Rethinking Chicago’s Next Big Infrastructure Project

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:12)
Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.
Stick around to the very end of the episode to get a rundown of the latest news. But first, from reversing the flow of the Chicago River to creating Millennium Park, Chicago's no stranger to big landmarks that started from even bigger ideas. That's the concept behind a design competition asking Chicagoans to imagine the future of our public spaces. I mean, what if Chicago's next iconic public space isn't a park, but it's a highway? What if it's an alley? Hundreds of bold new ideas are rethinking places we usually overlook, turning them into community hubs, all while helping the city adapt to climate change. Six finalists have been selected, and in this episode of the pod, a panel of judges will tell us why. At the table, Phil Clement, who's CEO of World Business Chicago, Eleanor Gorski, who's CEO and President of Chicago Architecture Center, and Kenya Merritt, Commissioner of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, or DCASE.
Phil kicked things off with where the idea came from for this competition. Here he is.

**Phil Clement** (1:25)
You know, first of all, World Business Chicago is focused on the economic growth of the city. And about two years ago, working with the mayor, we decided we needed a strategy.
And so as we convened business executives from across the city, mostly in civic leaders, on the strategy, we found it was almost impossible to get that kind of big, bold, ambitious thinking in the same conversation about next five-year kind of economic strategy.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (1:52)
Right, right.

**Phil Clement** (1:52)
We said, let's split it up. Let's do an economic math-focused phase. And let's do a Burnham phase, where we can stir people's souls. And this contest was the great way.
It was an open contest, so anyone could enter.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:08)
So tell me what you were looking for in submissions.

**Phil Clement** (2:11)
Sure, we actually were purposely very broad. We wanted to see what the city would come up with. It was an open, something transformative for the city, something that could be done.
So that was one of the very few criteria. But it was, bring us your best, boldest ideas that you got.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:31)
People did not stop.

**Phil Clement** (2:32)
They did not stop. We got over 200 submissions from every walk of life, every neighborhood. That was super important in this effort. And I think also, in the instructions that we got from City Hall was, make sure that everybody gets a chance.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:49)
So folks weren't given a specific problem to solve or any sort of parameters. It was open.

**Phil Clement** (2:55)
We mentioned some things like sustainability and growing population. But no, for the most part, it was just open.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:05)
Very cool. So let's hear from you, Eleanor and Kenya. Tell me, before we dig into some specifics on these six finalists, because now we're down to the top six, right? Tell me what comes top of mind? What stands out the most among those finalist ideas? Eleanor?

**Eleanor Gorski** (3:23)
What stood out the most to me is what the variety was of folks that submitted. We had groups of young people that submitted, and the graphics were amazing across the board. We also had some institutions, like the Morton Arboretum that submitted. That was a surprise to me. You wouldn't necessarily expect them to take on a competition idea.
But across the board, just the variety both in who submitted, as well as the type of projects.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:53)
Yeah. Kenya?

**Kenya Merritt** (3:54)
I'll just add the diversity of the groups that submitted. We have some community-based organizations that thought about how you activate alleyways.
But one of the things that for me and my role that was incredibly important is how culture showed up in the submissions. You have people thinking about culture as infrastructure, which is so incredibly important for me and the work that we're doing when we think about the creative economy and the value that it brings to our city. So folks thought about a house music museum, right? Like Chicago is the birthplace of house music. And so what if we had a museum that paid homage to that?

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:31)
I can't believe we hadn't thought of that already. Yeah. That's one of those that makes you think, wait, we don't already have that?

**Kenya Merritt** (4:37)
Right. True. As well as other forms of music that originated in Chicago, particularly black music. And so there are thoughts around how do we think about a black music museum in our city. And so those are one of the things that excited me in the submissions.