Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
Around Town
Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
You know how Chicago is so dang proud to be the City in the Garden? The Urbs in Horto? Well, did you know that LA has more than 2x as much parkland as Chicago and NYC, the freaking concrete jungle, has 3x as much? Guess we're not doing as great as we'd like to think. What can we do about it? How about starting by investigating the evolving conditions of public space in Chicago, from large spaces like 
Millennium Park to the development of streets and gardens in the neighborhoods. In a new exhibit called "OPEN: New Designs for Public Space," the Chicago Architecture Foundation does just that.
Using architectural renderings, photographs, and models, OPEN begins by recalling key moments in the history of Chicago's public spaces: the park and boulevard system of the late 19th century and the early 20th century's Burnham Plan. Then it goes on to show how Chicago's turning underutilized industrial properties into parks, as well as how they're bringing down Cabrini-Green and replacing it with traditional urban streets of apartment buildings and row houses. The exhibit directs the public's attention from well-known public spaces like the lakefront to often-overlooked inland spaces in neighborhoods. In addition, OPEN includes 20 contemporary public spaces around the world to give us some global perspective.
So how can you see this exciting exhibit? OPEN: New Designs for Public Space will be available for viewing from 9:30am - 6pm daily at the ArchiCenter in the Santa Fe Building atrium at 224 S. Michigan Ave from January 28 - May 7. And did we mention it's free?
Image via rachelleb.com.
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Does that take into account that L.A. has a lot more square footage total than Chicago?
L.A. is 469 square miles, New York is 303 square miles, Chicago is 227 square miles.
I guess NYC has a lot of parks, though.
My part of Chicago is a park wonderland, but I know when you get to the west side, it's all concrete. We should work on that.
Also, take into account that LA's and NYC's population is 2x and 3X that of Chicago, respectively. Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for more parks and the exhibit sounds very interesting.
I always wondered why everyone, including (most vocally) our major, was always bragging about having so many parks in Chicago. Obviously, we have Lincoln Park, which runs the length of the north side, but its so skinny! Compared to Central Park it is nothing! Also, our downtown area is pretty much scarce of green space, whenever there is an area to fill you can bet it will be condos or some other money making development. Green spaces don’t make money. How great would it be if Block 37 was turned into a park instead of a mall!!
I believe Burnham's plan was to have an outer ring of parks (what today we'd call a greenway). That's why there is a Diversey Parkway. It was supposed to be a linear park that extended back to a another set of parks through the Western sides down to connect with parklands on the South Side.
Kelly, Next time you're walking about at State and Randolph, head east 3 blocks, I think they have a park over there.
NYC has a REALLY BIG park, but when I was there 3 years ago that's the only park I saw. I was strucks by how green space seemed to be limited to Central Park. It made me appreciate Chicago a lot more than I did before I went east.
NSH,
Yes, yes, I know, Millenium Park....I am talking about Green amidst the Concrete, not off to the side of it. To me all the parks along the lakefront, melds into one big park. And what if you live furtther west, then you have nothing, or you have to drive/bike/CTA to the parks along the lakefront...LAAMME
Kelly
I love parks, and I'm all for more parks. But my opinion is we have sooo many parks that are underutilized or just not places you would feel secure walking through. If we can get our park system back to what it was pre War, I think everyone would be happy and content.
Peace.
(p.s. walk 5 blocks south from state and randolph and you can hang out at Pritzker Park)