Posted in CITIES, GREEN ROOFS, HISTORIC LANDSCAPES, ONLINE ONLY, PARKS, PRESERVATION, SHORELINE, STREETS, UNIVERSITY, VIEWS, WATER, tagged Calvert Vaux, Chicago, Chicago El, Ernie Wong, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jackson Park, Lake Michigan, landscape architect, Landscape Architecture, landscape design, library, Living Habitats, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Museum, Obama Foundation, Obama Presidential Center, Public Access, Site Design Group, Southside, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, topography, University of Chicago, Washington Park on May 22, 2017| 2 Comments »
The most important question related to the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side doesn’t have that much to do with its architecture.
It is instead: What kind of landscape stewardship can a presidential museum and library offer? To be located in Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted’s Jackson Park, the project already has a heap of canonical landscape history to contend with. So can the Obama library make a great park greater?
The answer is… (more…)
Posted in CITIES, ONLINE ONLY, STREETS, TRANSPORTATION, WATER, tagged Argyle Street, Chicago, Ernie Wong, shared streets, Site Design Group, Southeast Asia, stormwater, streetscape, Uptown on November 29, 2016| 1 Comment »
High-curbed planters break up the flow of traffic on Argyle Street. Photo by Zach Mortice.
Argyle Street, on Chicago’s Far North Side, is a sort of small-town main street in the big city. It’s the hub of Chicago’s Southeast Asian community, which has built one of the city’s most welcoming and intimate ethnic enclaves. Vietnamese grocery stores, exuberant murals, gift shops, and community nonprofits abound; pho soup restaurants make the entire street smell like lemongrass. It’s also the first (more…)
