Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers

Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior PhotographyWild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, Waterfront, CityscapeWild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, Windows, Waterfront, Cityscape, GardenWild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, WaterfrontWild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - More Images+ 6

Chicago, United States
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Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography
© Dave Burk © SOM

Text description provided by the architects. The Wild Mile will create a new environment for habitat, education, and recreation on the Chicago River. Designed as a 17-acre floating eco-park, it advances a community-led vision of renewed urban ecology that helps strengthen neighborhood connectivity, generate cleaner water, and support more vibrant ecosystems.

Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, Cityscape
Location

The project is located along the east side of Goose Island, on the North Branch Canal and Turning Basin. This area has been envisioned as a type of eco-park since the creation of the 2003 Chicago Central Area Plan. In 2017, Urban Rivers and SOM installed a 1,500-square-foot floating garden as a first step toward making the Wild Mile vision a reality. Since then, the project has evolved into a collaboration with the City of Chicago, O-H Community Partners, Near North Unity Program, Omni Ecosystems, Tetra Tech, d’Escoto, and local community members providing input central to its goals, objectives, and priorities.

Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, Waterfront, Cityscape
© Dave Burk © SOM
Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, Waterfront, Garden
© Dave Burk © SOM

Making the most of its proximity to more than 40 schools and academic institutions, the Wild Mile incorporates rich educational and community programming. These include a volunteer-led and technology-driven initiative, River Rangers, which recruits “citizen scientists” to document and provide regular reports on reintroduced plants and wildlife.

Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, Waterfront
© Dave Burk © SOM
Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, Waterfront
© Dave Burk © SOM

When completed, the Wild Mile will transform the formerly industrialized, human-made branch of the Chicago River along Goose Island into an eco-park that serves people, wildlife, and the environment. With a series of floating gardens, forests with public walkways, kayak docks, and other amenities, the project is designed to restore the river as a public trust.

Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers - Exterior Photography, Waterfront
© Dave Burk © SOM

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Project location

Address:Chicago, IL, United States

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About this office
Cite: "Wild Mile / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill + Urban Rivers" 23 Aug 2022. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/987690/wild-mile-skidmore-owings-and-merrill> ISSN 0719-8884

© Dave Burk © SOM

Wild Mile,芝加哥水上生态园 / SOM

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