Would Have Been Wednesday - Urban Farm Park in Chicago

Our weekly Wednesday journey into the Epstein archives for projects that sadly never materialized takes us back to 2008 and Chicagos failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics. As part of Chicagos proposal for the 2016 Olympics, the Prime Group and Epstein suggested that an Urban Farm - Park be incorporated in the Olympic Village. The scheme adds two amenities by placing high-intensity, hydroponic greenhouses in a park setting located just south of McCormick Place between the Olympic Village and its beachfront recreation facilities, and reinforcing Chicagos pattern of public access lakefront parkland.

The proposed Olympic Village would have occupied a 128-acre site, and was meant to accommodate more than 16,000 athletes, officials and staff, with housing, retail, and recreation facilities. The intent was to develop the Village site irrespective of whether Chicago was selected as host city, and like the Village, the +25 acre Urban Farm Park would have served to revitalize the surrounding neighborhoods. It would have been accessed from the Lake Promenade at its north end and from 31st St. at the mid-south point.

The hydroponic farming concept was driven by the needs of the athletes, who demand organically grown, high-nutrition food, and by the International Olympic Committee, who mandates that a reliable, sufficient and strictly regulated supply of fresh food be guaranteed.

New parking would have replaced the McCormick Place truck marshalling yard, and a landscape-covered, concrete structure would be built overhead to support the Urban Farm Park. The ridged greenhouses stretch the entire length of the site, but its width varies, creating a serpentine form sometimes hidden from view by trees and sometimes reaching to perimeter sidewalk-concourses where passersby could view the crops inside. Three east-west pedestrian walks break-up the greenhouses into segments.

A Learning Center was also proposed which would have sat along the Lake Promenade, to host school groups and the general public with exhibits describing the hydroponic farming process and its function in an urban environment.

Fronting on 31st St. would have been a Food Store at grade with greenhouses covering the roof and with parking below. This facility would have served not only the Olympic Village, but the surrounding community.

The Olympic Urban Farm would have be operated by a proven commercial Greenhouse grower, and would be a source for local jobs. The Urban Farm Park also incorporated sustainable strategies including rainwater and waste recycling, photovoltaic energy production and would have lowered carbon emissions by eliminating long-distance produce transportation.