Part 2 - The Design for the Chicago River Fish Hotel

The Bioshaft® Design Process – what is it and how it came to be.

Part 2 – The Design for the Chicago River Fish Hotel

In 2005 I was Lead Design for WRD Environmental. A year or so before I had written a report on the Chicago River delineating what I thought would be good areas for opportunities to ameliorate the habitat conditions. I walked the whole stretch of the urban river and became familiar with its characteristics. In this report I wrote that the bridges were book ends to specific architectural language –historical markers that demarcated one style from another. I introduced some potential river related interventions in my 2004 presentation at the Society for Ecological Restoration conference in Victoria, B.C. I saw great potential in the bridges themselves as protagonists in the changes proposed. I did not act on this observation on the bridges until 2010 when I revisited the sites and arrived at specific design solutions. 

In 2005 the Friends of the Chicago River approached WRD Environmental on improving a concept they had on creating fish feeding stations along the stretch of the river. Included in this concept was an information board with sonar link to the stations that would alert the viewer of any fish activity displayed by a small monitor. I took on the task of redesigning and improving the concept. The original concept had placed the feeding station at the bottom of the river next to the shoreline walls. There was no habitat creation proposed except for the food containers inside small fish cribs. I was concerned that anything left at the bottom of the river, given its depth, would not allow much vegetation growth. My first concept conversion was to have a series of fish cribs mounted on the facade of the walls at various elevations to accommodate a variety of water depths and light conditions that allowed different fish species to feed at their preferred depth. To me it looked like an apartment complex and we began to joke on the concept of providing fish habitat reminiscent of downtown condominiums, and that we were competing in a way with Donald Trump whose building was being erected across from our selected pilot project site at the foot of the Michigan Bridge-house that would eventually be converted to the Chicago River Museum. The Friends of the Chicago River began calling it Fish Hotel and the name stuck.

 I did not find this first attempt completely satisfactory. There would be little evidence above the water of what was happening in the depths below. Also we were dealing with very old walls that may not be strong enough to hold the cribs and the underwater work needed including maintenance would be challenging. I decided it best if a floating system be devised to hold the various levels of the habitat in place. This afforded the opportunity to introduce above water habitat and expand on the variety of conditions such as floating logs and floating brush piles that would attract the fish. My second concept was to create a series of floating habitats under which would be suspended the fish cribs at various depth levels. The problem to be resolved in this scenario was on how to keep the floating sections in place. At first I thought of tethering them to anchors but this proved unfeasible for it would not be restrictive enough to keep the units from being a nuisance to passing vessels and could not adjust to the fluctuations in water levels.  One solution was to have a floating frame delineate the boundaries for the floating habitats; these then could be left free to float within this area changing formation according to the prevailing water conditions.  A meeting with authorities responsible for this stretch of water set more restrictions than we had predicted. We could only occupy ten feet beyond the walls, could not have anything touch the river bed and could not attach anything to the walls below five feet above the water level.  Given these design restrictions the floating frame became the key protagonist in my design. It would need to be strong enough and rigid enough to counteract the wakes and rebound currents, it would need to withstand an occasional bump from vessels and not scratch their surface and have enough buoyancy to keep the weight of the suspended habitats in determined depths of water and must be flexible enough to be easily transported and assembled and disassembled, it must also be able to protect the vegetation from foraging ducks and geese. The search for a product that met all qualifications was extensive and lengthy taking more than a month to find. The manufacturer was located on the eastern seaboard but was interested in cultivating a Midwest market and had in fact established an outpost office near Chicago. I explained the goal and budgetary limits of the project and asked if they could give us a discount in return for publicity; they agreed. Having resolved the floating frame the next big challenge was how to attach it and respect the restrictions imposed on us. After numerous sketches I arrived at the solution, instead of poles attached to the river bottom and below water level as usually common, we simply invert it, attaching the poles at the top of wall and have them extend down to a few feet below the water level. The floating frame would be connected to the poles using a metal ring that would allow the frame to move up and down as the water level fluctuated. This proved feasible and the addition of a second metal frame to keep the floating segments in check resolved any issues of distortion as well as providing anchoring points for the suspended habitat units.  Now that I had the water component resolved I turned to the viewing stations, after examining the radar images I thought them to be too abstract for the general viewer. I suggested we place underwater cameras in selected spots on the frame to capture any fish that swam by. These cameras needed to have additional light source to offset the turbidity of the waters. The images would be relayed back to video monitors set up in the viewing stations on shore. 

By this time my work relation with WRD Environmental suffered a setback. My work concerns were not being addressed and after failed attempts at reaching common ground I decided to move on. However I did continue to work on the project on a pro bono basis for the Friends of the Chicago River, I drew details for anchoring the poles to the wall and continued working on the viewing stations until such time that I could no longer afford to do so.  The Fish Hotel was installed by WRD Environmental.  Before leaving WRD Environmental I had submitted an abstract for the presentation of this project to the Society for Ecological Restoration’s International Chapter, it was a direct continuation and a step forward from my 2004 presentation in Victoria, BC. The paper was accepted. I honored my commitment and presented the design at the conference in Zaragoza, Spain. For this presentation I went on to complete the design for the viewing station and elaborated on the overall design. I told the history of the river and its resulting conditions as an introduction to an audience not familiar with Chicago. I asked permission from the Friends of the Chicago River to photograph the installed Fish Hotel, it was given. Despite notable limitations and its apparent ugliness, it was the first time that native vegetation had come into full contact with this water; we had proven that selected plants could survive under the stress of the urban condition and that a floating habitat could be achieved even in a busy waterway. Now it was a matter of making it more palatable to the eye and improving on its habitat features. I did notice however that the poles had been installed incorrectly; they had left no space between the wall and the poles for the ring to slide through. I contacted the Friends to alert them to the problem but did not receive any answer.

Upon my return from Spain I contacted the Friends of the Chicago River to offer my designs for the viewing stations. I was met with a cold silence. Later I found out that my key role in this project had been struck from any record. I voiced my disappointment for this lack of professional courtesy and contacted colleagues to express my frustration, many had gone through the same experience at least once in their careers and suggested I ride it out, others told me ‘welcome to Chicago politics’. I had basically resigned myself to anonymity in regards to this project until I came across an article published in the Friends of the Chicago River website that gave credit for all my work to a specific person who was hired at WRD Environmental after the essential elements of the design had been resolved and who while under my supervision had not participated in this project whatsoever, this had stretched the limits of my patience.  There was a standoff with Margaret Frisbie and only after I contacted the Mayor’s office did she reluctantly comply with my request to add D’Alessandro & Associates as part of the team that produced the Fish Hotel, and then only for that particular web article. The Fish Hotel went on to win the 2007 Mayor Daley’s Greenworks Award for which I received no mention. To this day I do not understand the animosity shown to me by the Friends of the Chicago River and why I received no acknowledgement for my key contributions.

I have seen with regret the Fish Hotel placed in the Chicago River virtually unchanged from its original design. It has not evolved in all these years whereas I have designed more complex biological systems for this purpose.  I am aware that as long as the Friends of the Chicago River under the current leadership have control over whom gets to participate in the Chicago River projects I will never get the opportunity to play a role. It is unfortunate and highly questionable that one person can exert such power as to be the gatekeeper of a public process.

The modeling tasks I undertook for the SER, Zaragoza 2005 presentation brought me closer to the project’s needs and led me to new realizations, perspective and approach. I would revisit this site time and again in the coming years and each time elaborate a little more on the habitat creation opportunities. I continue to use the Chicago River as backdrop to my concepts for it is one of the great urban rivers with a unique history and full of specific challenges.