Stories don’t always fit neatly into the boxes and screens made to tell them.
At Lynchpin, we believe in the story-telling of place and how a space can be as evocative and inspiring as a well made film. As communities across the country work to identify and empower their assets, quality of life, and community offerings, they’re also vying for opportunities to inspire civic pride and forge emotional attachment with citizens in order to set themselves apart from other cities.
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The Headwaters Junction proposal proved to be big, bold, and transformational. Incorporating this feature within a mixed-use development should not be overlooked when developing a vision for our riverfont and North River.
[/blockquote]The Headwaters Junction proposal proved to be big, bold, and transformational. Incorporating this feature within a mixed-use development should not be overlooked when developing a vision for our riverfont and North River. – Legacy Fort Wayne
Our work at home in Fort Wayne to tell the city’s story through the redevelopment of a riverfront brownfield into a living tourist attraction has earned some friends the last few months. Internally we call it “The Train,” but locally its known as Headwaters Junction. Like a good book, it has quite the supporting cast and like any great feature film, it certainly has production value. There’s a lot of discussion in our fair city about how it seems to have lost its swagger. We maintain that before there was swagger, there was steam.
In the News Sentinel, the idea was “recognized by the Legacy Fort Wayne initiative as a plan with community support and catalytic potential; an effort to make mixed-use development along our riverfront unique, entertaining, educational and vibrant with the train.”
Simply put, Headwaters Junction is an experience; a platform to create a unique community gathering space that is as authentic and functional as it is atmospheric and dare we say, romantic. It is our advocacy for meaningful placemaking over strip malls and parking lots.
We aren’t just blowing smoke, because here’s a summary of the last two years of accolades. For more, visit the Headwaters Junction site here.
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“Headwaters Junction is an elegant and obvious addition to Headwaters Park. It honors the the city’s railroad legacy and adds diversity to the park’s appeal.”
– Eric Kuhne, CivicArts
“Headwaters Junction speaks to the potential of downtown.”
– Downtown Improvement District
One of the most exciting and progressive railway heritage projects on the continent.
– John Hankey, Chairman, Railway Heritage Initiative
It’s wild & bold, just the way we like it.
– One Lucky Guitar, Inc
High-water Mark Stacey Stumpf, Journal Gazette – 3/15/2013
Out of the many proposed riverfront development projects, Headwaters Junction is the only multiuse development project the RFP requires consultants to consider.
Transformational, Jim Sack, Fort Wayne Reader – 1/26/2013
Speaking of transformational, the Henry Administration has a wonderful opportunity in the “person” of the massive and inspiring steam engine 765. The people who resurrected the legacy engine, who have made it again into a stunning Iron Horse, are willing to put it to work for Fort Wayne. Not to take advantage of 765 and put her back to work for our city would be a shame and a missed opportunity of the first degree. The Legacy process talked of transformative; this is it! Fire her up, build an interactive, family friendly center around her and schedule 765 to regularly carry fun lovers and history buffs to Chicago or wherever the tracks lead. Any developer involved in the North River Project, whether from Baltimore or Butler, should jump at the offer.
Headwaters Junction Proposal Hopes to Redevelop Riverfront Indiana’s NewsCenter – 1/13/2013
“This is an international attraction that could call downtown Fort Wayne home,” Kelly Lynch with Headwaters Junction says. “The North River site that would be combined with mixed use activities, and shops, restaurants and riverfront development as a whole.”
Plan would give steam locomotive home downtown Sarah Janssen, Journal Gazette – 1/6/2013
But the entire property is about 37 acres, said Dan Wire, a member of the team that developed the riverfront proposal. Wire, a retired teacher and a self-proclaimed river advocate, believes there’s a misconception that Headwaters Junction would take up the entire property, but in reality it could be just one acre.
“Some people don’t understand that it could be added value to whatever else is there. It would be the whipped cream on the ice cream sundae,” Wire said.
Headwaters Junction Speaks to Potential of Downtown Stephen Bailey, Downtown Improvement District – 12/27/2012
Once I saw the train for myself, I was able to understand its appeal. The No. 765 Engine is big and bold yet friendly. It would be hard not to stop and stare as it passes by. Trying to understand why No. 765 isn’t living and breathing in downtown Fort Wayne, Kelly tells me that, “this is like Fort Wayne having the world’s most famous animals with no zoo to put them in.”
Headwaters Junction not only speaks to the potential of downtown but it speaks to the hearts of so many dedicated, intelligent, free-thinking individuals striving to create the downtown Fort Wayne that they want to experience. Now that the Legacy Fund has taken note, the possibilities connected to Headwaters Junction could not only put downtown Fort Wayne back on the map, it could also inspire an entire generation. Which one is more important is for you to decide; maybe it’s both.
High Stakes on the Riverfront Connie Haus-Zuber Fort Wayne Magazine – 11/2012
A light really is shining at the other end of the tunnel through which the city will travel as it decides how to use the Legacy fund for what everyone is calling a “bold and transformative” riverfront project. And it really is a train.
It got the attention of the Legacy Fort Wayne Downtown and Riverfront Development Champion Team, and it was one of the top three projects in public online voting the Legacy task force used.
The Champion Team report says “the Headwaters Junction proposal proved to be big, bold, and transformational. Incorporating this feature within a mixed-use development should not be overlooked.”