A Past Vision of State Street's Future: a view of the Great Street that might have been. From 1973
In my never-ending quest to unearth Chicago's unbuilt plans and proposals, here is a 1973 rendering for new State Street in Chicago's South Loop area.
Under this plan, the then-bedraggled street---with its fading businesses, vacant lots, panhandlers, homeless chaps and the like--- would be remade into a Utopian commercial strip, with uses divided as neatly as columns on a business ledger. Retail? Ground floor. Residences? A few flights above the retail. Transportation? Well, if those Mercury Comets and AMC Matadors lining the lightly-traveled street aren't good enough, then hop on the monorail (why did urban plans always have a monorail back then?) to the left.
Look. Up in the sky. An enclosed skybridge where pedestrians could traverse high above whatever urban hazard remained after old State Street was bulldozed. As safe as hamsters in a Habitrail.
There are a few things I do like. The design has a post-Habitat '67 vibe. And the green street edge is a nice touch. I rather approve of the subterranean businesses (a jazz club? An after hours library? A future foie gras speakeasy?) hinted at with the stairway leading below ground to the right.
It took 30 years, but State Street in the South Loop did get much of what was proposed here, just in a remarkably different form.
