Chicago Navy Pier Redesign Competition Architects, Illinois Architecture Contest Winner

Chicago Navy Pier Competition

Illinois Design Contest, USA: Architects / Designers – by James Corner Field Operations

post updated September 23, 2024

Navy Pier Redesign Competition won by James Corner Field Operations

photo Courtesy Navy Pier, Inc.

Mar 19, 2012

Chicago Navy Pier Redesign Contest Winner

Chicago Navy Pier:

photographs Courtesy Navy Pier, Inc.

James Corner Field Operations
+ others, per list lower down this post

James Corner Field Operations

Feb 27, 2012

Chicago Navy Pier Redesign Contest Entry

Navy Pier Redesign Competition Entry by !melk

pictures !melk

Great Pier of the Great Lakes
team !melk

Chicago is known for its penchant to “make no little plans” as Daniel Burnham memorably pronounced over a century ago. And so today, Chicago’s most popular attraction, Navy Pier is revisiting Burnham’s legacy as it reimagines its potential as a world class cultural destination. To help realize Navy Pier’s ambitious design goals, a team led by !melk, UrbanLab and HOK has proposed a series of dramatic ideas to reconceptualize Chicago’s preeminent exclamation point extending from the Great Lakes to the world.

The design team is headed by !melk principal Jerry Van Eyck, a former partner of the renowned Netherlands based landscape and urban design firm West 8. Van Eyck has realized numerous cutting-edge landscape-centered projects around the globe. Reinvigorating cultural landmarks such as Navy Pier into dynamic places that attract worldwide attention is exactly what Van Eyck knows how to do.

pictures !melk

Team !melk’s design proposal stems from the geological history that formed the unique Chicago and Great Lakes landscape. The melting mile-thick glaciers of the last Ice Age left not only the five Great Lakes, but also left behind smaller marks on the landscape, or landmarks throughout the region.

The swell and swale landmarks imprinted on the landscape such as drumlins, kames, moraines, eskers and kettles are spectacular forms. Team !melk works with these unique natural phenomena to create a series of topographic waves and curls that smoothly unify the once highly fragmented Pierscape. The new topography also creates and opens surprising movements, social spaces, vistas, observation points, places for activities, contact with nature, and art.

The design team strongly believes that to appreciate the magnitude of the Great Lakes people must get close to them…and then get even closer. This closeness is at the heart of their approach. The team has found several ways to inspire people to experience the power of the Great Lakes in multiple states. The team’s boldest water-based design proposal is the “Glacier”. The icon embraces water in all its states, especially in the winter when onboard waterfalls create flows of ice freezing the tower into a glacier. It will surely become the next must-see global attraction.

A less monumental but equally compelling water-based design feature includes a “Fish Resort”. This is a much larger version of Chicago’s existing “fish hotel”, which has been a successful attractor of both fish and people of all ages and sizes. The team is hopeful that the Fish Resort will become an attraction equal in popularity to seal watching on Pier 39 in San Francisco (Pier 39 receives twice the number of yearly visitors than Navy Pier largely based on the presence of the seals).

pictures !melk

Team !melk is also making plans to strengthen Navy Pier’s connection back to the urban fabric of Chicago. Currently, many people living in Chicago have the impression that Navy Pier is a far-off destination rather than a place to visit routinely. The design team is recalibrating this scenario with highly interconnected new spaces and programs authentic to Chicago. The team has redesigned Gateway Park – the primary physical connection back to the city – with a new public plaza housing several new potential programmatic and cultural venues.

Providing economic sustainability to Navy Pier is the long-term goal, and these ideas will likely happen over multiple phases. The short term goal is to attract Chicagoans by making them feel as though Navy Pier is a vital slice of a unique city.

!melk
landscape architecture and urban design, New York

pictures !melk

!melk
and other cnsultants per the list lower down this post

Chicago Navy Pier Redesign Competition Entry images / information from !melk

29 Nov 2011

Chicago Navy Pier Redesign Contest

Navy Pier Redesign Competition News

Shortlist of 5 architects

Five design teams have been named that will compete in the final phase of this architecture competition to redesign the Navy Pier public spaces, rejecting several celebrated architects.

Architects that didn’t make the cut include Zaha Hadid Architects and OMA.

The five design teams are headed by the firms AECOM, Aedas Architects, James Corner Field Operations, Xavier Vendrell Studio and !melk.

Navy Pier Phase I Shortlist

AECOM
BIG
Lead Pencil Studio
Project Projects
Speirs + Major
WET Design
Davis Langdon
Christy Webber
Tivoli International

Aedas Architects
Martha Schwartz Partners
Halcrow Yolles
Solomon Cordwell Buenz
Marshall Brown Projects
Pentagram
Fisher Marantz Stone
Suzanne Randolph Fine Arts

James Corner Field Operations
Terry Guen Design Associates
nArchitects
Bruce Mau Design
Leo Villareal
L’Observatoire International
Ed Marszewski
Fluidity Design Consultants
Patrick Blanc
John Greenlee & Associates
Chris Wangro
Billings Jackson
Buro Happold
Primera
HR&A Advisors
ETM Associates

!melk
HOK
UrbanLab
Terry Guen Design Associates
Thirst
Zoe Ryan
Conservation Design Forum
HR&A Advisors
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Sam Schwartz Engineering
Leni Schwendinger LIGHT projects
CMS Fountain Consultants
Karin Bacon Enterprises

Xavier Vendrell Studio
Grimshaw Architects
Harley Ellis Devereaux
Arup
Studio Lab
Schuler Shook
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
Sarah Herda

26 + 27 Oct 2011

Chicago Navy Pier Redesign Competition

Navy Pier Redesign Contest News

Longlist of 11 architects

The Centennial Vision for Chicago Navy Pier:

images : Gensler Renderings

Location: 600 East Grand Avenue

Cut from a list of 50, there are now eleven teams selected.

