Reclaiming defunct infrastructure, a series of new public paths and parks invite locals and visitors to gather, play, or simply enjoy navigating the city's neighborhoods.
These vignettes exemplify a new burst of place-making in Chicago. As if in anticipation of the crowds that are expected to descend upon the city for the Chicago Architectural Biennial, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has recently dedicated four signature public spaces: the Riverwalk, a sleekly modern addition to the Beaux Arts retaining wall along the Chicago River; the 606, a winningly un-slick 2.7-mile bike trail and chain of narrow parks that slices through four neighborhoods on the city’s Northwest Side; Maggie Daley Park, a kid-centric pleasure ground of more than 25 acres just east of the wildly popular Millennium Park; and the southern part of Northerly Island, a 40-acre ecological showcase of man-made hills, a lagoon, and campgrounds that’s a short cab ride away from the Loop.
These diverse projects have something in common: the transformation of outmoded transportation infrastructure into prime public space. The Riverwalk replaces decrepit docks. The 606 supplants a defunct elevated railroad freight line. Maggie Daley Park supersedes a dull 1970s park that was built atop a lakefront parking garage. Northerly Island was a small shoreline airport, mostly used by politicians shuttling between Chicago and the state capital in Springfield, until one night in 2003 when former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, in a Robert Moses moment, sent out city backhoes that carved giant X’s into its runway and shut it down.
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