[Dialogue] An FYI on Greening Chicago

[aiseayew]

John, I was delighted to see that this sharing of what is going on in
Chicago was of interest to so many and I had to wonder if they were aware of
ways in which the Institute has participated.  I know you and Linda have
been there and seen the parking lot, but I don't know how long it has been
for others.  We had the same architects that did the city hall roof do
perspectives for the second floor roof of the Kemper building.  Daley took a
lot of heat when it was realized that the city hall roof could not be "open
to the public" because they had not renovated for handicap access.
Initially this was seen to be a deal breaker in terms of public support, but
they simply went to other city buildings.  (We had initially hoped they
might bring the money to ours.)

It was only two years ago that I came back out to Iowa to care for my dad,
but I am proud of the work we have done and continue to do with the
Community Resource Center in Chicago.  When anyone hears news of the
Community Revitalization Network or the CRV Team of the Institute, this is a
part of what is included.  It is much more low-key than the training work
and is very locally rooted in places like Troy, Greensboro, Colquitt and
Chicago.  Just in case peole don't know, I'm including an article I wrote
for someone else shortly after I left Chicago.  Someone may have photos they
could scan in.  I don't have that capacity.  Thanks for creating the
opportunity to tell this story again, Margaret Aiseayew



An Ecological Parking Lot

Yes.  It sounds like an oxymoron, but that may be something we will have to
get used to in these times.  While we all grew up with the adage, "You can't
have it both ways," perhaps a part of the larger story, the emergence of a
new age is dependent upon our putting forth the time and energy to figure
out how that is possible.  We know that negotiation is the fine art of give
and take, yet we tend to resist both the giving and the receiving.

The task as outlined was to manage all the contracts and expenditures of a
State of Illinois grant for $200,000 covering six facility projects that had
been pre-bid and amounts allowed within the grant could not vary by more
than 10%.  One of the more complicated projects was to rebuild our parking
lot:  three asphalt covered lots opposite the Institute of Cultural Affairs
(ICA) building that had been an eyesore in the community of Uptown for over
30 years.  The amount allotted for this renovation was $40,000.

Kemper Insurance Company gave the parking lot to us with the building in
1971.  The entrance was on Lakeside, a one-way, block long street that
dead-ended into Sheridan Road.  Since all pedestrians leaving the parking
lot were coming to the ICA building on Sheridan Road the walking exits were
on Sheridan. Neighborhood foot traffic cut through the lot at an angle from
the driveway to the Sheridan walking exits, dropping their garbage, doing
their business or their mischief on the way through.  As the facility
transisted from the international training center for the ICA to the
Community Service Center for Uptown, the Department of Streets and
Sanitation provided instrumental assistance to move the driveway to Sheridan
Road.

At the time of the State proposal (two years prior to the grant) oil was
under $24/barrel.  At the time of actual bidding, it was over $32.  Asphalt
is an oil by-product.  At the time of the proposal, the City of Chicago had
not yet voted in its new landscaping ordinances.  Initial research on the
parking lot project made it abundantly clear that it could not be rebuilt at
all within the parameters of the grant as written.

Of the six projects, the parking lot was clearly the most visible.  What if
you decided to do a real demonstration with the parking lot?  What if you
decided not to create another scab on the surface of the earth?  (The Iowa
farm girl in me has always detested asphalt parking lots.  I have watched
over time, as they have become the norm.  In a terrible rainstorm north of
Chicago about 15 years ago I was trapped for nearly three hours in an
asphalt parking lot flood.)  We began to explore alternatives by raising the
question of an ecological parking lot.  This is what we did.

All the asphalt was stripped off the three lots and recycled.  Beneath the
asphalt we found a layer of ash that had been laid from coal furnaces.  We
collected the ash for reuse.  Ash is a natural filter and does not hold
water like soil.  Therefore, it does not expand and contract with cold and
heat.  It will not create either bubbles or birdbaths in a finished surface.

We took out the chain link fence surrounding the parking lot and recycled it
into the building.  It was used to create secure personal storage units for
tenants of the building in three rooms of the basement.  This was part of a
huge additional (unfunded) project to renovate the use of basement space and
bring it into fire code compliance.

