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Venice of the Midwest?
(
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainmen...rban08.article)
February 8, 2007
BY KEVIN NANCE Architecture Critic
If this were "American Idol," the Chicago architecture firm UrbanLab would have just scored its first recording contract.
UrbanLab principals Martin Felsen and Sarah Dunn, who beat out seven Chicago teams last fall for a $10,000 prize in the History Channel's "City of the Future" competition, crushed the winning teams from New York and Los Angeles in Internet voting for the national prize and an additional $10,000.
A Webcast about the contest -- whose goal was to envision what the three cities might look like in the year 2106 -- will be posted on
www.history.com/designchallenge starting today. Celebrity architect Daniel Libeskind, who designed the master plan for Ground Zero and hosted the online proceedings, will announce UrbanLab's winning project, which envisions a network of water-recycling "eco-boulevards" encircling Chicago.
"It's wonderful to win, and I'm excited that the project will be viewed by more people because of it," Dunn said Wednesday. "Maybe it'll contribute to the conversation in Chicago about the sustainability of our greatest natural resource -- fresh water from Lake Michigan -- in the coming decades. In fact, our idea is doable, really, tomorrow. You don't have to wait 100 years."
With its mantra of "water is the new oil" in the 22nd century, UrbanLab's concept features a system of canals and other technologies that would treat 100 percent of Chicago's wastewater and storm water and return it to the Great Lakes Basin.
"It's a huge natural resource for Chicago, but even some of our bordering municipalities have declared water shortages recently," Felsen said. "We're assuming it's always going to be there, but like every natural resource, it will get used up eventually if we don't take care of it."
UrbanLab's waterways would also create a closed loop around the city, becoming a social, recreational and cultural amenity that would spur residential development in currently landlocked and/ or underserved areas along the southern and western portions of the city.
"I think the introduction of eco-boulevards in this democratic way, like fingers from the lake that come through the city and allow everybody access to water, helps make it part of the social fabric," Dunn says. "Living on the South Side, as I do, and not being too close to the lake, it would be nice to have that possibility."
Architect Douglas Garofalo, one of UrbanLab's rivals in the first round, applauded the winners.
"They had such a smart scheme that took on this issue of resources, and it's fantastic that they won," he said. "On the national level, they beat out some pretty important and talented people."
They included New York's Architecture Research Office, which took second place with an apocalyptic vision of repurposed Manhattan streets that are flooded due to the effects of global warming, and Los Angeles' Eric Owen Moss Architects, which came in third with a plan that found new uses for outmoded freeways.
According to Mike Mohamad, senior vice president of marketing at the History Channel (which organized the contest as a companion to its series "Engineering an Empire"), UrbanLab received more than 50 percent of about 10,000 votes cast.
"They took a very hard look at the issues and how we might confront them 100 years from now," he said. "There was a lot of deep thinking there, and I think the voters agreed with it."
It helped, probably, that the Chicago Architecture Foundation, which hosted the local competition, alerted its 30,000-strong mailing list to the Web vote, and that Felsen and Dunn, who teach at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois at Chicago, respectively, drew strong support from their academic communities.
"I think Martin and Sarah are brilliant, and I'm excited that they won," said CAF president and CEO Lynn Osmond. "They're fabulous architects, and it's great to see Chicago beating out L.A. and New York for once."
What will the UrbanLab partners do with the prize money? "Our credit-card companies," Felsen said, "will be interested in the news."
Chicago
Chicago "City of the Future" - Project Overview:
Created by UrbanLab
Growing Water
In 2106, water will be the world's most valuable resource: the new oil. UrbanLab's project envisions Chicago evolving into a model city for "growing water" by creating a series of Eco-Boulevards spread throughout the city. The Eco-boulevards will function as a giant "Living Machine" which will treat 100% of Chicago's wastewater and stormwater naturally, using micro-organisms, small invertebrates (such as snails), fish and plants. Treated water will be harvested and/or returned to the Great Lakes Basin. Ultimately, the Eco-Boulevards will create a closed water loop within Chicago.
The Growing Water project is inspired by three historic Chicago engineering feats:
The "Emerald Necklace" of public parks, boulevards and waterways, which will be greatly supplemented by the new Eco-Boulevards,
The reversal of the Chicago River, which UrbanLab proposes to un-do in order to retain (not drain) Lake Michigan; and,
The Deep Tunnel, which UrbanLab proposes to re-program to house mass-transportation trains.
Daniel LibeskindExpert's Corner
Commentary from Daniel Libeskind
Chicago
"The city of Chicago winner - Urban Lab - takes its inspiration from the wonders of water. By focusing on ecosystems as living dimensions of the city, the proposal creates a green infrastructure. The authors aim at creating a self-sufficient living system, by proposing a 100% saving, recycling and "growing" of water resources. This visionary project envisions the creation of boulevards, water ways and a renewed sense of the interconnectedness of resources in the City. The idea is a powerful one, and the projected vistas remind us of the utopian dreams of 19th and 20th century architectural visions. The kind of life that is implied is one where skyscrapers are standing in green fields; where the word "urban" looses all its historical and social connotations. Are we on the threshold of a viable reality? Or, does this project reveal all the contradictions of modern society and the notion that nature has lost all its "naturalness."
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