Exciting things are happening in Chicago! Lou Raizin, a key figure in the city's cultural landscape, is spearheading a new project aimed at reshaping and revitalizing downtown Chicago. Raizin, a founding partner of Broadway in Chicago and one of the original minds behind Art on the Mart (the light show we now enjoy projected on the facade of the Merchandise Mart), is now focused on creating a vibrant cultural hub in downtown Chicago through the Cultural Stadium.
Cultural Stadium is a collection of visionary ideas from some of Chicago’s best minds with the goal of reshaping and revitalizing Chicago's downtown into a thriving center for art and innovation. The end results would become new and exciting reasons to visit and spend more time downtown.
Building on the momentum of Art on the Mart, Cultural Stadium is exploring new ways to bring culture into public spaces – with innovations like a citywide light festival, urban festivals around Lower Wacker Drive, and even a floating performing arts barge on the river. All of the ideas focus on giving people new reasons to visit and fall in love with our city again.
Using the river in out-of-the-box ways is another big area of inspiration for Cultural Stadium. Some of the current thinking involves a traveling farmer’s market barge docking at a different part of the river each day. Or maybe another barge is full of food trucks on deck. Lou points out that subscription audiences are diminishing in our cultural theaters, so a performing arts barge that floats around the city could be the perfect answer to reinvigoration. Maybe the most visually memorable idea involves a new Spring Fest Event where a giant rubber duck would be highlighted, modeled after the thousands of ducks floated in the river as part of the Special Olympics’ Rubber Ducky Derby. Can you imagine a giant duck floating along the river – the perfect Instagram moment!
Chicago is home to so much incredible architecture, some of which is unfortunately currently vacant. Cultural Stadium innovates ideas such as providing artists with studio space and residencies so that they feel valued and open to creating work that enhances the city. Another unique part of our city’s architecture are the underground pedways. Cultural Stadium sees them as blank canvases for visual experiences like fully digital art installations that constantly change.
One of the biggest aspects of what Cultural Stadium is trying to achieve is to use what we already have in new creative ways. Many Chicago buildings feature light corridors at their center, originally used for fresh air and light before air conditioning. Developers have long been stumped on how to build out these areas, but Lou and team see these spaces as pocket parks – green, urban spaces that offer a break from the busy city streets.
It has been 20 years since Millennium Park was created, and along with bringing theater to Chicago, these have been the two biggest ideas our city has seen in decades. For Lou and his team, the next big idea is culture. People can visit culturalstadium.com and let the team know how they would like to participate, and also provide their own ideas or feedback.
Personally, I find the ideas and work of Cultural Stadium incredibly exciting and I cannot wait to see what the future holds! Thank you Lou for your time, and also for helping to breathe new life into Chicago! As a Chicago Realtor, I love to see our city continue to flourish for not just Chicago buyers, but Chicagoans who have spent their entire lives here – just like me!
