The Park at River Point is Starting to Look Like a Park

River Point under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!)

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been following River Point for eight years. Back when it was approved in 2008, it was just known as 444 West Lake, and the park along the riverfront was just a dream.

The narrow riverwalk portion of the project has been open for quite a while, and now the 1.5 acre elevated riverfront park looks like it’s getting close to becoming reality, too.

The park is elevated because in reality, it is a cap for the Amtrak and Metra rail lines that run through this property. The same thing is being done across the street at 150 North Riverside.

In the photo above, taken by Joe Zekas of YoChicago! from Wolf Point (man, that dude’s got some awesome glass), you can see many of River Point’s walking paths in place, nice curvy benches are waiting for butts, and enormous bags of topsoil are lined up to be dumped onto the sheets of geofoam staged for the south end of the site.

River Point is a 1.05 million square foot, 52-story office skyscraper designed by New Haven’s Pickard Chilton Architects for Houston’s Hines and Montreal’s Ivanhoé Cambridge.

River Point under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!)

from Chicago Architecture http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2016/08/09/the-park-at-river-point-is-starting-to-look-like-a-park/