Quote:
Originally Posted by Jibba
Romanticizing it as such strikes me as odd, though, especially given the benefits of having it buried. "Embracing" highways should be more sensitively and thoughtfully incorporating them into the city so that their presence doesn't reign supreme and preclude the functionality of the areas adjacent to them, not leaving them on display to serve as strident reminders of maximizing efficiency.
The obvious benefit of the expanded park space is legible access to the lakefront for those N Michigan Avenue shoppers who otherwise wouldn't bother. If they can glimpse the edges of an oasis (sans highway) on their horizon, they're times over more likely to go and explore, and I'd rather have their eyeballs on those parts of the skyline than those of speeding motorists.
That being said, I'd rather have the money go towards a seamless connection between Grant Park and the lake (with improvements to the lakefront path between Oak and Ohio St. beaches).
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First, LSD isn't an expressway, it's a parkway that intentionally does not conform to Interstate standards. Speed limits are lower, trucks are banned, there are no breakdown lanes, turn radii are tighter, and landscaping/barriers come right up to the edge of the driving lanes. Lightposts, overpasses, and barriers are designed as things to be seen and appreciated, not utilitarian. The efficiency of moving traffic is not, in fact, the primary goal.
By its very design, LSD already discourages high speeds and is a "sensitive" urban road that plays nice with surrounding neighborhoods and with recreational park space. It doesn't need to be hidden away. By remaking LSD into more of a traditional expressway, and sticking it underground like some kind of embarrassment, IDOT is threatening to upset this balance.
The presence of the highway hasn't diminished property values; even where the Inner Drive and Outer Drive are right next to each other with no buffer, there is still massive demand to live there as evidenced by the wall of highrises.
I'm not against improving the pedestrian connection at Oak Street. But building a massive tunnel seems wrong both from a financial ($$$) and a design standpoint. Why not just build a generous underpass like the many others that have been built at the Museum Campus, 53rd, LaSalle through Lincoln Park, etc. Or a broad overpass that offers sweeping views of the beach, with gentle grades?
Basically this:
The emphasis on little neighbourhoods, the stoop, local shops and walking distances, the "human scale" only tells part of the story of the city - after all, these things can be found in villages and small towns. All cities need sublimity, a touch of holy terror, a defiance of human scale that asserts connection to the greater urban whole. Elevated highways, crowds, tall buildings, interconnection and confusion - these things can be to some people dismaying and unpleasant, but the awe they strike is the overture of accepting the condition of living in a city.
-Will Wiles
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Rendering from Gensler
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