"How the Bloomingdale Will Integrate Art at a New Pedway Display"
People who use the section of the Chicago Pedway under the Daley Plaza will be able to see a display about artwork that will go up in the Bloomingdale Trail once the construction starts.
To be honest, I have mixed feelings about all this. Bloomingdale Trail already had plenty of artwork - murals along the viaducts and under the bridges, graffiti atop of the bridges and other structures. It was part of its charm. Unfortunately, all those murals were pretty much gone when the city started working on the viaducts.
I guess it's part of my overall unease with the shape the trail revamp has taken. If the city just put up proper entrances, maybe shored up the century-old bridges, I would've been happy. But of course, this being a City of Chicago project, things are never going to be that simple. The trail is being, for the lack of a better word, civilized. Turned into more of a bike/walking trail that just happened to be elevated. And that, in my opinion, takes away a lot of things that made it interesting and unique in the first place - the sort of things that Reframing Ruin exhibit captured so well.
While I am curious to see what the refurbished trail would look like, I still mourn what is slowly but surely being lost.