Featured, Landscape, Urban Design + Planning, Transit + Infrastructure

The 606 Framework Plan

Chicago, Illinois | Completed 2013
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Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects led a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary team in devel­op­ing the frame­work plan for the Bloom­ing­dale Trail (renamed ​“The 606”), a 2.7 mile long park con­vert­ed from an ele­vat­ed rail­road right-of-way. 

The park, lit­er­al­ly and metaphor­i­cal­ly, bridges neigh­bor­hoods sep­a­rat­ed by trafficked streets. Orig­i­nal­ly built to pro­tect peo­ple from trains, the 606 pro­vides safe pas­sage for res­i­dents of neigh­bor­hoods with lit­tle open space, con­nect­ing exist­ing, but iso­lat­ed, parks. 

The frame­work plan satisfied com­pet­ing goals. In its nar­row right-of-way, the trail: pro­vides a path for bicy­clists and places for con­tem­pla­tion; pre­serves exist­ing pub­lic art and pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties for new instal­la­tions; and opens a hid­den space to the pub­lic while pro­tect­ing the pri­va­cy of near­by residents.

More than 650 com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers attend­ed pub­lic meet­ings. Dur­ing a four-day char­rette the design team reflect­ed and built upon the public’s desires, devel­op­ing a shared vision. That vision has trans­formed unused infra­struc­ture into a val­ued social space.

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Built in 1913, the ele­vat­ed tracks served a small man­u­fac­tur­ing dis­trict com­prised of bicy­cle, fur­ni­ture, con­fec­tion, and instru­ment mak­ers. Train traf­fic slowed through­out the 1980’s and ceased oper­a­tion by the mid-1990’s. Nature reclaimed the space spark­ing visions for a trail con­ver­sion in 2003 and 2004 by res­i­dents and City leaders. 

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Robust pub­lic forums were held through­out the cre­ation of the Frame­work Plan. This process of co-cre­ation col­lect­ed ideas from res­i­dents of all ages with tools that met these ​“design­ers-for-a-day” where they felt comfortable. 

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A diver­si­ty of con­di­tions exist along the 2.7 mile trail. The design works in sec­tion to nav­i­gate exist­ing con­di­tions; bend­ing and pulling — twist­ing and turning.

The cri­te­ria for these con­di­tions were designed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the com­mu­ni­ty. At the char­rette, a full scale sec­tion was taped on the wall to illus­trate the con­straints and opportunities.

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Con­cep­tu­al­ly the ele­vat­ed trail spills into the exist­ing street net­work, tak­ing a phys­i­cal­ly removed piece of infra­struc­ture and cre­at­ing seam­less integration.

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…the 606 offers seren­i­ty and a relaxed atmos­phere that’s in per­fect pitch with Chicago’s mus­cu­lar, unpre­ten­tious Mid­west­ern vibe.

 Blair Kamin, Pulitzer Prize Winning Architecture Critic (on the occasion of the 606 opening)
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Access points take advan­tage of exist­ing parks and under­used street right-of-way, inte­grat­ing the pro­gram into the sur­round­ing neighborhoods. 

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Open­ing day was met with great enthu­si­asm. Res­i­dents and vis­i­tors nav­i­gat­ed the new trail, expe­ri­enc­ing the city from a new van­tage point.

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OSU Chiller Ross Barney Arch Brad Feinknopf Photo 9835 01 SNOW
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