Chicago – The City in a Garden
Wednesday, June 08, 2005

A client from Toronto recently visited my office in Oak Park. They looked quizzically at me when I offered to show them some nearby Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. Unbelievably, they had never heard of Frank Lloyd Wright. In Chicago however, everyone knows of Frank Lloyd Wright. Chicago cabbies are renowned for their ability to rattle off a litany of buildings by Mr. Wright. The imagery of his Oak Park and Chicago periods that come to mind are some of the early 20th century suburban houses, perhaps the defunct Midway Gardens, maybe Taliesin in Wisconsin. Try it for yourself – what urban buildings in civic contexts immediately come to mind should you mention Frank Lloyd Wright and Chicago, despite the fact that several bear his hand? For that matter, though the Chicago School was known for its skyscrapers – what about the Prairie School of Architecture and urban context? Few may be pressed to realize that Carl Schurz High School (May 2005 Metro Commuter Magazine) might be the largest piece of the Prairie School movement left with us.

The same may be said about the modern day Sustainable Design Movement, a design movement based on resource preservation and the building with the environment. Designing with nature? That’s like hippie communes from the sixties, no? Perhaps single family houses on barren ranches in New Mexico with giant south facing solar panels that have unobstructed sunlight, and compost toilets that recycle… well, I don’t think too many urbanites would be thrilled at the notion. Even our thoughts about current sustainable design standards seem to lean towards suburban sites where rainwater runoff is a site impact issue, not necessarily a roofing and catchment issue. However, at a recent conference of the Sustainable Development Panel Series held in Chicago, mention was made that New York City is actually one of the most energy efficient models on this continent. For as much energy as our society uses for transportation; in New York, public transit is the norm. For space heating, virtually all living units in New York share some sort of common surface with another unit or building, the next door neighbor acting as an energy conserving feature. Don’t get me wrong, the Big Apple is no ecological nirvana, yet our large urban cities show much promise that isn’t always recognized and used.

Take Chicago as example. A city the size of Chicago will use a tremendous amount of resources and energy. Yet, a relatively dense and compact area – like Chicago inside the city limits – has all of the necessary ingredients to be a highly efficient and energy conserving environment. To encourage this concept, the City of Chicago has introduced a ‘Green Initiative’ manifesting itself in many departments. The City of Chicago has adopted the ‘Chicago Standard’ a new set of construction standards for public buildings. The Chicago Standard represents guidelines for municipally owned buildings, and is derived from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED ™) program developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), a non profit coalition representing all segments of the building industry. The Chicago Standard was originally developed for use in the City of Chicago’s municipal facilities, however, it can be used as a guide for any construction or renovation project, public or private.

While the Chicago Standard may apply to buildings, buildings are set inside towns and cities. The City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development realizes this goal, called ‘Planned Green Development’. In the past five years, a series of green based initiatives have been launched in and around Garfield Park that are changing the face of that community. Sam Assefa, the Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City recently spoke of an approach to communities being undertaken by his department. The Urban Design and Planning section of the Commissioner’s office regularly educates staff, neighborhood groups and Aldermen about Transit Oriented Development (TOD), a type of community designed to encourage use of public transit. After discussing the benefits of TOD with Alderman Colon, for example, the Department of Planning and Development recently issued a proposal call for the Pullman North TOD with the Alderman’s full support. For projects where the department has review authority, the staff actively encourage developers and Aldermen to consider TOD for areas well served by transit. Using the new zoning ordinance as a tool, staff also encourages developers to consider parking reduction near transit, require bike storage, and create a pedestrian friendly environment, all of which are essential components of a TOD. Specifically, for Planned Green Development (PDG): DPD is advancing and testing green development concepts, including TOD, on city owned sites along the Green Line. This is part of DPD’s new approach to community development in the Garfield Neighborhood. DPD will be issuing its first proposal call for TOD for a city-owned site located at Laramee and Lake Streets this year.

This ‘Green Line’ Initiative has produced many intentionally green buildings from a variety of sources. Chicago Public Schools, for example, has brought about green design principles for two new schools being built in the area. Private and quasi public developers have also taken their cues from the City and gotten in on the act, such as the Bethel Commercial Development located next to the Green Line Pulaski Station, which cunningly boasts an interior connection to the El station. Here, noted sustainable design architects Farr Associates designed a structure built from an insulated concrete form (the formwork is made from cfc free Styrofoam that stays in place permanently to become a substrate for finish materials), is planned around open shafts to harvest daylight, and uses photovoltaic cells as shading devices at east facing windows. The Bethel Center achieved a LEEDS ‘Gold’ rating.

Getting back to the American southwest, architect Paolo Soleri is building ‘Arcosanti’, envisioned to be an entire city in harmony with nature. Mr. Soleri describes nature as nature and urban as manmade, with no hope of man creating something natural, regardless how bucolic we may try to fashion suburbia. Moreover, he sees development as being a sort of ‘stewardship’. Frank Lloyd Wright often spoke of an ‘organic’ architecture, and wondered how much different our culture would have been if we had embraced an organic design concept generations ago, starting at the time of the Mayflower.

To quote last month’s topic, some ideas just keep coming back around.

Darrel Babuk, AIA, MRAIC, LEED AP, is an Architect, and a noted speaker and writer on issues combining architecture & transportation. He is a Senior Associate at DLK Civic Design in Chicago, Illinois, and works with clients in their Transportation and Transit Planning department.