Kennedy Expressway public park could be in the works

After lying dormant for more than a decade, the so-called “Kennedy cap” idea appears headed for a revival here in Illinois.

The plan that would create a deck over the Kennedy Expressway with a public park between Chicago’s central business district and the West Loop first surfaced in a 2003 draft of the city’s Central Area Plan.

But RATIO Architects' Scott Sarver, who became involved in the project in 2012, stressed to Curbed Chicago that was then and this is now.

“The idea’s been around for a while,” he said. “People continue to talk about it, especially given the dynamics of the West Loop, which is developing rapidly but doesn’t necessarily have a lot of open space.”

With similar projects already in the works in places like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Denver and Atlanta, Illinois would have much more of a blueprint to work from this time around.

“It’s happening all over the country,” Sarver said. “In Chicago, the closest parallel is Millennium Park, which stretches roughly the same four blocks, just a mile-and-a-half east. That project has gone on to generate billions in new construction, jobs, and tax revenue.”

The flame for such a project was reignited during a recent community meeting regarding a proposed hotel and apartment tower being discussed for nearby.

Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) quickly embraced the concept as a way of addressing overcrowding at existing West Loop parks.

“We support (the project) 100 percent,” he told Curbed. “We just have to get the dollars to do it.”

Burnett later told the Chicago Sun-Times the park would be a public-private partnership that could use money from the area’s expiring tax increment financing (TIF) districts. Sarver said cost estimates for the project are as high as $70 million.

“Physically, the project is not that difficult,” he said. “So much of the Loop is already built over rail tracks.”