The historic Midway Plaisance was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted long before the University of Chicago expanded its campus across the vast parkway. Bauer Latoza Studio worked with James Carpenter Design Associates, the University, and the Chicago Park District to create three enhanced crossings to improve campus connectivity. The series of three implied bridges consisting of raised travel surfaces, illuminated railings, and lighting masts provide a distinctive human experience: a luminous aesthetic, a fusion of history and progress, and a sense of comfort for pedestrian travel.

Key components of the Midway Crossings project include:

• Dramatic 40-foot lighting masts;

• A custom railing system;

• Retaining walls providing sidewalk-level lighting; and

• Landscape elements separating pedestrian and vehicular traffic.