The two different design plans for Ogden offer two very opposite courses of action. LPCA's plan, designed by the firm of Sasaki, Dawson, DeMay, and associates, called for the street to be closed in favor of a landscaped pedestrian right of way. New parks and open spaces as well as commercial space were provided. The Chamber of Commerce's plan, designed by the firm of Holabird and Root, makes provision for the street to be retained and beautified while allowing for new residential and commercial zoning.

The design objective of the Sasaki plan was to create meeting places for people which physically reunite the community. The report claims that Ogden was a divisive liability to the neighborhood. By removing it and placing a pedestrian mall with parks and open space, it was hoped that this would have a similar effect for the community as stitches would for a bad cut. A number of recreational facilities and other amenities were to be provided, such as; "conversation plazas", parking areas, play lots, passive space, bicycle and bridle paths, tennis courts, space for an outdoor art fair or museum, and shopper-oriented recreational areas. It was also hoped that small businesses like coffee shops, small theatres, and distinctive shops would open. The latter refers to an area near the Clark/Armitage intersection that would come to be known as the Ogden Mall.

Ogden Mall in the mid-seventies.

The Ogden Mall was one of two areas provided for in the LPCA plan to be used for retail space. Shops in this area were to be two floors. The small business owner would live on the second floor and operate the business at ground level. There was another retail area planned at Larrabee and North, but like many aspects of this plan, never materialized after the street was removed. As ambitious as the plan was in terms of providing community services, it mostly provided opportunity for developers to build town homes. The Ogden Mall is the only true open space and commercial area constructed on the former right of way. The rest of the right of way currently consists of (mostly) town homes, two churches, an oddly shaped concrete park, another concrete path with benches fronting town homes, and a parking lot. A fenced in space of open grass was left in front of St. Michael's church.

Click to view before and after maps from the Holabird plan. The Holabird plan recognizes all of Ogden's flaws more accurately than the Sasaki plan, as well as recognizing that it had assets. The objective of the plan was to retain the street and improve it. This would have involved creating a traffic circle at the Armitage/Clark intersection while extending Ogden to Stockton drive. Stockton parallels Lake Shore Drive and leads traffic to entrances. This would have greatly improved the usefulness of Ogden. The plan also calls for all of the intersections with Ogden by Lincoln Park's residential streets to be reconfigured. Smaller streets would have been cut off, as in the Sasaki plan, while traffic would be allocated to Ogden via collector streets such as Sedgwick and Orleans. Ogden would have been landscaped on the side walks and with a planted median , addressing the widespread criticism that it was a concrete eyesore. Also, the Holabird plan recognized that "...access...will become more important with the trend of shoppers to use automobiles”. This statement would become prophetic when Lincoln Park would later see a surge in population density and commercial activity.

The Sasaki plan addresses traffic in a more unrealistic fashion. It was stated that "increased pedestrian flow is expected on North avenue”. In order to remove Ogden, North avenue would have to be widened to handle extra traffic. In addition, North avenue as well as LaSalle street were identified by the GNRP as two of the major preferential traffic arteries (principal arterials) through Lincoln Park and Old Town. To widen North avenue to fit this purpose, the commercial facilities on its north side were removed. They were not replaaced. If one of the goals for removing Ogden is to separate pedestrian traffic from vehicular traffic, why does the Sasaki plan state that more pedestrian traffic is expected on another main vehicular artery?

Artist's rendering of the planned commercial area at Larrabee and North. It was never built. Image from the Sasaki plan.

Perhaps this pedestrian traffic was to come from the former Ogden right of way, and filter out through the gateway of the planned commercial area at Larrabee and North. But again, that commercial area was never built. Even so, it is incongruous with the rest of the plan and makes little sense. The Ogden Courts town homes instead were built where the commercial area was planned. These homes are designed in a manner not to front on the North/Larrabee intersection, rather they appear as if they are turning their backs to it. It must also be noted that the former Ogden right-of-way is not contiguous or walkable. It leads one to believe the Sasaki plan was intended for public relations purposes, if anything. After all, it was only executed superficially and left Lincoln Park and Old Town disconnected from the west side.

PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE | JUMP TO PAGE: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Back to main Ogden page.
Back to Streets section.
Back to main page.