How would you redesign/program Navy Pier ?

[le_brew]

In terms of rapid transit, the area adjacent to Navy Pier has many multiple-level streets. Any one of these lower-level(s) could be transformed, fairly inexpensively I might add, to LRT, and/or BRT, with the will and political mindset.

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

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The biggest failure of their "design competition" plan is that it is not an open competition, which likely means we'll see the same old faces devising the same old proposals.

[nomarandlee]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,2043230.story

Navy Pier redesign finalists loaded with talent
5 teams' challenge: Raise the level of sophistication — but keep it a crowd pleaser

Blair Kamin

December 2, 2011

.....But the real story here is pier officials' fundamentally sound emphasis on teams, not individuals; on constellations of talent, not starchitects; and on the urban landscape, not a "look at me" aesthetic object.

Their goal is to bring a new level of design sophistication to what they call the "pierscape," the now-cheesy collection of public spaces that range from the park west of the pier to the pedestrian promenade on its south side to the east-end open space that overlooks the sweeping expanse of Lake Michigan......

As the plan sees it, the 3,000-foot-long pier, a byproduct of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago, can be reinvigorated by focusing on its distinct identity — an atmospheric spectacle formed by the meeting of Lake Michigan, Chicago's lakefront parks and the city's dazzling skyline.

New green spaces could transform the pavement-heavy pier into an extension of the lakefront parks. Interactive fountains and small pools could make water a bigger part of the visitor's experience. Kinetic sculptures and interactive light elements could brighten the pier and unify its visual hodgepodge......

The big issue is whether the teams can devise plans that are visionary but practical, giving us what might be called "buzz on a budget." So far, the teams have only presented their qualifications, portfolios and written statements describing their approaches to the project. Now, the contest gets real.

Designs are due Jan. 24; they'll be exhibited to the public starting Feb. 2. Pier officials are scheduled to announce a winning team — or teams — in mid-February..........

.....

[Reinsdorf Sucks]

Here is a slide show from the contestants..

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...6.photogallery

I'm pretty sure I heard a WGN anchor say that they aren't really considering these ideas (at least in the near future), and this is just a stunt to generate public interest. Did anybody else hear anything like that?

[nomarandlee]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...0,380487.story

Team picked for Navy Pier redesign

By Blair Kamin, Tribune critic

10:09 a.m. CDT, March 15, 2012

Navy Pier's governing board today approved a recommendation to hire a team led by the co-designer of New York's celebrated High Line to reshape the pier's public spaces.

In a unanimous vote, with Lake Michigan's waters sparking just outside a meeting room, board members praised the landscape architect James Corner, saying they were impressed by his creative yet practical approach to the proposed revamp.

"They dreamed big, but they were able to do it in a way we could pay for it," said Sarah Garvey, chairwoman of Navy Pier, Inc.

Board members stressed they were picking a designer, not a completed design, and that they will work with Corner in the next few months, possibly incorporating ideas from the other four design teams who competed for the commission.

James Reilly, the pier's trustee, said he hoped many of the changes to the pier's public spaces would be built in time for its centennial in 2016.........

Corner's eclectic 17-member team has four representatives from Chicago, including a landscape architectural firm that helped design Millennium Park.

Other members of the team are acclaimed graphic designers, lighting artists, water design consultants and a Paris botanist who has been hailed as the founding father of the "vertical gardens" that climb up the sides of buildings........

Those tweaks include undulating steps that would join the pier's Dock Street promenade to the raised park around its Ferris wheel, plus a striking display of hanging gardens inside the pier's now-bland Crystal Gardens pavilion.

Corner's plans also envisioned a swimming pool with a sand beach on the pier's southeast corner and an amphitheater that would reach down to the level of Lake Michigan on the pier's east end.

The Corner team even addressed the pier's little-noticed north side, a largely utilitarian strip whose narrow walking path is dominated by delivery trucks and cars going to and from the pier's parking garages. He suggested this zone be lined with "a surreal and overscale series of birdhouses and nesting sites".

Corner insisted during public presentations of the plans at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art that his team's design could be carried out within the pier's $85 million budget for the new public spaces..

