Chicago consistently ranks in the top three cities in Fortune 500 company headquarters, and now a competition has been launched to build on Chicago’s power in business.
The public can get involved.
The competition, sponsored by World Business Chicago, is called Horizon Lines: Visions of Chicago 2050. Designers and community leaders are encouraged to submit ideas to help with Chicago’s economic growth.
Everything from the Riverwalk to Millennium Park — or if one goes back in history, the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 — started with an ambitious idea. Now, World Business Chicago is banking on architects, artists, and visionaries to step up again for the love of Chicago.
Speaking to CBS News Chicago on Wednesday, World Business Chicago president and chief executive officer Phil Clement said the project is in a phase inspired by Daniel Burnham and the famous statement attributed to him: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.”
“We’re looking for big, bold ideas,” Clement said.
Clement said a couple of years ago, Mayor Brandon Johnson tasked him with developing an economic plan for the city. To that end, World Business Chicago convened about 300 business, civic, and other leaders to start talking about how to grow Chicago’s economy.
But the project involved both short-term planning and long-term ambitions, and it turned out to be a tall order.
“We found it really hard to do that short-term economic planning and get those big, bold, ambitious ideas in the same conversation,” said Clement. “So we split it. So we’ve completed the first phase, which is the plan, and now we’re going back to, hey, let’s find those ideas that can transform the city.”
World Business Chicago is looking for more ideas that might start from something simple, like Millennium Park. The story is often told that idea for Millennium Park sprang from an occasion in the 1990s when Mayor Richard M. Daley visited his dentist on Michigan Avenue downtown, looked out the window at the eyesore of a railyard across the street, and decided something needed to be done to beautify it.
“It’s just something that someone thought of one day. We always forget that, and it became a great discussion and then became implemented,” Clement said. “And so we’re looking for, what’s that next new big idea?”
The big ideas that World Business Chicago has in mind include:
- New architectural icons or landmarks
- Transformative public spaces
- Transit and infrastructure projects
- Housing and neighborhood vitality efforts
- Environmental and climate resiliency efforts
- Cultural districts and economic generators
- Systems to improve safety, connectivity, and equity
- Street-level projects to enhance day-to-day life
- Proposals to challenge assumptions about the city’s future
At the end of the contest, an exhibit showcasing the bold ideas will be mounted at the Chicago Cultural Center downtown. They will also be subject to a judging committee that includes members of Chicago’s leadership team.
While World Business Chicago is appealing to artists, architects, and visionaries for bold plans, anyone can go on the World Business Chicago website and submit an idea.
“We’re hoping that relative that always has the big idea that he’s been talking about at the dining room table, encourage them to submit,” Clement said. “We’re looking for ideas that can transform the city, and they can come from anywhere.”
Numerous intriguing ideas have already come in, Clement said.
“We have great ideas around mass transit, how to cover up different eyesores and create new space, you know, everything from how Chicagoans communicate with each other, flying cars come up on occasion,” he said, “you know, you can imagine all the visions that are out there for this great city.”
Clement said this comes at a time when Chicago’s fortunes are improving, with the economy growing again, the safest summer since 1965 last year, and O’Hare International Airport reclaiming the title of the world’s busiest.
“We’re starting to see Chicago as the gem of a region that is super-attractive globally. When people are looking at how they’re going to expand, why not expand into Chicago,” Clement said. “If you’re in another country thinking about U.S. markets, we’re such an easy, safe, fast landing for companies.”
The deadline for submissions for Horizon Lines is April 15.
