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| City's second waterfront: Riverwalk improved, but hurdles remain | |
| Jun 28, 2009 | |
| Blair Kamin | |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Pertains to Chicago Riverwalk, Chicago | |
| It was lunchtime downtown and Justin Grant felt like sunning himself. But instead of heading to a tanning spa, the 23-year-old sales manager left his office building and strolled to the newest stretch of Chicago's riverwalk, where he stripped off his blue shirt and stretched out on a concrete bench. "This is a great place to come," Grant said. "You can watch the boats go by." In recent weeks, scores of walkers, joggers, bicyclists and others have discovered the riverwalk that just opened on the Chicago River's south bank. Stretching from east of the Michigan Avenue Bridge to Wabash Avenue, with an extension to State Street due to wrap up in early July, the handsome, people-friendly public space marks the latest step in Mayor Richard Daley's ambitious drive to make the riverfront a prime public space downtown and in the city's outlying neighborhoods. Think of it as a new lakefront. A completed riverwalk would offer much-needed open space for tens of thousands of office workers and downtown apartment dwellers. And it would let you do along the riverfront what you can do along most of the lakefront: walk, bike or jog without interruption, enjoying the water along the way. Yet there are obstacles, including the need to obtain millions of dollars in federal funds to bankroll city-controlled portions of the project. An equally daunting hurdle: the city's reliance on real estate developers to deliver improvements on the vast majority of riverfront land, which is privately owned. While the three-tiered riverwalk at the base of Donald Trump's 92-story hotel and condominium tower (visible in rear) iis heading for completion in late summer or early fall, the recession has put other notable riverfront projects -- and their amenities -- on hold. Among them: the 150-story Chicago Spire, which was tied to the construction of a riverfront plaza and a new Du Sable Park at the river's mouth. Still, the overall course that planners are taking seems right. They wisely are not aiming to create a Frost Belt version of San Antonio's famous yet heavily commercialized River Walk, which is lined by shops, bars and restaurants. They seek, instead, to complement Chicago's vibrant downtown with a riverwalk where you can find food and drink, but also "go down and touch nature," said Richard Wilson of Skidmore, Owings |
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