Call for Entries River-Friendly Development
Chicago—Friends of the Chicago River is pleased to make a Call for Entry for their new award program for environmental leadership: the Blue Ribbon Awards, which will honor the work of developers, designers, municipalities and others for their creative approaches to river sensitive design along the Chicago and Calumet rivers and their tributaries. Beginning in 2010, each year Friends will recognize those who strive for the ideal in sustainable design for humans (public access), water (hydrology) and wildlife (ecology). The deadline for the 2010 award program is April 16. The Blue Ribbon Award summary, guidelines, requirements and submission form can be found at www.chicagoriver.org/chicagoriverblue. For questions, please call John Quail at (312) 939-0490, ext 20.
“More than ever corporations and developers are recognizing that river-friendly riverfronts are good for business,” said Margaret Frisbie, Friends’ executive director. “Senior executives, civic leaders, and the general public are more aware of the pressure we place on the environment and the benefits of addressing it. They are seeking solutions that include living and working in healthy environments. The Blue Ribbon Awards recognize those leaders and the ecological precedents they set.”
The Blue Ribbon Awards are a part of the Friends’ new initiative called Chicago River Blue. Intended to educate, encourage, and reward developments and redevelopments that take people, wildlife, and clean water into account, the web-based Chicago River Blue resource will provide guiding principles, ideas, ideals, professional resources and supporters, and a best practices wiki to make sensitive river-edge development accessible to everyone. The annual Blue Ribbon Awards celebrate those who apply Chicago River Blue Principles to their projects.
In 2010, the program’s inaugural year, award recipients will be celebrated at Friends’ Big Fish Ball on June 9 with honorary chairs Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Merchandise Mart Properties President Christopher G. Kennedy. Award-winning projects will be displayed at this event as well as promoted by Friends throughout the year including a feature in Friends’ newsletter, the River Reporter and on Friends’ website.
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“Having a tool like the Chicago River Blue will help developers and designers attain a new level of integration between their sites, the river, and the community,” said Stephen Prassas, president of Prassas Landscape Studio. “And despite an abundance of environmental resources, green technologies specific to site development along urban riparian corridors are lacking. Friends’ Chicago River Blue will provide a resource that is specific enough for the Chicago River that its impact will be substantial, yet it will be easy to extrapolate the ideas to other urban watersheds.”
The mission of Friends of the Chicago River is to foster the vitality of the Chicago River for the human, plant, and animal communities within its watershed. Friends’ priorities are to provide public access to the Chicago River and to show that the Chicago River can be both ecologically healthy and a catalyst for community revitalization. Friends of the Chicago River was founded in 1979 and has 2,000 members and 4,000 volunteers and on-line advocates who support its work.
March 9, 2010
Call for Entries River-Friendly Development
Chicago—Friends of the Chicago River is pleased to make a Call for Entry for their new award program for environmental leadership: the Blue Ribbon Awards, which will honor the work of developers, designers, municipalities and others for their creative approaches to river sensitive design along the Chicago and Calumet rivers and their tributaries. Beginning in 2010, each year Friends will recognize those who strive for the ideal in sustainable design for humans (public access), water (hydrology) and wildlife (ecology). The deadline for the 2010 award program is April 16. The Blue Ribbon Award summary, guidelines, requirements and submission form can be found at www.chicagoriver.org/chicagoriverblue. For questions, please call John Quail at (312) 939-0490, ext 20.
“More than ever corporations and developers are recognizing that river-friendly riverfronts are good for business,” said Margaret Frisbie, Friends’ executive director. “Senior executives, civic leaders, and the general public are more aware of the pressure we place on the environment and the benefits of addressing it. They are seeking solutions that include living and working in healthy environments. The Blue Ribbon Awards recognize those leaders and the ecological precedents they set.”
The Blue Ribbon Awards are a part of the Friends’ new initiative called Chicago River Blue. Intended to educate, encourage, and reward developments and redevelopments that take people, wildlife, and clean water into account, the web-based Chicago River Blue resource will provide guiding principles, ideas, ideals, professional resources and supporters, and a best practices wiki to make sensitive river-edge development accessible to everyone. The annual Blue Ribbon Awards celebrate those who apply Chicago River Blue Principles to their projects.
In 2010, the program’s inaugural year, award recipients will be celebrated at Friends’ Big Fish Ball on June 9 with honorary chairs Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Merchandise Mart Properties President Christopher G. Kennedy. Award-winning projects will be displayed at this event as well as promoted by Friends throughout the year including a feature in Friends’ newsletter, the River Reporter and on Friends’ website.
“Having a tool like the Chicago River Blue will help developers and designers attain a new level of integration between their sites, the river, and the community,” said Stephen Prassas, president of Prassas Landscape Studio. “And despite an abundance of environmental resources, green technologies specific to site development along urban riparian corridors are lacking. Friends’ Chicago River Blue will provide a resource that is specific enough for the Chicago River that its impact will be substantial, yet it will be easy to extrapolate the ideas to other urban watersheds.”
The mission of Friends of the Chicago River is to foster the vitality of the Chicago River for the human, plant, and animal communities within its watershed. Friends’ priorities are to provide public access to the Chicago River and to show that the Chicago River can be both ecologically healthy and a catalyst for community revitalization. Friends of the Chicago River was founded in 1979 and has 2,000 members and 4,000 volunteers and on-line advocates who support its work.