How to bring people and nature back to urban rivers - Chicago's Wild Mile
New episode alert!
Hello friends,
So many of our urban rivers are devoid of life and hidden away. Over the centuries many were channelised, simplified and used as dumping grounds. Chicago, like many cities, are rethinking the city’s relationship to their river for the benefit of communities and biodiversity.
Chicago's Wild Mile project is such a fascinating case study. At it's core it's a community-led initiative to reconnect to the riverside. But it's also highly innovative in the way it brings floating vegetation islands to this industrialised stretch of the Chicago River.
It was a joy to get an audio tour of the project from Doug Voigt of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) on this episode of the Green Urbanist Podcast.
We use the Wild Mile project as a launching point to discuss urban ecological systems, the role of 'rewilding' and the larger effort to reimagine and retrofit urban infrastructure for the challenges of the 21st century.
Listen to the episode on the links below:
In the episode you’ll also hear how SOM are scaling up their learnings from the Wild Mile to build resilience in the Pearl River Delta. Don’t miss it!
As always, I’d love to know what you think. Once’s you’ve listened, reply to this email or comment below.
p.s. I’m hosting the Green Urbanist Online Meet Up on 3 October (6pm UK time). It’s a chance to meet me and other podcast listeners in an informal video call and talk all things green urbanism. I really look forward to meeting those of you who have already signed up.
Till next time,
Ross O’Ceallaigh
