Portfolio: Rio Salado Planning

Rio Reimagined is an ongoing regional revitalization effort for the Salt River through the center of the Phoenix metro area where it connects six cities, multiple unincorporated county spaces, and two tribal nations.

The initiative began as a legacy project by Senator John McCain in partnership with Arizona State University, aiming to generate an overarching, coordinated vision for the future of the river corridor, informed by local communities’ needs, development priorities, and funding opportunities to ensure a cohesive regional impact.

Today supported by a statement of intent by government leaders along the river, Rio Reimagined is in the process of developing governance and planning that will formalize its multi-organizational leadership and direction. In the earliest days of the initiative, my role with ASU’s University City Exchange (2017-2018) was to create a geographic model of the riverbed as a tool for use in engaging prospective stakeholders. This work included data collection from multiple agencies, designing and building a physical model in foam with a CNC router, and planning a projection system to overlay data onto the model.

THE DATA

The main task was to model the Rio Salado from Granite Reef Dam to the Salt-Gila Confluence, initially, then extended to Buckeye. GIS was identified as the best source for the mapping to build the model. GIS and LiDAR data was acquired from multiple sources, including the United States Geological Survey, the Maricopa Association of Governments and Arizona State University. It was a valuable challenge to find ways to select and merge disparate data from multiple agencies.

THE MODEL

The scale of the CNC routed foam model was 1 mile = 1 foot. When asking vendors about the materials, I found a manufacturer (Precision Board) who was interesting in supporting the work. I was able to solicit and arrange a gift of the 24, 2′ x 4′ foam boards to our team, because the model was used for research at the university.

The main east-west riverbed was the focal line. Including all canals would have expanded the model to the whole metropolitan area. The panels were 2 miles east-west and 4 miles north-south. Extra panels were extended to show Central Phoenix. The early 20 panels from Granite Reef to Salt-Gila confluence would be 40 feet long when assembled. 12 panels were cut before ASU’s CNC workshop closed and higher resolution options were sought out.

The model showcased the area’s static physical features, at scale: topographical forms, transportation networks, and the best approximation of building footprints and heights as of the project’s start date.

PROJECTION

A system of digitally arranged data and designs was tested for projection onto the surface of the foam model. In addition to the CNC routed form of the Rio Salado area additional variables could be projected: amenities, landmarks, historical or new designs or developments, transportation, hydrology, utilities, economics, energy– any urban data was considered for data for projection. 

BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER

This research and planning evolved from recent developments to improve the Rio Salado across Phoenix: Tempe Town Lake, the Liberty Wildlife Campus, the Nina Mason Pulliam Audubon Center, and the Tres Rios Environmental Restoration Project. Current and future projects include memorial library for Senator John McCain in Tempe as well as many environmental restoration and heat resilience projects to benefit the surrounding communities. Rio Salado is a central environmental factor shared by the whole region, spatially and historically, to all the communities in the Salt River Valley– past, present, and future. For a deeper history of the Rio Salado’s significance to the region’s habitation, see my recent article for the Society of Architectural Historians, “The Salt River and Canals” (2023). Details of Rio Reimagined’s future-oriented activity since my own early contributions can be found at RioReimagined.org

PUBLICATIONS

Boehm, Jessica. “Sen. John McCain’s legacy project: Develop 45 miles of the Rio Salado” azcentral, Dec 24, 2017. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2017/12/24/john-mccain-legacy-project-develop-45-miles-rio-salado-arizona-state-university-phoenix-tempe-mesa/915158001/

City of Phoenix. “RIO PHX”. https://www.phoenix.gov/pdd/riophx. Accessed 4 January, 2025.

City of Phoenix. “Rio Reimagined Project” https://www.phoenix.gov/oep/rio-reimagined-project. Accessed 4 January, 2025. 

Crow, Michael; McCain, John. “Your Turn: What is Rio Reimagined? Think Tempe Town Lake – but a lot bigger” azcentral. 29 March, 2018. https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2018/03/29/rio-reimagined-change-phoenix-tempe-town-lake/471444002/

Fischer, Morgan. “Rio Reimagined looks to make continued environmental improvements”.The State Press. 3 October, 2021. https://www.statepress.com/article/2021/10/rio-reimagined-continued-developments-in-tempe

DeGraw, Annie with Kate Gallego, Kate, Melissa McCann, and Corey Woods. ASU News. Devils in the Details. https://news.asu.edu/devils-in-the-details/rio-reimagined. Accessed 4 January, 2025.

[DPJ Staff] “Valley Cities and Tribes Launch ‘The Rio Reimagined’ Revitalization Project”. Downtown Phoenix Journal.  29 March, 2018. https://downtownphoenixjournal.com/2018/03/29/valley-cities-and-tribes-launch-the-rio-reimagined-revitalization-project/

[Editorial Board] “Our View: Rio Reimagined challenges metro Phoenix to think big. Are we ready?” azcentral. 5 April, 2018. https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2018/04/05/rio-reimagined-phoenix-mccain-asu-think-big/480038002/

Perez, Stephen. “’Rio Reimagined’ project hopes to bring life back to the Rio Salado” The State Press. 15 April, 2018. https://www.statepress.com/article/2018/04/spcampus-rio-reimagined-hopes-to-revitalize-rio-salado 

Richardson, David. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, [eds] “The Salt River and Canals”, SAH Archipedia, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 2023. http://sah-archipedia.org/essays/AZ-01-013-01

Seckel, Scott. “ASU, McCain team up to transform Phoenix riverbed.” ASU News. 25 August, 2017. https://news.asu.edu/20170825-arizona-impact-asu-mccain-team-transform-phoenix-riverbed

US Environmental Protection Agency. “Program Updates – Rio Reimagined 2020” https://www.epa.gov/urbanwaterspartners/program-updates-rio-reimagined accessed 4 January, 2025. 

US Fish & Wildlife Service. “Rio Reimagined Urban Program” https://www.fws.gov/project/rio-reimagined accessed 4 January, 2025