Co-Lab
2025
Waterfronts
This booklet examines how small cities are reclaiming and reimagining their relationships to rivers, coastlines, and natural environments. Many small cities were founded around water, and waterfronts remain among the most valued and defining features of small-city life. Yet, they also carry legacies of industrial decline, pollution, and infrastructure that has cut residents off from the water. As climate change accelerates flooding, erosion, and rising water levels, the pressure to rethink these spaces has never been greater.
Inside, a story from Tessa Kelly and Chris Parkinson of ARCADE looks at interim activation as a tool for reconnecting residents socially to the river; an essay from Andrei Harwell and Alan Plattus of the Yale Urban Design Workshops shares design pilots for various uses on the waterfront; and a feature of Daniel Rossi-Keen of Riverwise considers how Beaver County's rivers can be an organizing principle to cultivate collective imagination.