Ecological Consulting Firm offers Design and Installation of Sustainable Landscapes

Michigan Avenue "Fish Hotel"

“Wouldn’t it be great to provide a downtown habitat for fish in the Chicago River?” asked Friends of the Chicago River. With sides of concrete and steel – where fish prefer vegetated nooks and crannies – the river could be more fish friendly. Enter WRD, which designed the first known “fish hotel.”

Navigating around a variety of design constraints, WRD designed and built a floating structure with native aquatic plants on the surface to attract insects for fish to eat, a submerged level with more wetland plants for shelter, and four deeper fish cribs, where bigger fish can linger and hide.

Watch for more possible fish hotels along the Chicago River and other urban rivers across the country.

Learn more about this WRD project.

Buoyant dock material surrounds the fish habitat to keep it afloat. Chicken wire discourages waterfoul from eating the plants. Photo: Ernesto Huaracha