Award
2016 Honor Award
Site
Chicago and NW Indiana's Calumet Region
Size
900 sq mi
Client
Calumet Collaborative (formerly Millennium Reserve)
Category
Communications
Landscape Architects
Project Details
In August 2015, the Calumet Collaborative, through its designated Wayfinding Work Group, issued an RFP seeking a consulting team to develop a wayfinding concept for the Calumet and southeast Chicago lakefront region.. The Lakota Group, together with sparc, inc., Bluestone + Associates, and Alta Planning + Design, was selected to develop a comprehensive and holistic wayfinding concept to recognize the true assets and potential of the region and share them in an understandable way.
The enormous and fascinating Calumet and southeast Chicago lakefront region spans 900 square miles from downtown Chicago to the Indiana Dunes, and includes environmental treasures, industrial sites, struggling urban areas, bustling small towns, and new suburbs. To help develop strategies that effectively and equitably celebrate the diverse region, the Lakota Group worked with a bi-state steering committee drawn from governmental, charitable, educational, and local groups and led and extensive public engagement process.
The resulting wayfinding concept represents a strategy to help bring people together to promote the area’s unique history, communities, and natural features. It is part communications plan, part community engagement strategy, and part plan for the physical improvements that will guide people from place to place. The wayfinding concept builds upon communication planning work already completed by the Calumet Collaborative and its partners. Such previous efforts have made strides in building a network of strong agency and organizational partners in Illinois and Indiana. Now, strategies arising out of this wayfinding concept will seek to cultivate more external audiences and general public support, audiences that have so far received limited communication attention.
Project Team
sparc, inc.; Bluestone + Associates; Alta Planning and Design