The Daley administration is crafting ambitious plans to create a new recreation and retail magnet along the Chicago River complete with landscaped plazas, sweeping staircases from Wacker Drive to the water and a riverwalk lined with shops and restaurants.
Though no money has yet been committed to the project, the proposal on the drawing board also calls for a widened, lengthened and greenery-studded riverwalk that would allow pedestrians for the first time to stroll the water’s edge from Lake Michigan west all the way to Lake Street.
As long ago as 1995, Daley expressed admiration for San Antonio’s landmark River Walk and said that he would like to create a similar attraction here along the shore of the Chicago River. That vision will begin to take form in a small way this summer, with the addition of water bike and gondola rides on the waterway.
Plans for down the road are much grander, calling for entertainment, including bands and dramatic presentations, which would pull up on barges at spots along the dramatically enhanced promenade.
The physical expansion of the riverwalk as well as water activities planned in conjunction with its redevelopment must gain federal approval. And the city would have to find a source of funding for the project, which officials estimated could cost $50 million.
But Daley, whose brother, William, is the U.S. commerce secretary, has clout in Washington. And the mayor has found ways to pay for other pet undertakings. The most recent example is the $270 million Millennium Park at Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street where Daley has come up with tens of millions of dollars in public and private funding to cover huge cost overruns.
What finally will make Chicago’s proposed version feasible are plans for reconstruction of Wacker Drive, the crumbling double-deck street that runs along the river’s south bank. Wacker will be rebuilt beginning next year between Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street, and design of that $200 million project will permit a refashioning of a key stretch of riverwalk between Michigan Avenue and Lake Street, said Denise Casalino, project manager in the city’s Transportation Department.
One example is the spot where Wacker intersects with Wabash Avenue. The roadway will be relocated about 30 feet south of its current path, a change that will free up 25,000 square feet of land for a landscaped plaza overlooking the water. Beneath that plaza and bordering the riverwalk, plans call for creation of an indoor retail space that could house a restaurant.
The private dining area would open onto another public plaza at water level that would serve as a site for summertime entertainment.
“You could sit at lunchtime or on a weekend and a barge pulls up with a band,” Casalino said. “It’s dinner and a show along the river.”
The Wacker Drive redesign also would allow for construction of a terraced stairway at Wabash, featuring large grassy landings, which would descend from Upper Wacker to the water’s edge. Opposite the stairway, planners envision a rolling lawn, a smaller version of the green belt that is a major feature of the revamped Museum Campus.
Another major point of pedestrian access would come at the place where Wacker bends south near Lake Street. A “grand staircase” about 40 feet wide would allow people to walk down from Upper Wacker to another river’s-edge plaza.
Sidewalks along Upper Wacker will be expanded 10 feet toward the water to create an overhang under which 100,000 square feet of riverside shops, coffeehouses and restaurants can be built, Casalino said.
For years, Chicago’s riverwalk has enjoyed only limited popularity due to its confounding layout. Because of the bulky structural bases that support the bridges crossing the river, the walk is chopped into one-block segments for most of its length. After traversing the stretch between LaSalle and Clark Streets, for example, determined walkers must climb stairs to Upper Wacker Drive, cross the Clark Street bridge, and trudge down another set of stairs to navigate the Clark Street-to-Dearborn Street segment.
Under the city’s plan, the walkway would be widened out over the river by up to 50 feet, allowing pedestrians to walk around the bridge bases. That would permit an uninterrupted hike between Lake Street and Lake Michigan, a distance of about a mile and a quarter.
Even with the widened sidewalk, officials said the river at its narrowest point downtown would measure about 160 feet across, a width they believe would accommodate the biggest boats that use it.
City planners have been meeting with representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard to discuss details of the proposed plan.
Leesa Beal, chief of the permits and enforcements section of the local Army Corps office, said that federal approval will come only after it is determined the plan does not hamper the river’s navigability or create safety hazards that cannot be remedied.
“When we were formed in 1979 [a revamped riverwalk] was one of the visions we had,” said Laurene von Klan, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River. “There may be some issues with respect to the plan itself, but a riverwalk in the city of Chicago is a great thing. We are very much in favor of the concept.”
Not everyone supports the idea, however.
“In a perfect world, everyone would love to have this city-beautiful playground along the riverfront,” said Jackie Leavy, executive director of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, a not-for-profit organization that monitors city spending on infrastructure. “But it ain’t a perfect world. … If capital and political will continue to be lavished on these types of schemes when we can’t take care of our basic business, something is wrong.”
Despite improvements to streets, curbs and viaducts in neighborhoods, much more in infrastructure upgrades remain to be done citywide before downtown should get another bauble, Leavy said.
However, she said she has “no doubt at all” that Daley can find the $50 million to pay for the project.
“I have awestruck admiration for (mayoral) budgeteers,” Leavy declared. “They know how to leverage financing in very creative ways.”
As part of his plan to cover increased costs for Millennium Park, Daley last month won City Council approval to tap funds generated by the Central Loop tax increment financing (TIF) district, a special economic development zone. The mayor will use $35 million from the TIF, money that normally would be used to attract new businesses.
One of Daley’s fondest priorities is to greatly increase public use of the river. Last week, he asked the council for the right to strike a deal with an operator that will provide gondola service later this month. In yet another move, officials are planning a new annual entertainment program beginning next year in which barges bearing entertainers would dock at neighborhood locations along the North and South Branches of the river.
The new festival might be conducted over the period of a full month and would cost up to $10 million a year to stage, just short of Taste of Chicago’s $11 million price tag.
Taste is financially self-supporting, but details of the new fest, including funding sources, remain to be worked out, officials said.
“We plan for it to happen,” but “it’s really in the brainstorming-planning stages” now, ” said Veronica Resa, spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events.
