Chicago "Lowline" proposal

The New York City High Line Project, which has repurposed the freight railroad trestle that remained in place in Lower Manhattan into an above-ground linear park, has spurred rethinking about how to repurpose infrastructure that had been considered "blight" into parks and other civic assets.

The Lawndale Lakeview Area Master Plan project in Chicago led by Place Consulting and by Moss Architecture has done a similar kind of rethinking concerning underneath the trestle for the Chicago L (subway) which of course is still in operation. See "New ideas for West Lakeview: How about a strolling path under the 'L'? Master plan kick-starts talks on the neighborhood's future" from the Chicago Tribune and "UPDATE: The Bright Underbelly of the El" from the Strawville blog.