Riparian Reclamation

From bridge operators and water taxi drivers to crew team members and kayakers, people intersect with the Chicago River every day, each at different scales and trajectories. By spending time in and around the river, people build crucial connections with the vast yet fragile regional watershed that propels our city’s economic, ecologic, and industrial systems. Expanding access along the river, as well as the type and scale of these access points, will likewise expand opportunities for many more people to experience the waterways and become stewards of the river.

While transformative developments are underway along the North Branch and Main Stem of the River, momentum around the South Branch has been slower to catalyze yet is currently gaining steam. Tapping into a growing interest in recreation in and around the river, the creation of a new continuous network of public pathways and spaces moving south along the river, has the potential to redefine our relationship with the river’s South Branch, connecting people and communities.

To achieve this network, Studio Gang’s Riparian Reclamation concepts build upon what is working well at each site to inform how people can inhabit, connect to, and repair  the river at varying scales. The concepts imagine new experiences and architectural spaces for people while also zooming out to anticipate how interventions along the edge of the South Branch will have an impact on the fabric of natural and man-made systems that define our regional waterways.

Acknowledgements: Founder and Principal, Jeanne Gang; Managing Principal, Mark Schendel; Principal of Urbanism + Civic Impact, Gia Biagi; Project Team Leaders, Heinz von Eckartsberg, Claire Cahan; Project Team, Coco van Egeraat, Megan Friedman; Senior Editor, Sarah Kramer; Steve Apfelbaum, Applied Ecological Services; Faz Ehsan, Thornton Tomasetti