ABSTRACT

In the post-World War II era, faced with what were called blighted neighbourhoods around Chicago’s commercial core, the city’s leaders pioneered the programme known as urban redevelopment (the forerunner of urban renewal), wherein the Federal and state governments granted the right of eminent domain and funds to cities to acquire land which was then turned over to private developers. The first such project in Chicago, a national leader of the entire programme, was Lake Meadows on the city’s near south side, a middle to upper class apartment complex that still thrives today. The developer was the New York Life Insurance Company and the architect Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, both well known for large projects in this era. A close examination of the project’s origins and implementation reveals the intentions of the principal players as well as the hideous complexity of getting such a project completed in Chicago. It also demonstrates the value of a concrete vision around which participants can coalesce, in this case a vision of the modernist city. The project’s creators, in all senses of the word, looked on Lake Meadows as a grand experiment, the results of which are still with us and deserve periodic reexamination.

摘要

在二战后的时代，面对芝加哥商业核心周围所谓的破旧街区，该市的领导人开创了被称为城市再开发（城市更新的先驱）的计划，其中联邦和州政府授予了杰出人士的权利。域和资金用于城市收购土地，然后移交给私人开发商。芝加哥的第一个此类项目是整个项目的全国领导者，是该市近南侧的 Lake Meadows，这是一座今天仍然蓬勃发展的中上层公寓大楼。开发商是纽约人寿保险公司和建筑师斯基德莫尔、奥因斯和美林，他们都以这个时代的大型项目而闻名。对该项目的起源和实施的仔细研究揭示了主要参与者的意图以及在芝加哥完成这样一个项目的可怕的复杂性。它还展示了参与者可以围绕的具体愿景的价值，在这种情况下是现代主义城市的愿景。该项目的创建者，从各个方面来说，都将莱克梅多斯视为一项宏大的实验，其结果仍在我们身边，值得定期重新检查。