A planned two-mile relocation of Chicago’s South Shore Drive, about 10 miles south of the city’s downtown, is spurring a $4-billion megaproject to turn the vacant 530-acre site of a former U.S. Steel mill on Lake Michigan into a new community with nearly 14,000 housing units.
A public-private partnership of U.S. Steel Corp., McCaffery Interests LLC and the city has sited the village at the South Works mill, closed in 1992. Local master planners Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Sasaki Associates drew the 25- to 45-year-long program to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Neighborhood Design guidelines.