Main Author: Palmer, Laurie - Phillips, Patricia - Robert Reed, Christopher -
Title:
3 acres on the lake : DuSable Park Proposal Project
Digital Record:
St. Louis, Missouri: Washington University in St. Louis, University Libraries 2008
Availability:
2008, Washington University in St. Louis, University Libraries. Data are
freely accessible.
Print source:
Chicago, WhiteWalls, 2003.
Subject terms:
Artist Keywords:
Sam Fox Keywords: Site specific / installation
Sam Fox Keywords: Urban green space
Library Keywords: DuSable Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Library Keywords: Parks -- Illinois -- Chicago
Library Keywords: Parks -- Environmental aspects -- Illinois -- Chicago
Library Keywords: Urban beautification -- Illinois -- Chicago
Library Keywords: Chicago River (Ill.) -- Recreational use
Library Keywords: Waterfronts -- Recreational use -- Illinois -- Chicago
Notes:
Title Description - In 2001 Laurie Palmer sent out an open request for proposals to transform an unused patch of public land set aside by the city of Chicago in
1987 as a future park dedicated to Haitian-French trader Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, the first permanent non-native settler of Chicago who was
black. Palmer initiated the project upon learning about the dedication of the space – an abandoned landfill in reality – and the city’s long apathy to actually
transforming the plot. Her desire was to contest the public-ness of this "public space". "The project invited, without city sanction or authority, speculative
proposals for how a small plot of public land in Chicago might be used. There was no jury, no winner, and no prize. It was an invitation to irony, fantasy, and
utopian imaginings but also an attempt to pry open city planning processes for public scrutiny and participation," says Palmer. Through an extensive
cataloging of the plot of land, essays covering DuSable and the city as site for art, as well as sixty four artistic and architectural proposals, 3 Acres on the
Lake offers a complex investigation of the tenuous existence of truly public space in American cities mesmerized by high-income development. 29 June 2009 (printedmatter.org).