Navy Pier, Inc. Announces Shortlist of 11 Teams Invited to Participate in Second Phase of International Search to Redesign Pier’s Public Spaces

CHICAGO – Eleven design teams have been invited by Navy Pier to advance to the next phase of its international search for a group to redesign the Pier’s public spaces.

The 11 were among more than 50 teams from around the world that responded to Navy Pier’s initial request for qualifications.

“The quality and experience of the firms that expressed interest in working at Navy Pier reflect the visibility and impact this work will have on the public spaces at one of Chicago’s most iconic landmarks,” said Sarah Garvey, Chair of the NPI Board. “Creating a shortlist was a very difficult task. We thank all who submitted information, and we were very impressed by the talent and enthusiasm of every team.” Today’s announcement is the next step in the selection process to determine which design team or teams will work with Navy Pier on the design of the “Pierscape,” an important part of the Centennial Vision planning framework for the redevelopment of Navy Pier.

The Pierscape includes Gateway Park at the west entrance of the Pier, the Crystal Garden, Pier Park, East End Park and the South Dock – along with smaller spaces that dot the length of the Pier. The work will include enhancements to the Pier’s landscaping and streetscape along with the addition of fountains, public art and lighting.

“We were thoroughly impressed with the creativity demonstrated in the projects completed by members of the design teams that were selected,” said Marilynn Gardner, President of NPI. “The remarkable breadth of experience on display gives us high hopes as we continue with the selection process. We are excited by what they have to offer.”

Chicago Navy Pier:

photographs Courtesy Navy Pier, Inc.

The eleven design teams will now be asked to submit additional information about the organization of their team, the key individuals that would be working on the design of the Pierscape, and their design approach and philosophy. Then, approximately five design teams will be asked to submit design proposals and participate in oral interviews with Navy Pier. Final selection of a design team or teams that will work on the Pierscape is anticipated in February 2012.

NPI launched its international search for design teams September 1. The request for qualifications and design proposals sought teams that included a variety of disciplines, including landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, graphic design, lighting design, and art curation. Fifty-two teams responded, including over 250 different firms from more than a dozen countries.

Chicago Navy Pier:

photographs Courtesy Navy Pier, Inc.

The submissions were carefully reviewed and evaluated by a team of advisors who provided input to the Board of NPI who established the shortlist. The advisors included:

• Lee Bey, Executive Director of the Chicago Central Area Committee
• Greg Cameron, Chief Operating Officer of WTTW
• Joe Caprile, AIA, Senior Vice President at Jones Lang LaSalle
• Elva Rubio, Regional Design Director in the Chicago office of Gensler
• John Syvertsen, FAIA, Senior Principal at Cannon Design

“The advisors and the Board considered the design teams’ experience on projects of similar scope, complexity, and visibility, and their competence with the various components of the Pierscape,” explained Steve Haemmerle, Executive Vice President of NPI. “These teams have a strong understanding of the unique character of the Pier and the major issues that we will face during the design process.”

Buckingham Fountain Yellow at Night – Chicago:

picture © Joe Lekas

“We are looking for teams that have exhibited design leadership and an innovative approach to the design of passive landscapes, urban civic spaces and active commercial environments,” said Haemmerle. “The teams on our shortlist have a significant record of accomplishment and standing within the design community.”

Reimagining the Pierscape is an important part of implementing the larger Centennial Vision planning framework to redevelop the Pier as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2016. NPI and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) jointly approved the planning framework before NPI took over management of the Pier July 1 under a 25-year lease from MPEA.

Design Team for the Pierscape at Navy Pier

Phase I Shortlist

AECOM team (scroll up this page for the full list)

Aedas Architects team

Frederic Schwartz Architects
Alejandro Zaera-Polo Architects
Thomas Balsley Associates
Arup
Atelier Ten
Pentagram
Fisher Marantz Stone
Nancy Rosen Inc.

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Pentagram
Tillotson Design Associates

Jacques Ferrier Architectures
Sensual City Studio
Tim Brown Architects
Agence Ter
Integral Ruedi Baur
Chris Rockey
Dear Production

James Corner Field Operations team

!melk team

OMA/SGA
SCAPE
Thirst
Tillotson Design Associates
Arup
dbHMS
Fluidity Design Consultants
Patti Gilford Fine Arts
Robert Kirschner
Davis Langdon
KLOA

SHoP Architects
Brininstool, Kerwin and Lynch
Coen + Partners
GCAM Group
Mark Robbins
Pentagram
L’Observatoire International
Acoustic Dimensions
Arup

Xavier Vendrell Studio team

Zaha Hadid Architects
tvsdesign
Balmori Associates, Inc.
Halvorson and Partners
Space Agency
Seam

View north from downtown, Chicago Navy Pier in distance:

photo courtesy of Jan Klerks

Location: 600 East Grand Avenue, Chicago

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