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All Looped Up
All Looped Up
Chicago, IL, United States
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All Looped Up
Chicago, IL, United States
Firm
YEAR
2013
The competition called for ideas to occupy the unfulfilled site of Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire. To the north and to the south, the site is bound by water - the Ogden Slip and the Chicago River respectively. The only access to the site is from the west, through a residential neighborhood known as Streeterville. To the east of the site is an elevated portion of Lake Shore Drive. Under the highway, and further east lies a dilapidated park, known as DuSable Park. This park, literally a peninsula, is entirely inaccessible from anywhere other than the competition site. It is cut off from the rest of the Lake Shore park system by the River and the Slip.
Like DuSable Park, other neighboring edges of the Lake Shore park system are also dilapidated and underdeveloped. Prime real estate, these public lands contain the massive potential of becoming charged social spaces, packed with a host of day time and night time activities for tourists and residents alike.
Simultaneously, it is important to consider the relationship of the waterfront to the surrounding urban neighborhoods, like the residential buildings in Streeterville, the Navy Pier, and the mixed use development at Lakeshore East Park. Rather than simply having the city and park exist side-by-side, there is an opportunity here to create an exchange between them.
The problem didn’t seem to be a small hole in the city. The problem seemed to be resolving the breaks in the park system and allowing it to become a continuous and fluid experience.
The resolution: a Loop.
This gesture would complete the park system through form and circulation. The loop would be built up from several systems operating in concert. Their collective behavior would reinforce the identity of the Loop, but each system would also digress to respond to the different local conditions. These digressions become the tether between the urban neighborhoods and the proposed Loop.
Flowing back and forth and all around, this complex system has a simple mission: to loop together Chicago’s waterfront park system with a whirlwind of intensity.
Like DuSable Park, other neighboring edges of the Lake Shore park system are also dilapidated and underdeveloped. Prime real estate, these public lands contain the massive potential of becoming charged social spaces, packed with a host of day time and night time activities for tourists and residents alike.
Simultaneously, it is important to consider the relationship of the waterfront to the surrounding urban neighborhoods, like the residential buildings in Streeterville, the Navy Pier, and the mixed use development at Lakeshore East Park. Rather than simply having the city and park exist side-by-side, there is an opportunity here to create an exchange between them.
The problem didn’t seem to be a small hole in the city. The problem seemed to be resolving the breaks in the park system and allowing it to become a continuous and fluid experience.
The resolution: a Loop.
This gesture would complete the park system through form and circulation. The loop would be built up from several systems operating in concert. Their collective behavior would reinforce the identity of the Loop, but each system would also digress to respond to the different local conditions. These digressions become the tether between the urban neighborhoods and the proposed Loop.
Flowing back and forth and all around, this complex system has a simple mission: to loop together Chicago’s waterfront park system with a whirlwind of intensity.
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