Design Teams

ONE PARK | ONE MILLION TREES | TWELVE LANDSCAPES

Shelby Farms Park is already today an amazing reserve of public parkland and amenity. It’s huge scale offers an extraordinary resource for people who are interested in large-scale recreation activities – strolling, jogging, cycling, roller-blading, picnicking, dog walking, swimming, camping, horse-back riding, dog training, fishing, shooting, gardening and the like. It’s agricultural heritage is also a great resource for land husbandry practices, including farming, research, energy, education and markets.

Our design vision amplifies these trends toward higher intensity and variety of uses. New entrances, pathways, plantings and facilities will shape a more defined and beautiful identity for the Park as a whole. In the center will be a magnificent new lake, three times the size of the current lake, supporting a wide range of non-motorized water sport activities. Twelve distinctive landscapes will each support certain uses and activities, allowing a coherent “place” structure for the many varied user groups set within a larger Park setting.

Shelby Farms can be a GREAT LARGE PARK - a park of significance for all of Memphis and its surrounding region, serving as a recreational and cultural destination while allowing citizens to discover a renewed relationship with natural systems, agricultural heritage, and outstanding scenery. It is an opportunity unparalleled in any other city: 4500 acres dedicated to a park at the heart of the Shelby County, accessible to downtown Memphis, and at the nexus of the Wolf River Greenway and the future CSX rails to trails.

All you have to do is read the name. The history of farming is the most useful way of thinking when looking toward the future of Shelby Farms Park. This is a huge piece of land that has been in the process of breaking down into 3 or 4 separate domains. Due to the size and available resources, the only viable strategy for creating a singular park is to work closely and dramatically in partnership with nature. That’s what farmers do – they closely study the soil, climate, hydrology, transport, market, and come up with a plan for cultivation that builds on the best aspects of their land. This is a plan for cultivating a very big park. This is how you grow Memphis.