Navy Pier – Gateway Park

Located on Lake Michigan just east of Chicago’s downtown, Navy Pier is the top visited tourist and leisure destination in the Midwest, welcoming more than eight million visitors annually for entertainment, cultural and educational events, business meetings and trade shows. In 2016, Navy Pier marked its 100th anniversary by completing the first phase of a comprehensive, pier-wide redevelopment plan. Phase one included the beautiful new Polk Bros Park Fountain and Plaza which serves as the gateway to the Pier; improved vehicular access and circulation; pedestrian paths and walkways; and related streetscape and landscaping work. The improvements also incorporated updated traffic control devices and signage.

David Mason + Associates provided civil engineering design and construction administration services for the roadway modifications, bus drop-off areas, Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements, traffic calming devices, overhead signage and wayfinding. Our designers coordinated grading and drainage strategies with the project landscape designers to manage storm water and achieve sustainability goals of capturing and storing runoff.

Other sustainable features in the project include using native and appropriately adapted plants in outdoor environments with 100 percent of selected plants suitable for site conditions, climate and design intent, and preserving existing trees by conserving 72 percent of site’s existing plants and healthy soils. The project utilized highly efficient drip irrigation to meet 100 percent of its irrigation demand with harvested rainwater.

The project also included rigorous specifications for materials used. Nearly 30 percent of materials used were made from recycled content. Throughout the construction process, 100 percent of the structural waste and 99.9 percent of roadway and infrastructure waste was diverted from landfills. As a result, the Project achieved Gold certification under the Sustainable SITES Initiative (SITES) rating system, the first project to earn this level of certification under SITES v2.