PROJECT NorthWorks

LOCATION Chicago, IL 

PROJECT COMPLETION DATE  4/6/2017

PROJECT CATEGORY  Graduate / Upper Level Design

PROJECT TYPE  Competition

ENTRANT  Jennifer Chorosevic
TEAM MEMBERS  Pedro H. Camargo de Alb. Sanchez (M.Arch)
Peter Cunningham (M.Arch)
Daniel Green (MRED)
Alexis Robinson (MCP)

SCHOOL  University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation

FACULTY SPONSOR  Matt Bell, Professor / Architecture

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT

NorthWorks connects communities, adapts industry, and engages the North Branch of the Chicago River. These ideas are embodied in four unique places: Maker’s Yard, The Landing, The Bend, and The Basin.

Maker’s Yard, the heart of NorthWorks, is the center of creativity and innovation in this vibrant community. Maker’s Yard enables manufacturing industries to adapt to new technology while providing diverse employment and housing opportunities. Commuters access Chicagoland through The Landing, a new transit hub which connects regional rail and the 606 trail with the new water taxi harbor and reestablished bus lines. The Bend reclaims the river, transforming it into a remediative public park lined by townhomes. Lastly, The Basin is a destination where people can engage with the river and one another through recreation and entertainment.

These five key elements combine to create NorthWorks, where industry, communities, nature, and neighborhoods coexist

STUDENT'S STATEMENT

NorthWorks is a 21st century proposal for a post-industrial site along the North Branch of the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois. The project was a response to an ideas based competition that challenged multi-disciplinary teams of graduate students to create a mixed-use, economically viable neighborhood. The competition defined several properties that proposal needed to address, yet left the full scope of the site open to interpretation. The proposal had to work not just for the architects, but also for real estate developers and urban planners. Key ideas of the design include adapting industry, engaging the river, transforming place, connecting people through transit, and diversifying users.

The proposal achieves these goals by first proposing a new way to think about industry that allows for businesses at any stages of its growth to thrive—from the student studying new technology, to the startup testing their products with shared 3-D printers, to the mid-size manufacturer who needs an entire floor to produce his wares, to the established manufacturers who have their own warehouses. Second, innovative approaches to addressing the pollution in the Chicago River help clean the river and turn it back into a recreational amenity for the city. The industry that was once on site polluted the river. Now parks along the river will help to clean it up, treating water before it even reaches the river. Third, park amenities, town plazas, and unique entertainment attractions transform this place that was formerly forgotten into a destination. Fourth, people are connected to place and to each other through diverse means of transit, centered around a transportation hub, The Landing, which connects bike, bus, train, and water taxi service. And lastly, diverse employment options, diverse recreation options, diverse transit options, and diverse housing options all together will attract a diverse mix of residents and visitors.

IMAGE CAPTIONS & CREDITS 

IMAGE 1:  NorthWorks_high res image 1; An evening concert at The Basin; rendering by Jennifer Chorosevic

IMAGE 2:  NorthWorks_high res image2; NorthWorks site plan; rendering by Pedro Camargo

IMAGE 3:  NorthWorks_low res image 3; 3 Ideas, 3 Places; diagrams by Jennifer Chorosevic

IMAGE 4:  NorthWorks_low res image 4; Creating a multi-modal transit center at The Landing; section persepctive by Peter Cunningham

IMAGE 5:  NorthWorks_low res image 5; Treating water where it falls through phytoremediation at the Bend; section perspective and diagrams by Jennifer Chorosevic

IMAGE 6:  NorthWorks_low res image 6; Inside the Old Fleet Shop makerspace at Maker's Yard; rendering by Pedro Camargo

IMAGE 7:  NorthWorks_low res image 7; NorthWorks: a neighborhood where industry, communities, and nature work; rendering by Pedro Camargo

MEDIA FOR DOWNLOAD

Project PDF