Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
Daley Plaza is successful? In what sense? Because on weekdays people cut across it rather than walk around it?
The ability to use it as a vacant lot where you can set up Bastille Day or Chicagoween or Christkindlmarkt is not what most urban designers would consider success in a plaza. Nor is having a few tables that nearby office workers will use out of desperation on a late spring day because nothing else is close enough. You could set up a stage and some folding chairs on a barge in Lake Calumet and the grandparents would still come and watch their granddaughters folk dancing.
A successful plaza is one that people are drawn to by choice, not because it's the shortest path from the subway to city hall. It's a rare urban design textbook that doesn't have Daley Plaza shown as "don't."
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How is it not successful? All you did is suggest that the only reason people ever go there is as a shortcut or to see some gimmicky tourist trap which we all know is completely false. Apparently critical mass doesn't exist and there has never been a protest in Chicago. Daley Plaza acts as a perfect civic center for everything from a space for a handful of pissed off Palestinians to complain about Zionists to a staging grounds for minor civil disobedience (critical mass), to an event space for seasonal attractions, to a simple outdoor lunchroom on warm summer days. I don't think I've ever seen less than a couple dozen people milling about there unless the weather is particularly heinous or it is late at night.
Now if you are looking for a European, restaurant lined, nightlife center, then go look at Viagra Triangle. But, that's simply not the only definition of a successful plaza. Daley Plaza is designed to be the heart of the city and it is incredibly adept at that. It is designed to take a beating and to be ultimately flexible. It is designed to be loud, to handle huge crowds, to be open. It is not designed to be some quaint, quiet, nook in the South of Spain. Nor would such a plaza even be possible in Chicago (outside of a few locations which have already been discussed here) simply due to the nature of our grid and climate. It is just not possible to create vibrant spaces lined with restaurants when you are working with entire Chicago city blocks. That is ultimately why spaces like Connors Park and Viagra Triangle are much more successful at filling the "vibrant nightlife nook" than a civic center like Daley Plaza. They are small triangular slivers while Daley is an entire city block dedicated to the idea that a city should have a central meeting grounds.
Going back to the original topic: That's exactly why I think 150 N Riverside should be hardscaped. I think we could use another durable, flexible, open, hard surface in the West Loop given the general trajectory of the area.