A group of big name local and national architecture firms are part of a new “Chicago Urban River Edges Ideas Lab”, a collaboration that will “develop renderings and design concepts for several typical river edge conditions found throughout the river system.” Chicago Mayor Emanuel announced the lab on Monday at an international urban waterways conference he co-hosted here with Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo.
Firms include: Ross Barney Architects, Studio Gang, Perkins+Will, Site Design Group, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), (David) Adjaye Associates, James Corner Field Operations, SWA, and Sasaki.
Ross Barney and Sasaki co-designed the six new riverwalk sections that opened in 2015 and 2016, a project that was announced in 2012. Ross Barney also designed the two riverwalk sections that opened in 2006 and 2009, including the Vietnam veterans memorial.
This is related to the Our Great Rivers plan that Metropolitan Planning Council developed and released last year. One of its most famous goals is to make the Chicago River swimmable by 2030.
The city has been increasing investments along the river in the last three years; in addition to the extended riverwalk the transportation department is building a multi-use trail along the river between Belmont and Montrose.
Chicago neighborhood news
- In wake of rising property taxes, condo owners in the Bloomingdale Arts Building in Logan Square next to to 606 elect to drop sale price caps that kept units affordable (Reader)
- Forgotten Chicago published its 2017 season tour list, with 14 upcoming neighborhood tours (including a reprise of the Calumet River boat tour)
- Some residents asked 46th Ward Alder James Cappleman for a moratorium on approving high-rent housing in Uptown (DNAinfo)
- Since shelter is a basic necessity, but housing is very expensive, what if Americans stopped looking at home ownership as an investment? Looser land use regulations could increase housing production, too. (NYT)
- A block of houses in Humboldt Park was successfully rehabilitated as part of Chicago’s “Troubled Buildings Initiative” (Urban Land Institute)
- The National Trust for Historic Preservation has defined neighborhood character and measured your Chicago neighborhood (Chicago Mag)
- A new program called “L-Evate” will develop strategies to maximize new housing and commercial development around five ‘L’ stations (MPC)
- Speaking of housing around CTA stations…did you know that up to half the land within two blocks around many Brown and Blue Line stations doesn’t allow two-flats or anything denser?
- See the residential designs that are unique to Chicago in Curbed’s new guide to the vernacular — architecture without architects.
- A new report highlights drastic shortage in affordable rental housing & says without federal funds the private market wouldn’t supply (WTTW)
Cityscape tip
We recently launched a redesigned Community Data Explorer, so you could easily get demographic data from the Census even for areas that don’t line up with their boundaries. Curbed demonstrated how to use it.
The number of places where you can use Community Data Explorer has increased and Chicago Cityscape now maps every Illinois municipality — 1,368 in all! Get started.
Got questions on how to use this or any of our other great property and neighborhood lookup tools? Contact us.