Location
11141 S Cottage Grove Ave, Chicago, IL 60628
Owner/Agency Partners
National Park Service; Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives; Illinois Department of Natural Resources; National Park Foundation; National Parks Conservation Association
Team
Bauer Latoza Studio; Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture LLP; DAI Environmental; SPACECO, Inc.; WSP
The first phase of implementing the Positioning Pullman vision was to transform the Pullman Administrative Building and Factory Grounds into a vibrant Visitor Center worthy of a new National Historical Park.
The development features three areas: the Front Yard, the Transfer Pit, and the Park.
- The Front Yard is a pastoral landscape that drew inspiration from the 1880s-era Lake Vista and surrounding pathways and garden beds. 90% of all stormwater is captured and/or reused on site thanks to reinterpreting the original detention pond and using native plantings that collect run-off, sculpted swales, permeable pavers, and cisterns across the multi-acre site.
- The Transfer Pit is a corridor where passenger cars’ chassis were once rolled in and out of bays. Here, hardscape and planting palettes are designed around archaeological relics to reinterpret the historical functionality of this space. The landscape design is a stylized take on an urban-wild planting that one might find growing along a railroad corridor. As some of the historic buildings are no longer standing, “ghost frames”, painted rust red, reference the factory doors that once flanked this part of the site.
- The Park is a flexible event and gathering space built around the historic footprint of the rear erecting shops.
For this project, it was important to not only make the site accessible to all, but to share the stories of historic Pullman through the landscape. site worked hand in hand with the National Park Service, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to achieve this feat.
