Kaal Rock Parks and Suspended Walkway

Reconnecting the Riverfront: Reimagining Poughkeepsie’s Waterfront Experience

Located along the Hudson River, this scenic waterfront park has incredible potential to become both a local and regional destination—enhancing the area near the Walkway Over the Hudson and establishing a multi-use trail along the Poughkeepsie waterfront. The main goal of revitalizing this underutilized park is to strengthen overall connectivity within Poughkeepsie’s waterfront and linear recreation corridor.

Working closely with the City of Poughkeepsie. LaBella prepared schematic design plans, permitting strategies, and construction cost estimates for three primary components of the project: Kaal Rock Park, Kaal Rock Point Park, and a suspension bridge that will hug a near-vertical and picturesque rock formation on the shore of the Hudson River. Once constructed, the proposed suspension bridge will create much-needed connectivity along Poughkeepsie’s waterfront. In addition to the schematic design plans for each component, LaBella developed an overall master plan to help the City pursue funding for the broader project.

Planning efforts involved key stakeholders, including Scenic Hudson, the Poughkeepsie Alliance, and City representatives. LaBella also organized a community outreach process to gather feedback on the proposed park and bridge designs. Focused user groups played a role in shaping the visionary master plan, which aims to create a world-class destination along the Hudson River—linking the waterfront to the City and other community recreational resources. Public information meetings were also conducted during the design process to engage residents and build consensus.

LaBella designed the projects to align with the City’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan and has received support from the New York Department of State’s Office of Planning, Development, and Community Infrastructure.

Kaal Rock Park

The goal of the Kaal Rock Park improvement project is to reimagine and revitalize this critical and picturesque riverfront parkland and open space into an active, accessible, and inviting destination for both residents and visitors. The project will provide a wide variety of recreational opportunities along the Hudson River, including passive recreation, picnicking, fishing, a kayak launch, and general riverfront viewing. A prominent feature of the project is an outdoor terraced amphitheater designed for small-scale musical and theatrical events. A new waterfront promenade will connect to an existing riverwalk south of the park and provide ample areas for seating and strolling along the rivers.

Kaal Rock Point Park

Kaal Rock Point Park is a prominent natural outlook on the eastern shore of the Hudson River. The rock outcropping offers expansive views of the Hudson River Valley and several architecturally and historically significant bridges. The proposed design includes a naturalized plaza and gathering space that offers a unique overlook of the river and is easily accessible from nearby streets. This area will also serve as a key link between Kaal Rock Park and Waryas Park to the north.

Suspended Walkway

The proposed suspended walkway would span the Hudson River along the west side of Kaal Rock Point Park, connecting north to Waryas Park and south to Kaal Rock Park—two key destinations within the City’s southern waterfront and its thriving developments. In the long term, an architecturally dramatic and regionally distinctive suspended footbridge could further extend connectivity to parkland north of the site, offering universal access to the two adjacent parks.

This vital pedestrian connection to Waryas Park is currently in the conceptual phase but is acknowledged in the City’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP). The City of Poughkeepsie is actively pursuing funding to advance this one-of-a-kind, architecturally significant project.