Walsh sees potential of Riverwalk project
By Bert Lehman
Michael Walsh, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior who is developing a Riverwalk design, chose the Clintonville project over around 10 other projects.
“I love the idea of a Riverwalk,” Walsh told the Clintonville Tribune-Gazette after receiving input from Clintonville residents at a Pigeon Riverwalk Development Plan community input meeting Feb. 24.
He added, “I think there is a lot of potential there. And also, it being a downtown project (was a plus). There were a lot of projects that were natural preserves and stuff, and I’m way more into this kind of thing.”
Prior to settling on the Riverwalk project in Clintonville, Walsh said he researched the website for the city of Clintonville.
He also researched the street view on Google Maps in order to view what the layout of the city is like.
Walsh said he has enjoyed working with city officials.
This has included two trips to Clintonville, including the Feb. 24 input meeting.
“The communication back and forth has been strong,” he said. “A lot of other people in the major haven’t been meeting as much as we have. I think it’s been going really well.”
Walsh is from Frankford, Illinois, which is an hour south of Chicago.
He will graduate in May with a degree in landscape architecture.
Walsh said he logged more than 200 hours last semester working on the inventory analysis of the Pigeon Riverwalk project.
This included gathering information about the site.
Once the current semester concludes, Walsh said he expects he will have worked around 450 hours on the project. The current semester is focusing on designs for the site.
He added that he received a lot of good feedback at the input meeting in Clintonville.
“It’s all stuff I’m going to try to implement to my project,” Walsh said.
He has to present the design of the project to his professors in mid-March.
After that, the next seven weeks will be spent on developing renderings for the plan.
“I’m liking where it’s going,” Walsh said. “I think the community just gave a lot of good feedback. I’m looking forward to the rest of the semester.”