Sasaki Associates, along with Ross Barney Architects, Alfred Benesch Engineers, and a broader technical consultant team, were tasked this year with creating a vision for the six blocks between State Street and Lake Street in Chicago. Building off previous studies, the team’s Chicago Riverwalk Concept Plan, which is currently in progress to be completed, provides the last, critical link between the lake, the city’s circulation, and the river’s urban branches. Once a meandering marshy stream, the river became an engineered channel to support the industrial transformation of the city, making this riverwalk an instrumental design in the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Main Branch of the Chicago River has a long and storied history that in many ways mirrors the development of Chicago itself. Following the famed reversal of the river, in which the city reversed the flow of the Main Branch and South Branch to improve sanitation, urban planner Daniel Burnham introduced a new civic vision of riverside promenades with the addition of the Wacker Drive Viaduct. For the last 30 years, the role of the river has evolved once again with the Chicago Riverwalk project—an initiative to reclaim the Chicago River for the ecological and recreational benefit of the city.
