芝加哥河的北部分支在城市市中心外面，曾经是烟雾烟工厂，被驳船占领，只能像一个方便的下水道一样对待。它的边缘拉直了，大部分寿命都耗尽了有效的运输。
Today, a remarkable transformation is underway. Long linear patches of wetlands are spreading along the channel’s edges, and docks have been built alongside as a kind of floating walkway. This is the first 400 feet of what’s being called the狂野英里—a grassroots reinvigoration of a stretch of the river that has been off-limits to nearly all forms of life for decades.
由...领着城市河流这是一个为实现该项目而创建的非营利组织，《野外英里》是一英里长的浮湿地，在河上建造的小径，当它绕着市中心西北的Goose Island缠绕。感谢A。tax on urban developmentthat helps fund open space, the project has received a significant amount of public funding to get started. As it expands, it has become a promising experiment in making public space out of areas most cities have turned their backs on.
像1800年代末和1900年代初的许多美国城市一样，芝加哥在其大部分城市河中引导了大部分城市河，通过沿其边缘垂直堆积的钢板堆积钢板。这种基础设施干预缓解了商业和工业，但实际上消除了沿岸的河流栖息地。“因此，您已经建立了大规模的基础设施，而它之间的所有内容基本上都没有使用，” Urban Rivers的联合创始人Nick Wesley说。“这就提出了一个问题，我们该如何处理这些空间？它们位于地球上一些最密集的地区，并切入与自然无关的地区。”
野外迈尔（Mile）试图解决这两个问题：增加城市开放空间的机会，并改善那里的栖息地。
The floating gardens are artificial wetlands, with native plants suspended in the water ina raft-like armature海洋级材料为植物根提供了生长的空间。在表面上方，植物成为昆虫的栖息地，然后吸引鸟类。在下面，根部悬挂在水中，吸收污染物并形成鱼类的繁殖地。韦斯利说：“从本质上讲，我们正在努力模仿河流系统的正常边缘。”
The idea for the project took shape back in 2014. Wesley, along with Urban Rivers cofounders Zach Damato and Josh Yellin, had been interested in proving the potential of floating wetlands as a way to clean up water in the river and provide wildlife habitat—a seemingly straightforward proposition.
“We were like, if no one else is going to do it, we will. It doesn’t seem that hard, it just seems like someone’s got to focus on it for a while,” says Wesley. “So we expected we’ll submit a permit to the city, three months later we’ll get it, we’ll raise some money, and put it in.”
The reality was much more complicated. The waterway is technically under federal jurisdiction and overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers. Any work on the water would also require approvals from the state’s environmental agency as well as the city’s transportation department. To get those approvals, the group realized they needed to go pro. Urban Rivers started reaching out to architects in the Chicago area. “We talked to a bunch, but the only one who was really interested in helping wasSOM[Skidmore Owings＆Merrill]，”韦斯利说。“在我们真的做任何事情之前，他们立即得到了。他们得到了愿景和对此的需求。”
制定了计划和图纸，这个想法演变成正式建议。经过两年半的努力，Urban Rivers获得了开始认真地建立野外英里所需的许可。然后，组织开始寻找更多的实质性支持。它得到了巴塔哥尼亚的赠款，推出了Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, and started creating partnerships with whomever was interested. There was some help from the Shedd Aquarium and some initial buy-in from a private school located along that section of the river. In 2017, a test strip of wetland was installed near the school, accessible only by kayak, and Urban Rivers begancollecting dataon the wetland’s impacts.
As the plan became more official the scope also expanded, from just planting wetlands to building walkways alongside them. In 2019, Urban Rivers, the City of Chicago, SOM, and several partners released a框架计划对于狂野的英里，弄清楚它如何实施以及它对城市和河流产生什么影响。第一个浮动人行道计划于2020年，其发展税款约为160万美元，以及其他筹集的资金。大流行延迟将时间轴推迟了一点，第一部分最终于去年秋天安装。它于今年春天向公众开放。
400英尺长的人行道的形状大致像骨骼钥匙，边缘沿着湿地浮动湿地，并在末端的环路中央。皮划艇运动员的边缘有一个带入的区域，通往街道的人行道可及通道。除了昆虫，鸟类和鱼类外，湿地已经在湿地看到了诸如麝香鼠和海狸等野生动植物。韦斯利说，该项目的下一阶段将是向北延伸湿地和人行道，增加更多的访问点，人们可以降低到河边的边缘，甚至可以将皮划艇进入水中。
卫斯理说，日益增长的野生迈尔应该被视为其他未充分利用河流的城市的典范。随着工业用途的褪色，这些空间正在发现城市开发商的新兴趣。One major project在野外英里附近的崛起（一个487个单位的住宅综合大楼将拥有零售部分），其计划包括与浮动湿地的未来部分的联系。韦斯利说，该地区的其他发展方案通过承诺将其河滨物业成为访问点，或者至少不在项目的方式中来支持野外英里。
城市河流is hopeful that the full mile of the Wild Mile can be built out in the next few years, with ongoing financial support from the city’s development tax, grants, and other fundraising. “We’re still knocking on doors,” says Damato.
Wesley is confident the experiment is working—in terms of increasing wildlife habitat in this once-industrial waterway, but also in reframing what an urban river can be.
“As land values increase, as open space becomes more scare, I think this will be a really clear way to create public space in cities,” Wesley says. “Hopefully, we make this something that is so commonplace, and such a no-brainer, that people forget that it ever was different.”