Lakefront Love Affair Chicago is making its famous waterfront even better. By Kari Lydersen NorTherly Island, LIKE MUCH of Chicago’S 30-MILE Island in name only lakefront, is a triumph of artifice—created from fill and debris, in- Burnham envisioned one continuous lake- cluding detritus from the city’s devastating (and formative) 1871 front park that could be enjoyed by all fire. It was to be the first in a chain of islands proposed by architect Chicagoans. Northerly Island is a link in Northerly Island’s design uses a Daniel Burnham in his 1909 Plan of Chicago. More than a century that continuous chain, but it is no longer honeycomb shape as an organizing later, Burnham’s vision continues to guide development of the Chi- an island. The federal Works Progress Ad- principle. cago lakefront, and Northerly Island is among the sites undergoing ministration connected it to the mainland renovation. in 1938, after it hosted festivities for the Other projects include a complete overhaul of a former U.S. Steel plant site on the city’s 1933–1934 World’s Fair. Later it served as Southeast Side and yet another makeover of Navy Pier, the centrally located, multipurpose, Meigs Field, a single-strip airport that was Photo by Alex MacLean by Photo 3,300-foot-long pier that is the biggest tourist attraction in Illinois. demolished in 2003, when former Mayor Northerly Island (rendering opposite) is in the midst of a major, much-anticipated renovation. Two miles north, Navy Pier is undergoing NAVY PIER NAVY improvements in anticipation of its centennial. Richard M. Daley, citing post-9-11 security fish, create 900 campsites, and possibly even that has been plagued in recent years by concerns, bulldozed the runway in the mid- import a sunken Great Lakes ship for divers complaints of overcrowding and medioc- dle of the night—without Federal Aviation to explore. rity. Now the pier is getting multifaceted Administration approval. “The idea is to create a place that is very improvements leading up to its centennial Now Northerly Island is largely a prairie- intensely attractive to wildlife but brings the in 2016, including the redesign of public scape that blooms with purple and yellow public paths through the space in a way that spaces by James Corner Field Operations, wildflowers in the fall and rustles with dry both can coexist,” says Gang. “We’re recog- architect of New York City’s popular High grasses in the winter. A bike path loops nizing that it takes longer and longer to get Line, an elevated rail line converted into a through the center, while the shoreline is a from downtown urban areas to natural en- park. tangle of brambles, jagged rocks, and metal vironments. In order for people to experi- Plans for Navy Pier include more green pylons. It has a certain beauty. But except ence those, we need to start planning more space, water attractions, public art, and for the Adler Planetarium, a small beach, a ecologically diverse parks within the urban nighttime lighting. The existing Chicago temporary concert venue, and parking on f a br i c .” Shakespeare Theater and Chicago Chil- the peninsula’s northern tip, it is largely in- Although an exact timeline has not been dren’s Museum may be expanded. accessible. set, a district spokesperson says that a por- If all this comes about, it will be just the This will change as the southern portion tion of the construction is expected to start latest remake of Navy Pier. Like Northerly of the 91-acre “island” is getting a $6.1 mil- this winter. Some $3.9 million of the total Island the pier was born as a partial realiza- lion makeover designed by Jeanne Gang of cost will come from the Army Corps of tion of Burnham’s plan, which originally Studio Gang Architects, known for works Engineers, the rest from the Chicago Park called for five piers. It started as a combined that incorporate and celebrate a site’s ecol- District. shipping port and entertainment spot, then ogy and history. The project, covering about served as a World War I military barracks, a 40 acres and overseen by the Chicago Park What’s next for the pier World War II naval training center, a cam- District, will open the shore to swimmers, Just two miles north of Northerly Island is pus of the University of Illinois, a conven- provide artificial reefs as habitat for native iconic Navy Pier, a tourist magnet but one tion center, and most recently a supersized, Aerial rendering by Studio Gang Architects 34 Planning January 2013 American Planning Association 35 NORTHERLY ISLAND NAVY PIER family-friendly recreation destination. asks Edmund Woodbury, president of Mc- muck to Northerly Island. The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Caffery Interests, which formed Lakeside The now-crumbling ore