CHICAGO | General Developments

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by emathias

Um, no. I don't know how you measure distances, but unless some weird time-space warp appeared over Michigan Avenue, it's actually 7/8ths (seven eights) of a mile from Monroe to 11th Street.

Sorry about that. I meant to write eight-tenths. I got the figure from Google Maps.

[Abner]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

The Bears games mean this part of the park gets winter visitors as well, and they should find something other than a frozen wasteland. The elevation difference between the Roosevelt viaduct and the IC trench makes a sledding hill a natural.

This is the part of your proposal I agree the most with, but I'd take it farther. The city is way behind the times when it comes to winter gardens and other ways of maintaining some visual interest during the winter. I think a big part of the reason people think of Chicago's winter as being so ugly is that the city pretty much only plants deciduous trees and other plants that lose all their leaves and color in the winter. Even the planter boxes downtown, some of which could have native grasses, small conifers, or evergreen bushes, instead get flowers in the summer and weird mats of butchered pine twigs in the winter. Wouldn't it be nice to have winter landscaping in this new area, or at least landscaping that looks good year-round like the area around the Notebaert museum or the restored pieces of Northerly Island?

[ardecila]

I should mention that the Kathryn Gustafson proposal was presented in the "History" section of the meeting, where they reviewed the many conceptual plans for the park that have been created over the years. In no way was this presented as an active plan for the park, but it was presented as a way to turn the railroad tracks into something positive without the extreme cost of decking them.

Another interesting idea that was mentioned: creating some kind of an artificial stream. This could be abstra

[Mr Downtown]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Question, during the 4 or 5 months a year that Chicago isn't frozen solid. . .isn't the sun far enough north that shadows from the south wall would hardly be an issue

That's true in June or July, but by late August and early September the 2 pm shadows will extend almost to 11th Street—and will be solid from Michigan to Columbus.

how does . . . Crown Fountain get away with being right up against a wall of extremely tall building to the west?

Nothing fronting Crown Fountain is taller than 218 feet (University Club).

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

I get that you're aiming for a sort of Parc de la Villette experience but I really think that would be overkill given the nature of the attractions (well within walking distance) that already surround this parcel.

I was thinking more Tuileries than Parc de la Villette. For one thing, I'd like to see Bennett's formal landscape honored and extended. I'm not trying to compete with Millennium Park, Navy Pier, or even the Museum Campus. The Crown Fountain is a trip for a different day. I don't see how it's overkill for there to be someplace to sit, maybe someplace to buy a beverage, and something that kids walking to the Aquarium or Field Museum will think is a neat place to stop and play for a little while.

[spyguy]

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2...ant-parks.html

New link planned for Millennium, Grant Parks
December 19, 2008 at 8:12 PM
Hal Dardick

...Using $35 million from a lease of city parking garages, the district will transform 25 acres that include Daley Bicentennial Plaza and two smaller areas to the east known as Cancer Survivors Garden and Peanut Park, officials said.

...The district has invited landscape firms to submit their qualifications and ideas for the job by the end of the month.

...The $35 million will cover re-topping the area with landscaping. Additional amenities, like public art or fountains, likely would cost extra, and one way to pay for them might be with naming rights, Mitchell added.

[BWChicago]

I'm a little concerned that redeveloping so much of the park at once, and having to follow the Millennium template to a degree, runs a risk of overwhelming the Bennett plan and leaving us with a dated park.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

I don't see how it's overkill for there to be someplace to sit, maybe someplace to buy a beverage, and something that kids walking to the Aquarium or Field Museum will think is a neat place to stop and play for a little while.

Well, sure, phrased like that who would object? But when you start talking about this place being family-oriented with "world-class playscapes" and interactive water features it sounds less like the tranquil, reflective experience you describe above and more like an amusement park.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

Well, sure, phrased like that who would object? But when you start talking about this place being family-oriented with "world-class playscapes" and interactive water features it sounds less like the tranquil, reflective experience you describe above and more like an amusement park.

If I see those retarded yellow and orange plastic kiddy-playgrounds I might actually vomit.

[cbotnyse]

Originally Posted by spyguy

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2...ant-parks.html

New link planned for Millennium, Grant Parks
December 19, 2008 at 8:12 PM
Hal Dardick

...Using $35 million from a lease of city parking garages, the district will transform 25 acres that include Daley Bicentennial Plaza and two smaller areas to the east known as Cancer Survivors Garden and Peanut Park, officials said.

...The district has invited landscape firms to submit their qualifications and ideas for the job by the end of the month.

...The $35 million will cover re-topping the area with landscaping. Additional amenities, like public art or fountains, likely would cost extra, and one way to pay for them might be with naming rights, Mitchell added.

I really wish this included a pedestrian ramp over LSD at that location.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by cbotnyse

I really wish this included a pedestrian ramp over LSD at that location.

I think that would perhaps be a good locations for a natural land bridge with a sunken LSD in the future.

