The McCaffery Interests and U.S. Steel Corp.’s master plan for Chicago Lakeside, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), has been named one of 10 finalists for the first Sustainia Award. The project was named to the Sustainia100 in July at the United Nation’s Rio+21 conference as one of 100 projects and ideas from 56 countries that represent the best ideas for sustainability in the world. The inaugural Sustainia Award will “honor the best sustainable solution,” according to organizers.
The winners of the Sustainia Award and the associated Community Award will be announced on Oct. 11 by former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during a ceremony at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen. Selection of the Sustainia Award winner will be made by a jury consisting of Gov. Schwarzenegger, former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri and EU Commissioner of Climate Action Connie Hedegaard. The Community Award winner will be chosen by the general public via voting through Sustainia’s large social media community.
Chicago Lakeside sits on a site of almost 600 acres along Chicago’s Lake Michigan shore. Formerly home to a steel mill, the land is devoid of infrastructure—creating an opportunity to develop the prime lakefront real estate as a 21st century neighborhood.
Plans include a rich mix of proposed uses, including over 15,000 residential units and more than 15-million-square-feet of retail, restaurants, commercial, institutional and research and development facilities. Open space will include two miles of new park land along the shores of Lake Michigan, extending the lakefront park system originally envisioned by Daniel Burnham in his legendary 1909 Plan of Chicago.
The “Lakeside Idea” is about bridging a brownfield industrial past to a green lifestyle future, from steel mill to innovation mill. Lakeside has assembled an international leadership team in the design of future-focused infrastructures – in water and energy conservation, transportation and personal mobility, renewable energy and digital connectivity.
The first work since the demolition of the U.S. Steel South Works more than 20 years ago began earlier this spring when construction began on the extension of Lake Shore Drive through the site between 79th and 87th Streets. The road is scheduled to be complete by December with landscaping work finished in spring 2013, helping to speed commutes for local residents and setting the stage for the initial construction of buildings within Chicago Lakeside soon afterwards. +
Related Stories
| Mar 14, 2012
Plans for San Francisco's tallest building revamped
The glassy white high-rise would be 60 stories and 1,070 feet tall with an entrance at First and Mission streets.
| Mar 14, 2012
Hyatt joins Thornton Tomasetti as VP in Chicago
A forensic specialist, Hyatt has more than 10 years of experience performing investigations of structural failures throughout the U.S.
| Mar 14, 2012
Tsoi/Kobus and Centerbrook to design Jackson Laboratory facility in Farmington, Conn.
Building will house research into personalized, gene-based cancer screening and treatment.
| Mar 13, 2012
China's high-speed building boom
A 30-story hotel in Changsha went up in two weeks. Some question the safety in that, but the builder defends its methods.
| Mar 13, 2012
Commercial glazer Harmon expanding into Texas
Company expanding into the Texas market with a new office in Dallas and a satellite facility in Austin.
| Mar 13, 2012
Worker office space to drop below 100-sf in five years
The average for all companies for square feet per worker in 2017 will be 151 sf, compared to 176 sf, and 225 sf in 2010.
| Mar 12, 2012
Improving the performance of existing commercial buildings: the chemistry of sustainable construction
Retrofitting our existing commercial buildings is one of the key steps to overcoming the economic and environmental challenges we face.
| Mar 9, 2012
2012 Giants 300 survey due Friday, April 13
See how your firm ranks among the AEC industry leaders.
