Will Good Design Ruin Navy Pier?
Architecture critic Blair Kamin has an interesting take on the planned $115 revamp of Chicago's top tourist attraction. He wonders if James Corner's "high design" can meld with Navy Pier's "seductive riot of carnival midway tackiness."
"As my mind drifted from the pier's seductive riot of carnival midway tackiness to the upcoming revamp of its public spaces, I had what is (for an architecture critic, at least) a terrible thought: Will the sort of high design that gave us Millennium Park be incompatible with the populist playground that is the pier?"
"Navy Pier officials obviously don't think so, and there is reason to believe they may be right," he observes.
"The reconstruction, expected to start in late September, seems likely to strike a balance between accepting the pier's eclectic activity mix and transforming the 3,000-foot icon into a distinguished destination that dials down commercialism in favor of pleasures only a waterfront promenade can deliver."
Published on Monday, August 12, 2013 in
Topics
- Cities Are Suddenly a Little Less Car-Centric
- NACTO Releases Pandemic Streets Design Guide
- 1,000-Plus Mixed-Income Units Planned in Miami
- 'Ramps to Nowhere' Will Come Down in Seattle as New Debates Heat Up
- Louisiana Coast Will Disappear, Study Says. The Only Question Is How Soon.
- History in the Making: BART Extension into San Jose Ready for June Opening
- California's Population Might Be Peaking
- Popularity of Opportunity Zone Program Grows During the Pandemic
- What Surveys Say About Generation Z
- Proposed Mass Timber High-Rise In Seattle Adds Six Stories
- Mothballed Rental Car Fleets Fill Stadium Parking Lots
- The Legacy of Redlining Made Clear by the Coronavirus
- Permeable Pavements Required for Parking, Sidewalks in New Orleans
- Tight Housing Market Could Prime Economic Recovery
- Nextdoor Getting Cozy With Local Officials
- Code Enforcement as Coronavirus Response Policy
- Who Pays When Corporate Campuses Leave the Suburbs?
- New Census Report Captures the Housing Effects of Disasters
- The Growing Footprint of Al Fresco Streets
- Transit, Bikeshare Integration Planned in Austin
