Executive Summary

Design Challenge

The 2.5 mile stretch of the Green Bay Trail in Winnetka, Illinois faces unique challenges due to its move below-grade along with the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad. Today, the trail no longer supports a healthy native habitat and its natural beauty is further degraded by the urban underbelly. Additionally, its location has added tertiary concerns of a lack of presence and accessibility to the trail. The project was brought to us by the Friends of the Green Bay Trail, a non-profit organization committed to creating and maintaining a healthy habitat along the Green Bay Trail by removing invasive species and planting natives. The purpose of our DTC Team 3 project was to develop a budgeted plan to remediate the degraded beauty and health of the trail and, ultimately, provide the community of Winnetka, IL with a trail that is more beautiful, interactive, and accessible, by improving the health of the GBT both physically and aesthetically.

Research and Development

In order to optimize the design solution, interviews with the project partners (FGBT) and an in-person observation of the trail were conducted to better understand the scope and goals of the project, wherein the team learned that the project partners value accessibility and interactivity in addition to the health and beauty of the GBT. An interview with a Civil Engineering industry expert was conducted in order to better understand the standard industry practices and potential solutions to the drainage problems the trail faces. A user interview was conducted in order to better assess which problems users of the trail care most about, which was determined to be the overall beauty of the trail. Likewise, user testing was performed in order to consider the needs and opinions of users of the trail as well as residents near the trail, both of whom will be directly affected by the design solution; users were polled in order to determine which designs were most effective in addressing the problems outlined in the design challenge. Additionally, a virtual mockup was designed by the team in order to convey the final design, including the four phases outlined in the finalized design solution.

Finalized Design Solution

The design took the form of a four-phased approach, utilizing a tiered structure of implementation, known colloquially as “Let’s Beautify the GBT!” This plan consists of four main phases–murals, underpass plants, QR codes, and a drainage solution centered around a tiered retaining wall–to address the issues of health risks due to stagnant water, compromised beauty, limited accessibility, and declining interactivity.

Murals will be incorporated into the underpasses to discourage graffiti, add color to the otherwise stark urban underbelly, and promote the local Winnetka community with community-centered designs.

The plants added to the underpasses–Oak Leaf Hydrangeas, Jacob’s Ladder, and Cross Vine–will work in conjunction with the murals to beautify the otherwise shadowy underbelly of the underpasses. Additionally, these plants will add synergy between the trail’s biological and urban components. Each of the selected plants were chosen based on user-approval and native status.

The QR codes, located within the underpasses, will link users to the Friends of the GBT webpage which will provide information about native plants and other wildlife as well as volunteer and fundraising opportunities through the team's project partner. This will turn the underpasses from passive structures along the trail, which detract from the natural beauty, to areas that users can interact with, and which will contribute to the experience and understanding of the overall trail.

The drainage solution centered around a tiered retaining wall is the team’s approach to remediating the stagnant water problem the trail faces, which threatens the well-being of the trail, its native ecosystem, and its users. After consulting with a civil engineer, a tiered-cost approach was chosen, including annual inspection of the drains, regrading of the slope, implementation of catch-basins, and the construction of a tiered retaining wall with plant beds and ramp access to the at-grade street-level.

Design Effectiveness and Next Steps

The finalized design solution met the expectations and requirements of the problem statement, outlined by our project partners. Our design remains budget-conscious, while also adequately addressing the degraded health and beauty of the GBT as well as improving the GBT’s accessibility and interactivity. The underpass plants and murals add to the beauty of the trail and integrate the trail’s natural and urban components. The drainage solution improves the health of the trail by alleviating the effects of stagnant water, and improves the accessibility of the trail by integrating additional access ramps to the at-grade street level within its tiered retaining walls. The murals, which will be made by local artists, and the QR codes linking users to the FGBT website, bolster the interactivity and general awareness of the trail.

For future development of the “Let’s Beautify the GBT!” plan, it is recommended that the project partners formalize an official budget, contract structural and civil engineers, revamp the FGBT website, and plan to host a contest to choose a muralist.