I'm gonna take an unpopular position and agree with 10023... why preserve a view corridor if you can't also move along the same corridor? Unfortunately, it seems like the original master plan only made a weak commitment to this goal.
Looking at the original plans for Cityfront Center is instructive... originally Ogden Slip extended west a few hundred feet to Columbus Drive (which was brand-new in 1982). The developers of Cityfront Center filled in the western third of the slip, both to create bigger development parcels and so that McClurg and other streets could be extended through without bridges. Harry Weese thought the slip should be preserved in its entirety, but lost an initiative to get it added to the National Register.
It seems like the original master plan for Cityfront Center at least anticipated a pedestrian way from Columbus Drive to the (new, truncated) end of Ogden Slip at McClurg, replacing the filled-in canal, and maybe extending westward as well to connect to Pioneer Court. Also, the pedestrian way was not intended to necessarily be an open air passage, the planners expected some kind of winter garden or office lobby would provide a connection through the Loews parcel and possibly the NBC parcel, like some of the great through-block lobbies from the 1930s in the Loop. The condo building at 440 N McClurg was even built with a grand staircase, fully in line with the vision.
Unfortunately, once the NBC Tower was built, it permanently sank the possibility of a continuous connection from Michigan Ave to the lakefront along Ogden Slip. Its design did put an building entrance on this axis facing west, and placed a low-rise annex in the view corridor, but didn't create that through-block connection that the planners were hoping for. CDOT probably didn't help things by making Columbus Drive a massive six-lane auto sewer - especially in the 1980s, they probably would have frowned on a mid-block crossing between Illinois and South Water, especially one intended to serve pedestrians only.
