South Lake Shore Drive Extended in Chicago; Huge Mixed-Use Development to Follow

The former site of a U.S. Steel manufacturing plant will spend the next 40 years transforming into the Lakeside mixed-use development, reports Steven Vance.

The first sign of the new 600-acre development is the extension of South Lake Shore Drive, in the works for over a decade—even before developer McCaffery Interests and architecture and planning firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill revealed the Lakeside master plan in 2004.

“The $64 million, state and city-funded road now connects to 79th Street at Rainbow Beach Park in the north and crosses the Calumet River with Ewing Avenue in the south. It does more than provide a bypass of residential areas to the west.”

The extension is critical to the success of the first development component of the Lakeside master plan: “South Lake Shore Drive, which connects to Lake Shore Drive via South Shore Drive and Marquette, gives Lakeside the edge it needs to attract retailers to anchor its first phase, called the Market Common.”