[cbotnyse]

I think I'm gonna go to the meeting, whenever it is, and bring that up if nobody else does. The area sorely needs a way across LSD. The entire LakeShore East development would use it.

I use this area a lot riding my bike and I remember a few times last summer I would sit on LSD and just people watch, and over heard many people from out of town be shocked they had to cross an eight lane expressway to get to the lake.

[Mr Downtown]

Lake Shore Drive is elevated at Randolph; not the place for it to be sunken.

There does needs to be a pleasant and logical way to walk from Millennium Park to Navy Pier. As it is, you have to walk the wrong way to Monroe, master the rather offputting stairways of lower Randolph, or find the hole in the fence by the Lower Wacker auto pound. But I suppose for suggesting such a thing, I'm catering too much to (spit!) tourists.

But it's the Queen's Landing problem that's the most glaring embarrassment to the city. Someone is going to die there in the next couple of years and the mayor will reach frequencies that only dogs can hear in trying to place the blame elsewhere.

At the south end, the reason I said "world-class playscape" was to make it clear that standard-issue plastic playground slides would not do.

[Jibba]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

But it's the Queen's Landing problem that's the most glaring embarrassment to the city. Someone is going to die there in the next couple of years and the mayor will reach frequencies that only dogs can hear in trying to place the blame elsewhere.

I completely agree. I am tired of this issue not getting more attention. Why does one have to cross a multi-lane expressway just to get to the lake from Grant Park; annoying, and highly dangerous.

[honte]

Originally Posted by cbotnyse

I really wish this included a pedestrian ramp over LSD at that location.

For that amount of money, you'd think it would...

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Lake Shore Drive is elevated at Randolph; not the place for it to be sunken.

.

I was thinking more a tunnel starting once the road is level again south of Randolph going into the bend into the straightway. Monroe does come up pretty quick however so I don't know if the expense would be worth it for a relatively short tunnel.
Queens landing would perhaps be a better place to put such a tunnel but I rather like the vista going south towards the Field Museum but there is a longer expanse with which to excavate.

[honte]

Were Calatrava's sketches for Queen's Landing ever made public?

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by cbotnyse

I use this area a lot riding my bike and I remember a few times last summer I would sit on LSD and just people watch, and over heard many people from out of town be shocked they had to cross an eight lane expressway to get to the lake.

...I wonder if they'd be twice as shocked by Avenido 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires.

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

There does needs to be a pleasant and logical way to walk from Millennium Park to Navy Pier. As it is, you have to walk the wrong way to Monroe, master the rather offputting stairways of lower Randolph, or find the hole in the fence by the Lower Wacker auto pound. But I suppose for suggesting such a thing, I'm catering too much to (spit!) tourists..

Snark aside, this is very valid criticism. Navy Pier already is a tourist destination so it doesn't make sense for it to be such a pain for pedestrian inclined visitors on foot from Grant Park. It's a similar distance to the Museum Campus from Millennium Park, though, so maybe we should advocate for some water features and playscapes at DuSable?

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

...

There does needs to be a pleasant and logical way to walk from Millennium Park to Navy Pier. As it is, you have to walk the wrong way to Monroe, master the rather offputting stairways of lower Randolph, or find the hole in the fence by the Lower Wacker auto pound. ...

Or take upper Columbus to Wacker, then use the open stairs to the Columbus bridge to Illinois to Navy Pier, which I've seen tourists do frequently. That's probably the most direct route. If Daley Bicentennial Plaza transitioned better to that triangle of land between LSD and lower Randolph, it'd be pretty straightforward to take that curvy bridge toward the lake and keep walking until you got there. Seems the City should do that, and seems it wouldn't cost much, either.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

...I wonder if they'd be twice as shocked by Avenido 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires.
...

Probably. There have been suggestions (so far, none taken too seriously) to bury the central portion of that, just for that reason.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by emathias

Or take upper Columbus to Wacker, then use the open stairs to the Columbus bridge to Illinois to Navy Pier, which I've seen tourists do frequently. That's probably the most direct route. If Daley Bicentennial Plaza transitioned better to that triangle of land between LSD and lower Randolph, it'd be pretty straightforward to take that curvy bridge toward the lake and keep walking until you got there. Seems the City should do that, and seems it wouldn't cost much, either.

I once ran into a couple at the end of Harbor Drive on LSE. Apparently they had walked eastward down Randolph from Millennium Park and, when they reached the end, they turned onto Harbor (which runs in the direction of Navy Pier). They asked me how to get to Navy Pier, and they looked crestfallen when I told them they had basically walked into a giant cul-de-sac in the air. I tried to explain to them about Field Boulevard and the hole in the fence, but it went right over their heads.

There really is no orthodox path through LSE. All of them either involve some informal "hole in a fence" or gravel construction road, or they require trips through private property (like the stairs in the Shoreham).