The Chicago Riverwalk: Unity and Diversity

The Chicago Riverwalk is an open, pedestrian waterfront located on the south bank of the Chicago River in downtown Chicago, Illinois. It spans from Lake Shore Drive to Lake Street. The Riverwalk contains restaurants, park-seating, boat rentals, and other activities. Transforming derelict infrastructure, the 1.25-mile Chicago Riverwalk represents a new chapter for the city’s public space and the reinvention of urban life. Catalyzing the slow-rolling transformation of the city’s neglected spaces and the remnants of its industrial heyday, the Chicago Riverwalk is an achievement of 15 years of planning and construction. This project has activated the city’s waterfront and generated a wealth of economic, recreational, and ecological benefits.

The Chicago Riverwalk project, an initiative to reclaim the Chicago River for the ecological, recreational, and economic benefit of the city, is responsible for many realized and continuous river improvements over the past three decades. The segment between State Street and Lake Street represented the last unrealized and disconnected link between the lake and the river’s confluence in the downtown core.

This five-block phase of the Riverwalk extension creates both unity and diversity – offering a continuous car-free environment that connects a series of distinct community spaces at the river’s edge. The design demonstrates a technically complex implementation achievement, a creative adaptation of single-use transportation infrastructure for public benefit, an example of highly integrated sustainability, a flood-resilient urban landscape, and a vibrant addition to Chicago’s growing body of extraordinary parks.

 Materials provided by the American Institute of Architects

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