City of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley along with television journalist Bill Kurtis, 2nd Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti, 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett Jr., and the Chicago Park District (CPD) held a dedication for the recently completed Park 542 located in the West Loop community. Now called Mary Bartelme Park, it will offer the neighborhood much-needed open space, playground equipment and a dog play area.
Site Design Group, a landscape architecture firm, worked in collaboration with the CPD and the West Loop Community Organization to design this park. Features include salvaged and reutilized architectural elements from the previous onsite building, native plant materials to conserve water and new technology in architectural paving.
Identifying the park is a plaza area with five large stainless steel structures appearing twisted set in a field of brilliant white permeable pavers. The sculpture-like interactive misting water feature, surrounded by contrasting Cor-Ten steel planter walls filled with native perennials and forbs, is the park’s signature element. The brilliant white permeable pavers are manufactured by Unilock with TX Active cement. Unilock is a manufacturer of architectural and permeable paver stones as well as segmental retaining walls.
Known as “the smog-eating concrete,” TX Active, produced by Essroc, aims to do just that; it is both pollution reducing and self-cleaning. When exposed to sunlight, TX Active destroys several atmospheric pollutants common to urban areas, the same pollutants that can dull and streak conventional concrete surfaces over time. While the photocatalytic properties of the pavers clean the air on a clear day, on a rainy day their permeable solution allows rainwater to flow through their surface. Polluted rainwater filtrates naturally back into the ground, rather than being discharged into local sewers.
“We incorporated native plant materials and Unilock TX Active pavers to reduce long-term maintenance cost for the CPD,” said Ernest Wong, principal of Site Design Group. “In order for the plaza area to remain brilliant white over time, we included Unilock’s TX Active permeable pavers to reduce the need for cleaning. And by using permeable pavers throughout the park, the native plant materials will benefit from rainwater infiltrating into the ground.” The CPD does not typically include site irrigation.
The TX Active was manufactured on Unilock’s Eco-Priora permeable paver line.
