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The kiosk named “Summer Vault,” shown in 2015 in Millennium Park during the Chicago Architecture Biennial, was supposed to be in a permanent home by now in Harold Washington Playlot Park on the South Side / © Brian NguyenThe Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, tied up in federal court, isn’t the only lakefront project Mayor Rahm Emanuel can’t seem to get off the ground.
Last year, the mayor and organizers of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial unveiled designs for four lakefront kiosks that were portrayed as upgrades from the typical hot dog stand — a string of architectural jewels that would form a legacy of the biennial, North America’s largest global survey of contemporary architecture.
The little buildings, which were to house food vendors and other park uses, would offer a chance to see adventurous work by up-and-coming architects from Chicago and around the world. They were supposed to be up and running in Chicago‘s lakefront parks this summer.
Yet with summer officially starting Monday, only one of the kiosks, a handsome, low-slung wood structure near the Shedd Aquarium, has been built at its permanent location. The others have been delayed by a variety of factors, including higher-than-anticipated costs and unanticipated opposition from a South Side alderman who didn’t want one of the structures in her ward. […]
