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BY ZACH MORTICE / PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAHAR COSTON-HARDY
FROM THE DECEMBER 2017 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE.
New Yorkers avoid Times Square, and Chicagoans stay away from Navy Pier. It?s an ironclad rule. The public spaces that are most popular are there to attract tourists. Locals don?t go there.
In Chicago, going to Navy Pier had been something like a grudging civic responsibility you

accept when you have out-of-town guests. It?s always been the most meta of Chicago?s architectural landmarks?essentially a large viewing platform, at more than half a mile long, for the city?s epic skyline, the finest way to see it all without a boat. But best to keep your eyes on the horizon, and not look at the motley collection of cotton candy vendors and garish signs that crowded the waterfront. But today Navy Pier is looking and acting more like an authentic part of the city, for locals and tourists alike. A renovation by James Corner Field Operations has turned it from a tourist mall to a designed art walk. Cleared of consumerist refuse, South Dock (its main pedestrian corridor) is a refined stroll through an updated waterfront, framed by new performance spaces and an uproarious park.
Inside the pier?s hal...