Eco-Boulevards

Chicagoans discard over one billion gallons of Great Lakes water per day. This “wastewater” never replenishes one of the world’s most vital resources. As a remedy, this project re-conceives the Chicago street-grid as a holistic Bio-System that captures, cleans and returns wastewater and storm-water to the Lakes via “Eco-Boulevards.”

The Eco-Boulevard concept transforms existing roadways, sidewalks and parks (the “public-way”), which comprise more than a third of the land in a city such as Chicago into a holistic, distributed, passive bio-system for recycling Chicago’s water. Treated water is returned to the Great Lakes, closing Chicago’s water loop.