Imagine Chicago’s commercial strips, schoolyards and vacant lots transformed into a green network of community arboreta, while the city’s 28-mile long boulevard system becomes a series of lush gathering places.
Could this be Chicago in 34 years?
Maybe, under two separate but complementary proposals that have jointly won Horizon Lines: Visions for Chicago 2025, a design competition sponsored by the influential economic development organization World Business Chicago.
The group announced the winners — the Morton Arboretum and MKSK — at a luncheon Tuesday. Conceived and submitted separately, the proposals were among the six finalists selected by the competition’s jury in July.
In addition to bringing the city attractive new greenery, the proposed landscapes would also help absorb stormwater runoff and keep the city cooler in the summer by reducing heat islands caused by heat radiating off the pavement.
“These kinds of land management and resource management and sustainability theories are not just beautification,” World Business Chicago President and CEO Phil Clement said. “And I think that’s what really won everybody over.”
The arboreta plan, called Green City Rising, was created by the Morton Arboretum. Chicago design firm MKSK created the boulevard proposal, dubbed Wonderways.
With a $5,000 honorarium and WBC’s imprimatur, the arboretum and the architects will now work together to combine the two ecologically sustainable and community-centered public plans.
And the two visions are compelling.
Green City Rising shows street medians and public spaces that are significantly verdant, parklike and shaded.
As depicted in renderings, the greenery cuts wide roads down to size and absorbs the stormwater that overloads the sewer systems and floods city streets and basements.
“When the six finalists were announced, we were honestly delighted to see that so many of the entries squarely leaned into the idea of green and climate resilience and community and economic development principles that we all share — and with MKSK specifically,” Morton Arboretum President and CEO Jill Koski said. “Both of our visions really emphasize that built infrastructure and nature aren’t mutually exclusive. That was really exciting to see.”
Wonderways seeks to elevate the city’s historic boulevard ring by giving the green spaces more trees, rolling landforms, restored prairies and a mix of quiet and active places.
And while Chicago’s boulevards should be equal, in reality some are more equal than others when it comes to greenery, access and design. Wonderways and Green City Rising could help address that.
“There is a disparity … [around] which community members have easy, safe access to these places — and access that feels accommodating to community gathering — and which of these spaces feels like a giant highway, and it’s inaccessible and doesn’t feel safe for your child across the street to access it,” MKSK Principal Brett Weidl said.
“A huge part of this is really trying to hone in on how to create equitable spaces,” said Weidl, a landscape architect who developed Wonderways with MKSK associates Donny Donoghue and Donny Zellefrow.
Nearly 200 design proposals were submitted for the competition. The four remaining finalists — and there are some thought-provoking ideas there — will get $1,000 a piece.
Will any of Green City Rising or Wonderways get built? There’s no timetable, nor even the promise of public or private funding, beyond the honoraria awarded by WBC.
It’s almost the architectural equivalent of lying on your back, staring up at the sky and wondering: “What if?”
WBC did say it will introduce the design team to public, private and community partners “to explore how the concepts could work together and identify potential next steps.”
So why go through the trouble? Because that’s what Chicago does.
The Commercial Club of Chicago sponsored the 1909 Plan of Chicago, a book of wishes that, over the following 50 years, led to the creation of Wacker Drive, the construction of lakefront parks and the formation of major museums and cultural spaces.
By the way, the 1909 plan was strengthened by the inclusion of Jules Guerin’s mesmerizing renderings. Here’s hoping the Morton Arboretum uses its share of the $5,000 honorarium to help hire a human professional to do Green City Rising renderings from this point on.
It doesn’t have to be a modern day Guerin, but the public needs to see the concepts depicted in actual Chicago places rather than the distracting, AI-generated nowheresville seen in the image accompanying this column.
Other originally unfunded proposals that became real include the early 1990s renovation of Navy Pier and the creation of Dearborn Park and Printers Row.
But bringing the projects to fruition doesn’t happen by chance. Next comes the hard work of seeking buy-in, working with communities to revise the plan and waiting for the financial and political stars to align in City Hall and Springfield.
Could take years; could take decades. A 1975 proposal called for decking over 20 acres of Grant Park surface parking and a rail line to create Lakefront Gardens for the Arts.
It opened in 2004 — 29 years later — as Millennium Park.