New York Times — “In Chicago and Philadelphia, the Difference a Park Makes”

March 12, 2017

“Chicago is at the forefront of a growing, big-city trend. It has been undertaking a major parks and open space program, upgrading neighborhood playgrounds and recreation centers, scooping up acres of disused land for new green areas and repurposing large swaths of formerly industrial waterfront. …

From Philadelphia to Seattle, other American cities are also banking on parks and public spaces to drive social and economic progress. … The effort in Chicago to improve and expand them has, neighborhood by neighborhood, delivered long-term rewards. …

Mayor Jim Kenney of Philadelphia […] was swept into office last year on a platform committing hundreds of millions of dollars to fixing up some 400 dilapidated green spaces, ball fields, pools, libraries and recreation centers in underserved districts. …

Changing demographics, new technologies and evolving demands by residents on parks and libraries to be complex community hubs require that these places receive more than just a fresh lick of paint or sod. … They need extensive rethinking. …

Chicago is trying to send the same message. East of Little Village, in the Bridgeport neighborhood, Studio Gang, the highly regarded architecture firm, has designed an elegant new zinc-clad public boathouse, with clerestory windows and a jagged roofline (based on stop-action photographs of rowers, the architects say), providing a gateway from Bridgeport to the waterfront. Farther north, the 606, Chicago’s version of the High Line, which opened in mid-2015, has turned a defunct rail corridor into a wildly popular pedestrian greenway.”