3 acres on the lake : DuSable Park Proposal Project

Item

Palmer, Laurie. 2007. 3 Acres on the Lake : DuSable Park Proposal Project. Washington University in St. Louis, University Libraries, Urban Books, accessed February 10, 2026, https://digitalexhibits.library.wustl.edu/s/urban-books/item/3144

Title: 3 acres on the lake : DuSable Park Proposal Project
Creator: Palmer, Laurie
Date: 2008
Description: Title Description - In 2001 Laurie Palmer sent out an open request for proposals to transform an unused patch of public land set aside by the city of Chicago in 1987 as a future park dedicated to Haitian-French trader Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, the first permanent non-native settler of Chicago who was black. Palmer initiated the project upon learning about the dedication of the space – an abandoned landfill in reality – and the city’s long apathy to actually transforming the plot. Her desire was to contest the public-ness of this "public space". "The project invited, without city sanction or authority, speculative proposals for how a small plot of public land in Chicago might be used. There was no jury, no winner, and no prize. It was an invitation to irony, fantasy, and utopian imaginings but also an attempt to pry open city planning processes for public scrutiny and participation," says Palmer. Through an extensive cataloging of the plot of land, essays covering DuSable and the city as site for art, as well as sixty four artistic and architectural proposals, 3 Acres on the Lake offers a complex investigation of the tenuous existence of truly public space in American cities mesmerized by high-income development. 29 June 2009 (printedmatter.org).
Catalog record.
Call Number: NA9127.C4 A15 2003 4o
Link to Catalog Record: https://catalog.wustl.edu:443/record=b2982086~S2
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Publisher: Washington University in St. Louis, University Libraries
Tags: Artist supplied tags
Artist Keywords:; Tags supplied by Dr. Jana Harper, of Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Sam Fox Keywords: Site specific / installation
Sam Fox Keywords: Urban green space; Library of Congress Subject Headings
Library Keywords: DuSable Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Library Keywords: Parks -- Illinois -- Chicago
Library Keywords: Parks -- Environmental aspects -- Illinois -- Chicago
Library Keywords: Urban beautification -- Illinois -- Chicago
Library Keywords: Chicago River (Ill.) -- Recreational use
Library Keywords: Waterfronts -- Recreational use -- Illinois -- Chicago
Contributor: Phillips, Patricia; Robert Reed, Christopher

Media: mul_aut_pro_0097_0157.jpg