River Esplanade

The developers looking to cash in on River East Center were given a mandate by the city: for the proposed shopping area to be approved, the company would have to leave the River Esplanade to the Chicago Park District. It was a good deal for both parties, and the River Esplanade makes an excellent place to take a break from your hectic shopping/sightseeing schedule. Beginning with the oddly proportioned curving staircase at the northeast tower of the Michigan Ave Bridge, the landscaped walkway extends east along the river past the Sheraton Hotel. Every hour on the hour, from 10am to 2pm and again from 5pm to midnight, the esplanade’s Centennial Fountain shoots a massive arc of water across the river for 10 minutes. The entire exercise is meant to commemorate the labor-intensive reversal of the Chicago River in 1900, which tidily began sending all of the city’s wastes downriver rather than into the lake. (Chicago’s neighbors downstate, as you can imagine, do not go out of their way to celebrate this feat of civil engineering).