21st Century (2000–present)

Chicago Central Area Plan 2003

2003 · United States · North America · Transit-oriented urbanism and corridor planning · Planned by City of Chicago
SOM's three-dimensional plan model for the Chicago Central Area Plan: proposed high-density mixed-use infill (blue) around the Loop, set against the expanded green network of riverwalk, parks and lakefront.
SOM's three-dimensional plan model for the Chicago Central Area Plan: proposed high-density mixed-use infill (blue) around the Loop, set against the expanded green network of riverwalk, parks and lakefront. · © Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — used with credit · Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Chicago Central Area Plan

Core idea

Downtown growth, riverwalk, transit

Why it matters

Catalyzed Loop and river revival

Description

The Chicago Central Area Plan of 2003, prepared by the City of Chicago, set a twenty-year framework for the growth of the Loop and surrounding downtown districts. Its key moves included accommodating substantial office and residential expansion in the central area, improving commuter and transit connections, and reclaiming the Chicago River as a public amenity through a continuous riverwalk and riverfront development standards.

Significance

The plan is credited with helping to catalyse the revival of downtown Chicago as a place to live as well as work, and the completed Chicago Riverwalk became one of the most cited American examples of river-oriented public space. It sits within the broader turn of North American downtown planning towards mixed-use intensification and waterfront reclamation, and is often discussed alongside Chicago's tradition of ambitious central-area plans reaching back to Burnham.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.