Industrial Parks as Industrial Renewal

Abstract

This chapter looks at the other main industrial redevelopment strategy that emerged in the 1960s. It mentions the building of industrial parks in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Ashland Industrial Center in the deindustrialized Stockyards, that became a failure despite the allocation of significant funds by public–private partnerships. It emphasizes how the institutional fix of the industrial park could not solve the Chicago's manufacturing decline. The chapter refers to industrial areas that consist of many lots managed on a long-term basis by industrial and nonindustrial promoters. It outlines two principles that shaped the development of the industrial park in postwar Chicago: First was modern planning ideas that emerged after 1890 and second was the search for ordered space paralleled by the search for property profits.