The City of Chicago is accepting bids to redevelop two city-owned sites, in McKinley Park and East Garfield Park. The city is participating in the global “Reinventing Cities” initiative from the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, an organization led by cities to reduce greenhouse gases.
After reading these summaries, tell us what you would you propose.
McKinley Park
The McKinley Park site includes two industrial buildings that are part of the historic Central Manufacturing District and were built for the Army in 1918, and eventually used by many well-known national brands.
Each building has over 570,000 square feet. A third building is not part of the RFP as the city will continue using it for storage.
Get an Address Snapshot for each of the buildings:
The city posted a design prompt and rules for the CMD buildings:
While the City’s preference is for redevelopment of the entire site, bidders may also propose to reactivate only one or both of the historic six-story buildings. Proposals should enhance opportunities for Chicago‘s workforce and for nearby residential communities. The project should aspire to be carbon-neutral, while increasing the site’s resilience to water events. The overall design of the project should…provide publicly accessible spaces...
East Garfield Park
The second site is a group of 14 vacant parcels in East Garfield Park across from the John Marshall Metro High School. The parcels are already zoned for a good medium density, at C1–3, but the city is open to proposals that change the zoning classification — and through the normal channels.
One of the parcels is close enough to qualify for the TOD ordinance, making it possible to propose a multi-family development with a wider range of apartment sizes and a few more units than C1–3 allows.
The parcels, vacant since before 1988 (see these historic aerials), are in a neighborhood called Fifth City (map).
According to this film voiced by Oprah Winfrey created by the Institute of Cultural Affairs, the neighborhood had transformed from “a neglected ghetto into a reformulated community” by 1983 after the ICA started a 40-year plan in 1963. (It’s a great video; it also shows former Mayor Harold Washington speaking at a ribbon cutting for a car repair shop, it explains “Fifth City” etymology, and shows how a community invested in itself.)
There are recent investments: The Hatchery, a large shared kitchen for entrepreneurs, is under construction three blocks north of the site. The high school, known for its winning basketball teams, also expanded its outdoor athletic facilities in 2010 with a “campus park” shared with Faraday elementary school next door.
Sustainability is a theme for this site’s design prompt and rules, also:
While the City’s preference is for redevelopment of both corner lots for this site, bidders may also propose to reactivate only one of the corner lots. Bidders will be encouraged to suggest a typology of multi-family housing that will compliment these exciting projects and programs and become a model for carbon-neutral, sustainable, and resilient redevelopment of disinvested neighborhoods.
What would you propose at each of the sites?
If you need help figuring out what you can build, we’ve partnered with MAP Strategies and created a new zoning assessment service.