. Funding sources included a $12.85 million bond approved by voters in 1995, $7 million in foundation grants and private donations, and $3 million in federal and state grants, including a $1 million Legacy grant from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO).

Opened officially in October of last year, HARP now provides a focus for community pride and attracts I-25 travelers to enjoy the new Buell Children’s Museum, Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, El Pueblo Museum and the 86-building Union Avenue Historic District. In the 1980s, DSW designed a $1.2 million streetscape for Union Avenue, ushering in a transition from a honky-tonk area to shops and boutiques.

“We saw the HARP project not only as a celebration of the river, but as the key to downtown Pueblo’s renaissance,” said Mel Murray, executive director of the HARP Commission. “The Riverwalk gives the people of Pueblo a neat place to come and enjoy the river, it attracts tourists, and it creates jobs.”

Murray projects that HARP will lead to a 10 percent annual increase in visitor spending over the next three years, pumping $27 million into the local economy. As a result of these and other economic development efforts, Pueblo was recently named one of the nation’s four most livable cities by the Washington, D.C.-based Partners for Livable Communities.

Since 1991, the city and Pueblo’s citizens have worked closely with DSW to plan and design HARP. Ultimately, HARP reflects Pueblo’s deep community spirit. As the lead landscape architect and urban designer, we at DSW helped to guide their vision, but the community itself was the real architect of HARP.

HARP highlights

The Arkansas River was moved after a flood in 1921 left downtown Pueblo 11 feet underwater. The Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo (HARP) re-creates 2,220 linear feet of the river channel. Visitors and residents alike are drawn to the riverwalk environment, which flows with water diverted from the river's main channel and from a nearby cooling pond. HARP is expected to bring $27 million into the local economy and increase visitor spending by 10 percent over the next three years.

Spanning 26 acres on both banks of the Arkansas River,

the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo (HARP) contains:

• 2,300 linear feet of navigable waterway for use by

water taxis and pleasure boats

• 6,500 linear feet of walkways and bike paths

• 1.9-acre Lake Elizabeth

• A grassy amphitheater opposite Pueblo’s historic city hall

• An outdoor environmental education center

• The Farley/Reilly Fountain, a water feature designed by local

sculptor/landscape architect Richard Hansen, who quarried the

huge upright granite stones.

• “Meander” and “Wave,” public sculptures that

double as benches, also by Richard Hansen

• Two plazas

• Three bridges

• Lawns and other landscaped areas

• Five building pads for mixed-use development

including shops, offices, and homes

• Linkages to city hall, museums and cultural

attractions, and bike paths leading to Lake Pueblo