CHICAGO (WLS) —
Imagine that one day downtown has a floating stage on the Chicago River, a farmer’s market on floating on a barge, and artwork woven throughout the city.

Lou Raizin, the president and CEO of Broadway in Chicago is behind a new vision for revitalizing downtown Chicago.

He calls it a Cultural Stadium.

Raizin has a track record of bringing big change to the city. He was involved in the creation of Millennium Park and the Theatre District.

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“It’s an initiative that really looks at a number of things, based on research from McKinsey and others of failing downtowns,” he said. “We need to fill voids. There’s all kinds of voids in our downtown, from a retail standpoint, in our offices and what do we do? So, this is how, this is a way of thinking about plugging culture in, everywhere we can plug it in.”

34th Ward Alderman Bill Conway’s ward includes part of downtown, and he in onboard.

“We need to see more foot traffic downtown. An additional arts and culture part of that will of course help in that matter,” Conway said.

Raizin said culture is why people come to Chicago “and culture at the end of the day is ultimately what makes us, us.”

Conway said the Arts in the Dark Parade and the Millennium Park tree lighting are wildly successful, and art could better impact the city.

“If we can continue that idea of arts and culture throughout the year, we can really increase the amount of foot traffic, which will increase safety, economic growth and everything else that will help revitalize our downtown as we continue to come out of the pandemic,” he said.

A key question is how to pay for the project. Raizin said it’s at the scale of Millennium Park.

“It takes civic leaders, it takes philanthropic, it takes political people, it takes a whole slew of efforts all aligning under one common flag and that’s culture,” he said.

For more information or to weigh in on the Cultural Stadium:

https://culturalstadium.com/