Lately, the Chicago River has become a much more inviting place. Kayaks, water taxis, and tour boats populate a channel once dominated by industrial barges. People take lunch on the sculptural staircase and timber benches of the newly expanded Riverwalk[1], a graceful promenade designed by global design firm Sasaki and local architecture studio Ross Barney Architects.
Farther along, in pockets of reconstructed shoreline, tall grasses rustle, boathouses launch rowboats and canoes, and waterfront trails and transit corridors extend into the city’s neighbourhoods. Enhanced treatment processes and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s (MWRD) Tunnel and Reservoir Plan have eliminated odours and allowed fish to flourish—up to 76 species in 2016, up from just 10 in 1974, according to a MWRD’s June report.
Still, there’s an opportunity to do more, says Josh Ellis, vice president of the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), a partner in Chicago’s River Edge Ideas Lab. “There are long stretches of the river along the North and South Branch that we haven’t figured out what to do with, large industrial areas that have historically been good for jobs, but where there isn’t much going on now. People, to their credit, are taking a look at opportunities to modernise and update these river corridors,” he says.
The River Edge Ideas Lab is a public design exhibition curated by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC). Ross Barney Architects led exhibition design. The public exhibition runs in conjunction with this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial[2] (September 16, 2017 – January 7, 2018).
SOM Rendering Congress Parkway
Photo Credit: Dusty DiMercurio
With funding from Comcast, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and Related Midwest, the city engaged MPC...