Chicago's New Themed Vision for Riverwalk

The vision for the riverwalk is "...To offer individual spaces between the bridges spanning the river - spaces that are naturalistic, recreational, even playful, and above all welcoming to residents, visitors and people of all ages, according to the design team, which consists of Sasaki Associates Inc., Alfred Benesch & Co., Ross Barney Architects and Jacobs/Ryan Associates. The city hired the firms last year after a competitive bidding process," writes Jon Hilkevitch of the Chicago Tribune.

"Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago called for the owners of lakefront and riverside properties to create a recreational corridor. Decades later, in the 1980s, the city tried to develop a continuous riverwalk downtown, seeking to transform the once-squalid river into an attraction as appealing as the lakefront."