walls that once Authority owns both Navy Pier and Mc- Development in partnership with the U.S. formed bins for ore and limestone are over- Cormick Place, the city’s massive lakeside Steel Corporation. “It really knits together grown with cottonwoods. One wall will convention center, but in 2011 a nonprofit the final leg of the Burnham Plan; we’re very be preserved as Ore Wall Park, stretching called Navy Pier, Inc., was created to pro- proud of that.” along the industrial inlet that will likely mote and undertake renovation of the pier. Phase one projects include a mixed use be transformed into a marina. The park is “commons” with 500 residential rental units inspired by a similar project in Duisburg, Postindustrial (20 percent of them designated as affordable Germany, in a former industrial area where About nine miles south of Northerly Island for people making the median area income) much old infrastructure has been repur- another swath of artificially created land and the extension of Lake Shore Drive, the posed. A local biking group is even working juts out into Lake Michigan, this one bigger roadway that parallels most of the city’s to build a competition-worthy velodrome than Chicago’s downtown Loop and built shoreline. A new charter high school is also on the Lakeside site. with slag from the steel industry that once planned in the near future. And the de- These three marquee projects are among defined the city’s Far South Side. U.S. Steel’s velopment features many green elements: several recent and ongoing improvements protection district further enshrined South Works, which operated here until permeable pavement made from steel mill in the city’s lakefront parks, including a new the concept in city policy. One pro- 1992, made steel that built the Sears (now slag; wind turbines, solar, and biomass in- marina and new bike trails, public art, and vision specifies that no new private Willis) Tower, the Wrigley Building, and stallations on-site; an energy-efficient dis- prairie restoration on the lakefront south of development be created east of Lake other landmarks, plus weaponry for both trict heating plan with cogeneration; and a downtown. Shore Drive. world wars. water conservation system allowing nearly All this focus on the lakefront has After 20 years, all that’s left on the 589- all stormwater to be filtered and sent back Continuing the tradition also bolstered the “Last Four Miles” acre site today are three crumbling “ore to Lake Michigan instead of into the sewer Many cities now value their waterfronts, campaign by the group Friends of walls” and a small brick building trans- system. but more than a century ago Chicago was the Parks, which aims to create pub- formed from an old credit union to the Lakeside Development has turned 90 special in making the lakefront a place for lic green space along the two-mile offices of Lakeside Development LLC, the acres of lakefront land over to the Chicago public enjoyment. Back in 1836 the Illinois stretches of north and south lake- partnership that is developing an ecofriend- Park District, including all the land right and Michigan Canal Commission promised front that are currently cut off from ly hub of residential, commercial, research, next to the lake. The developers are help- that swaths of the lakefront would remain public use. Opening up these four and recreational facilities. The city approved ing to secure funding for native planting, “forever . open, clear and free.” Burn- miles through possible land acqui- a 40-year development plan for the site in bike trails, a marina, and other facilities. ham and Edward Bennett in their Plan of sition and artificial shoreline exten- 2010; redevelopment costs are estimated at The project will also include an additional Chicago and other prominent landscape sions would result in green space $4 billion. 40 acres of new parks and green space in- architects and preservationists, including stretching from the Indiana border The former U.S. Steel site is so massive terspersed throughout the site. In early Frederick Law Olmsted and A. Montgom- all the way to Evanston, Chicago’s that the residents of the surrounding neigh- October, bulldozers were busy spreading ery Ward, promoted the importance of a northern suburb. The Lakeside De- borhood—known for high levels of fore- thick, glossy piles of mud that had been de- public lakefront dedicated to recreation and velopment means part of this goal is closure, crime, and unemployment—have livered by barge from dredging sites on the natural beauty. already being accomplished because never been able to walk or bike to the lake Illinois River under the state Mud to Parks The city’s 1972 Lakefront Plan and a re- shoreline that was long closed off as easily.