Monday, June 27, 2016

June 27, 1965 -- The RIver Beautiful within a Decade



June 27, 1965 – Ira Bach, the Chicago Plan Commissioner, predicts that the Chicago River in the downtown area will be transformed into “one of the world’s most beautiful waterways in the next 10 years.”  [Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1965]  He only missed the mark by forty years.  “The new Pioneer Court dedicated . . . by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Tribune company, is the latest exquisite example of how the river bank can be beautified by an unusual development,” Bach said.  “With other major riverbank construction programs on the planning boards, other plazas and landscaped open spaces can be expected to be created along the river in the next decade.”  By the end of this year Bach’s prediction will, for the most part, have come true as the 100 million dollar Riverwalk opens the entire south side of the river from Lake Michigan to Lake Street.

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