Story thread · 3 reports / 2 sources

Urbs in horto in toto? Design competition picks proposals that would significantly green-up Chicago

suntimes.com · 4h · first reportShare

Imagine Chicago's commercial strips, schoolyards and vacant lots transformed into a green network of community arboreta, while the city's 28-mile long boulevard system becomes a series of lush gathering places. Could this be Chicago in 34 years? Maybe, under two separate but complementary proposals that have jointly won the Horizon Lines: Visions for Chicago 2025 , a design competition sponsored by the influential economic development organization World Business Chicago. The group announced the winners — the Morton Arboretum and MKSK — at a luncheon on Tuesday. Conceived and submitted separately, the proposals were among the six finalists selected by the competition's jury in July. In addition to bringing the city attractive new greenery, the proposed landscapes would also help absorb stormwater runoff and keep the city cooler in the summer by reducing heat islands caused by heat radiating off the pavement. "These kinds of land management and resource management and sustainability theo