U.S. Steel’s South Works was a major economic engine on the South Side for more than a century, once supporting as many as 20,000 employees, but since the steelmaker closed the plant in 1992, it’s become a graveyard for developer’s dreams. Now called 8080 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive by developers Related Midwest and joint venture partner CRG, this spring is expected to see the start of construction for the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, or IQMP, at the southeast corner of the massive 400-acre site.
This single structure designed by locally based Lamar Johnson Collaborative will house IQMP anchor tenant PsiQuantum, a Palo Alto, California-based quantum computing company. Expected to be completed in 2027, the initial two-story structure overlooking the lake and Calumet River will be clad in wood and glass with some swoopy touches and not entirely unattractive.
But it’s the next steps that bear careful watching. According to the plans approved by the Chicago Plan Commission in November, it appears that much of the IQMP development will consist of low-rise suburban-style development that would not be out of place in a cornfield or beside an interstate highway. At least three of these buildings will be about 35 feet tall and primarily clad in precast concrete panels with little discernable architectural merit. Several of these structures will essentially be big boxes, akin to an Amazon warehouse or shipping center. Such anonymous, no-frills construction may not be the best of neighbors, particularly on Chicago’s lakefront.
A bit of history is in order. There have been at least three major proposals for South Works since 1992: a Solo Cup factory that would have occupied the southern portion of the site; the ambitious Chicago Lakeside development by McCaffery Interests and U.S. Steel that remains the most comprehensive proposal to date; and a 2017 joint venture for 12,000 homes to be developed by Barcelona Housing Systems and Emerald Living/WElink.
Several improvements have been made to the site in the past three decades and will be retained by the current developers. These include the portion of South DuSable Lake Shore Drive that runs through the site and was built under the master plan created by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for McCaffery Interests and U.S. Steel in 2013, the 70-acre Park 566 and the 16.5-acre Steelworkers Park. A proposed new park will extend to both sides of the North Slip and include the historic ore walls, the sole remaining relics of the steel mill. These walls are 30 feet tall and run more than 2,000 feet east to west just south of the slip. Their colossal battered concrete forms rise above the flat site as silent vestiges of the industrial age, ruins from a South Side whose structures once rivaled ancient Rome.
In addition to the parks, Related promises public lakefront access on the south edge of the site along the Calumet River, immediately adjacent to the IQMP.
Beyond the boundaries of the IQMP, an overall master plan for the site is reportedly underway, although the developers have not revealed many details nor who’s working on it. They have established a series of urban design principles that promise multimodal transit, landscape setbacks, high-quality building materials, bird-safe technology, native landscaping and public art.
Which is a start — but as the developer’s plans continue to evolve, there are other considerations that need attention.
More robust physical connections between the site and the South Chicago neighborhood must be established. This community has never bounced back from the closing of South Works more than three decades ago; if the new development can’t lift the prospects of its neighbors, we are doing development wrong.
This is an excellent opportunity to extend the Chicago street grid into the site to create a seamless transition between new and old. Previous plans, and the IQMP plan as well, developed the site as a distinct and separate district. That made sense for a steel mill that needed to separate noxious and dangerous functions from neighbors, but that shouldn’t be necessary here and now. Streets should maximize connections between new and old. South DuSable Lake Shore Drive should be a grand boulevard that unites South Chicago and the South Works site, not become a border or edge condition.
And the models for such development are right here in Chicago. This past week, Preservation Chicago spotlighted several early 20th century industrial buildings on the South Side that are in peril — the Central Manufacturing District Clock Tower on Pershing Road in McKinley Park and a number of structures a bit farther south between the 4200 and 4500 block of South Western Avenue. These now-imperiled industrial structures demonstrate how utilitarian buildings such as those necessary for the IQMP and 8080 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive can be good design and good neighbors. And Western Avenue is a boulevard that South DuSable Lake Shore Drive should emulate.
And it would be great to see noteworthy architecture at South Works. The University of Illinois’ Discovery Partners Institute broke ground on an intriguing design by OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu at The 78 before canceling that project to join other entities such as IBM at IQMP. Let’s insist on this level of design. It would be madness if in one part of the city, we’re trying to halt the demolition of damn good industrial buildings while just miles away we might build banal and uninspiring structures on our lakefront.
Eventually, the IQMP may only make up about one quarter of the 8080 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive project. But the IQMP supporters are significant players, including the state of Illinois, Cook County, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, IBM, the University of Illinois, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. They are being drawn by the prospect of accessing the world’s first useful, large-scale quantum computer — a digital innovation that may eventually outmatch the large-scale production of steel for its contributions to modern life.
Certainly these stakeholders should want to see this potentially historic new facility as part of a complex that extends the legacy of South Side industrial buildings that represent Chicago’s thoughtful and brawny architecture.
At this prime lakefront site, that’s the least we should insist on.
Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan’s biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
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