The dirt was then excavated and pieces of old foundation broken up.  The
better dirt was mounded at the edges of the lot for landscaping use.  The
balance was hauled away for recycling.  An eighteen-inch bed of sand was
brought in and tamped into place.  Concrete curbing was poured to
distinguish four islands and the edge of the lot to be landscaped.  Conduit
was buried for electrical cable.  The ash was spread on top of the sand.  We
had enough for a layer that varied between one and two inches.  Another inch
of sand was brought in and leveled.  Then oversized landscaping brick was
hand laid into the sand.  A brick saw was brought in to downsize or reshape
brick as necessary to fit to the concrete or old sewer drains.  Another
layer of sand was brought in and both mechanically and then manually tamped
down between the bricks as mortar.

Landscapers brought in 23 new trees, 40 rosebushes and even more spirea.
Six trees and all the roses went into the four islands around the
starlights.  The remainder of the trees and spirea border the lot.  The
starlights are designed to give maximum illumination to ground surface and
reflect not at all up into the atmosphere.  They do not add to the urban
glow and enable people in the city to actually look up at the stars.  These
lights were equipped for future outlets so that cars could be plugged in.

So what does all this mean in terms of an ecological parking lot?  There is
enough green to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen equivalent to the needs
of all those coming and going from the lot, with some left over to counter
the emissions of the vehicles.  The specifications indicate that 60% of all
rainwater is taken directly back into the earth through and between the
bricks, filtering it on the way.  In practice, with the exception of a three
inch in two hours downpour, we see little or no water going down the storm
sewer.  There has been no basement flooding along Lakeside since the
installation of the parking lot.  Downpour flooding on the streets of
Lakeside, Sheridan and Marine due to drain backups has been diminished.

The brick serves as a complete heat abatement island.  The brick absorbs the
suns heat rather than reflecting it back to the urban atmosphere.  This has
made as much as a ten degree difference in summer on the corner of Sheridan
and Lakeside.  No salt is ever needed in the winter.  Initial plowing with
heavy snows allows the brick to absorb sufficient sun warmth to radiate and
melt remaining snow.  Ice storms create an immediate problem, but sand
dispersed for traction will absorb enough heat eventually to melt the ice
and the sand works its way down between the bricks refreshing the mortar and
adding to the filtering system.

In addition, the neighborhood has the gift of beauty and a new security.
The fence is a wrought iron look alike that requires far less maintenance.
Security guards can see from the building lobby through to what is happening
in the lot and in the alley behind the lot.  Drivers parking in the lot can
see what is going on in the streets before they exit their vehicle.  The
trees are two varieties of ash that compliment the city trees in the parking
margins.  (This variety is a requirement of new city landscaping codes to
prevent the kind of denuding of whole neighborhoods that occurred with Dutch
Elm disease.  What you can plant is largely determined by what is already
growing.)  The roses bloom all summer and the spirea color varies over the
course of the year, but does not deteriorate to nudity over the winter.

How has this participated in greening Chicago?  This was the first parking
lot of its kind in the city.  Weeks were spent at City Hall getting the
variety of permits needed.  Many of the permits initially required were
bracketed or approvals were made dependant on other approvals.  We could not
get a brick laying permit because they were all dependent on the type of
mortar to be used and sand is not an approved brick laying mortar.  Without
a brick laying permit we could not get a brick cutting permit and ended up
having to pay a $100 fine for unapproved dust creation when cutting the
brick in around the sewer drains.  Finally, to accomplish this whole
project, we had to get the right people at city hall clear on our vision.
It was such a new idea.  Once they caught the vision, many went out of their
way to carve a path for us from one office to the next.  We had two aldermen
to assist as the building was in a different ward than the parking lot.
Both of them were thrilled that the lot has advanced their vision of
restoring the old brick alleyways, which were largely asphalted over in the
last fifty years.  Many of the alleys still have the original brick down
under the asphalt.  Obviously since the original $40,000 in the State of
Illinois grant was not going to cover new asphalt, it didn't cover this
either.  An additional $80,000 grant from the Chicago Department of
Environment made the difference.  When I left Chicago, our primary
contractor who had never done a project larger than a suburban driveway or
patio had been asked to bid on new Soldier Field parking areas.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Cock" <jpc2025 at triad.rr.com>
Subject: [Dialogue] FW: Making Chicago the greenest city in the nation


> If you haven't already seen it, A VERY inspiring/impressive article and
> great pictures, too.  Check out the Green Map, especially. . .
>
> http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0704/chi/index.html