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The Raising of Chicago

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Re: The Raising of Chicago

#51

Post by rayiner »

dworin wrote: post #50
rayiner wrote: post #2

Chicago didn't fuck around when it came to ambitious 19th century engineering: http://99percentinvisible.org/post/57747785222/episode-86-re... (reversing the Chicago river--this has a lot of great old pictures). Although, see: http://chicagoist.com/2013/04/19/photos_what_re-reversing_th... (reversing it back temporarily this year to account for flooding). In school we used to say "aerospace engineers make bombs; civi…

It wasn't just infrastructure, it's in the attitude of the city. Someone once told me "in New York they build skyscrapers because they have to, in Chicago they build skyscrapers because they can."

Yes, I've always found that attitude amazing. Illinois is pretty flat. Chicago could grow outward pretty much unimpeded in at least 180 degrees. Yet, it has a dense downtown core full of skyscrapers.

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#52

Post by mackey »

newbie12 wrote: post #45
clarkm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a gif of the land reclaimed by Boston over time: http://wp.streetwise.co/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/filling_i... Can you imagine anything of this scale happening today?

Today's Boston can't even build a traffic tunnel. The Big Dig was a disaster-- took decades, costs billions more than planned, and was so shoddy the finished roof fell and killed someone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig

As someone who works in an office building along rose kennedy greenway, I wouldn't say it was totally a disaster. Basically everything along the greenway has been revitalized and it's pretty beautiful to walk around in the summer. There is a lot more activity in the area and lots of new restaurants.

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#53

Post by justin66 »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #3

North American cities used to be enormously ambitious (see also, for example, Boston's Back Bay). Contrast the fear, trepidation and status-quo obstructionism that characterizes municipal affairs today.

> North American cities used to be enormously ambitious (see also, for example, Boston's Back Bay). Contrast the fear, trepidation and status-quo obstructionism that characterizes municipal affairs today.

North American cities used to suffer with depressing frequency civil engineering disasters that killed dozens of people at a time. It truly would be odd if fear and trepidation regarding the topic is greater now, if that's actually true.

Caution might be greater, since we know more about the topic and more about what we need to be cautious of, but that's all to the good.

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#54

Post by dubfan »

BoredAstronaut wrote: post #48
mathattack wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression is that project overages have scared cities quite a bit. To use your Boston example, the Big Dig certainly has scared many other municipalities thinking of something like that. The Denver Airport fiasco most certainly scared away people from building new airports for decades. Moving into speculation... I believe that society values lives a lot more. It would be very hard to cost effectively build anothe…

Um http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_span_replacement_of_the...

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Way_Viaduct_replacement...

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#55

Post by jgroszko »

dkuntz2 wrote: post #43
dspeyer wrote: post #22

So Undertown does exist?

Kinda. While Butcher fictionalizes is, and expands on the truth, there are many tunnels throughout the city, and it's possible to traverse most of the loop underground. Plus there's good ole Wacker drive...

And it's always exciting when those tunnels flood... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_flood

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#56

Post by drivers99 »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #25
badman_ting wrote: post #12

I took a tour of Seattle, and the guides discussed Seattle going through a similar transition. Essentially the whole city was raised by one story. But the roads were done first, creating a sort of "waffle-like" city, where crossing the street as a pedestrian meant climbing a ladder, crossing the street, and descending the ladder on the other side. People were sometimes injured or killed by falling down the ladder, so…

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regrading_in_Seattle

For completeness, here's the article about the raising of Pioneer Square that the parent post was referring to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#57

Post by eCa »

onedognight wrote: post #20

Anyone know why Venice, Italy hasn't undertaken a similar plan?

There have been plans/proposals to refill the aquifer under Venice [1].

The construction of the Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico (or MOSE) that is meant to be raised in times of high water started back in 2003 [2].

[1] http://www.geotimes.org/mar04/geophen.html

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSE_Project

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#58

Post by fumar »

selectodude wrote: post #32
joezydeco wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's my grandmother's old neighborhood in the near southwest part of the city (Pilsen): http://goo.gl/maps/OlFm7 You can see where the sidewalks enter on the second floor of these flats and the original ground level entrance is now below street level. We had lots of fun goofing around in the "cave" down on the first floor.

It's very bizarre seeing a street view from a block away from where I live on HN.

It is random. I lived about two blocks away on 18th place.

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#59

Post by RyanMcGreal »

mackey wrote: post #52
newbie12 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today's Boston can't even build a traffic tunnel. The Big Dig was a disaster-- took decades, costs billions more than planned, and was so shoddy the finished roof fell and killed someone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig

As someone who works in an office building along rose kennedy greenway, I wouldn't say it was totally a disaster. Basically everything along the greenway has been revitalized and it's pretty beautiful to walk around in the summer. There is a lot more activity in the area and lots of new restaurants.

The real problem with the Big Dig is that is was designed and built in ignorance of the law of demand [1] as it applies to lane capacity. The traffic congestion that the Big Dig was supposed to eliminate simply moved outward [2].

They should have eliminated the Big Dig completely and spent the money on increasing rapid transit capacity.

That said, eliminating the elevated highway that cut the North End off from the rest of the city seems to have been a major boon.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_demand

[2] http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/16/big_dig...

Re: The Raising of Chicago

#60

Post by ParahSailin »

jusben1369 wrote: post #16
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #3

North American cities used to be enormously ambitious (see also, for example, Boston's Back Bay). Contrast the fear, trepidation and status-quo obstructionism that characterizes municipal affairs today.

Well if any of today's American cities lost 5 to 7% of their population in a single year to some sort of medical epidemic I suspect there'd be a fair bit of civil activity.

The 1885 cholera epidemic is a widely told myth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_1885_cholera_epidemic_m...
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