Chicago’s Navy Pier is one of the city’s major tourist destinations, known for its Ferris wheel, restaurants and views of Lake Michigan. The 3,300-foot-long pier and its facilities cover approximately 50 acres and feature a 45-meter-tall Ferris wheel, the Chicago Children’s Museum, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, shops, restaurants and an exhibition hall. But beneath and around the busy tourist attraction lies an unusual system designed to deal with a much less glamorous problem: stormwater.
To address the issue, the city has incorporated green infrastructure throughout Navy Pier, including 77 tree tubs and about 43,000 square feet of permeable pavement. The system is designed to capture, filter and manage runoff where it falls rather than allowing rainwater to immediately run across hard surfaces and into conventional drainage systems.