But even if that prediction proves true, it will not be easy to realize his plans. Pier officials have always made clear that they were selecting a design team, not a design, which left them free to deviate from the proposals. In addition, funds are tight.

The officials have $60 million to carry out centennial-related projects. These "seed capital" funds were provided to Navy Pier Inc. by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the state-city agency that owns the McCormick Place convention center as well as the pier.

Yet much of that money is destined for other parts of the centennial revamp, such as a remake of the pier's Family Pavilion and expansions of the Chicago Children's Museum and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

There may be just $15 million available for the first phases of the public space revamp. But pier officials have said they would aggressively push for the sort of corporate and philanthropic private donations that helped shape Millennium Park.

The Chicago members of the Corner design team are Terry Guen Design Associates, the landscape firm whose credits include Millennium Park; art gallery owner and art fair organizer Ed Marszewski; Primera Chicago, a civil engineering firm; and the construction management firm d'Escoto.

Graphic designer Bruce Mau, who lives in Winnetka, heads another firm on the Corner team, Toronto-based Bruce Mau Design..........

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MORE in article

[nomarandlee]

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....e-on-navy.html

March 16, 2012

Promise--and perils--await as landscape architect James Corner, co-designer of New York's High Line, prepares to take on Navy Pier

There is great promise—and peril--in Navy Pier’s selection of the landscape architect who co-designed New York’s elegant High Line to revamp the public spaces of the lakefront icon.

The promise is that the pier can become, like Millennium Park, a public space that is treasured as well as popular.

The peril is that an extremely tight budget and pier officials’ historic tendency to favor pragmatics over aesthetics could undercut a thoughtful conceptual plan by the landscape architect James Corner (left) and his skillfully-chosen team of designers.

It will be fascinating--or excruciating--to see how this drama plays out. At stake is the future image and vitality of Illinois’ biggest tourist attraction as well as Chicago’s reputation as a city that stimulates great design.

Corner and his team, who were selected Thursday, were the right choice among five groups vying for the prized commission, which has a relatively modest budget of $85 million. He hopes, he said in a telephone interview from London Friday, “to produce something that’s fantastic, that’s a destination because of the experiences it affords.”

In contrast to the grandiose and budget-busting plans of other teams--a glacier-like structure popping out of Lake Michigan, a sprawling network of boardwalks that would have turned Navy Pier into Navy Peninsula--Corner wisely accepted the pier as a pier—a thin blade thrust into Lake Michigan, one that could become more authentic, and less cheesy, with some creative tweaks (above, the team's plan).

The most inspired of them envision a revitalization of the pier’s west-end Gateway Park with new fountains and tilted lawns (left); a revamp of the pier’s Dock Street promenade, which would get smartly-designed concrete planks; a transformation of the pier’s Crystal Garden into spectacular hanging gardens (above, at top of post); and the addition of an amphitheater and “floating pool” to lure visitors to the pier’s under-used east end........

MORE
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[nomarandlee]

http://www.archdaily.com/217265/jame...r-competition/

James Corner Field Operations Team Wins Navy Pier Competition

Mar 15, 2012

By Karissa Rosenfield — Filed under: Architecture News ,Competitions ,Featured ,Urban Design , Chicago, Illinois, James Corner Field Operations, USA

Today, the Chicago Tribune has reported James Corner Field Operations Team has been selected to redesign the 3,000 foot-long Chicago landmark, Navy Pier. Blair Kamin stated that the pier’s governing board approved the recommendation from the pier’s strategic planning committee to hire the JFCO team as they favored the team’s practical, yet still creative approach over the other, somewhat grandiose, schemes. It has been a big week for JCFO, as James Corner and Rich Scofidio’s latest ideas for the third section of the High Line were released on Tuesday. Continue reading for more information on the latest news regarding the winners of the international Navy Pier redesign competition.

“They dreamed big, but they were able to do it in a way we could pay for it,” said Sarah Garvey, chairwoman of Navy Pier, Inc........

[iloveclassicrock7]

So Chicagoans, do these plans make you elated, or are they a letdown ?

I would say that my feelings are mixed.