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Ford Calumet Environmental Center

CompanyValerio Dewalt Train
Lead DesignersValerio Dewalt Train
Design TeamJoe Valerio, Mark Dewalt, Tom Daly, Alexander Raynor, Lauren Shelton, Matt Gamache, Michael Johnson, Susan Crockett, Nina Cackovic, Haydyn Jones
Project Location11555 S Stony Island Ave, Chicago, IL 60633
ClientChicago Park District
CreditsTom Harris Photography
Prize(s)Bronze in Architecture Categories / Institutional
Project LinkView
Entry Description

Big Marsh Park is the Chicago Park District’s largest reclamation project. Once a natural landscape damaged by slag from steel mills, new restorative efforts have set the park on a path for industry and nature to coexist.

The facility features a permanent exhibit, classrooms, offices, bike repair area, restrooms, and storage spaces. Its materials reinforce its mission: weathered steel cladding recalls the site's industrial past, and exposed NLT alludes to an environmentally-responsive future. The building’s wastewater wetland system uses the same processes from the marsh to clean blackwater.