Across the heart of Seoul, a river runs in a space previously buried under a concrete freeway. Once hailed as a monument to South Korea’s rapid modernization, the elevated Jonchigyogak ultimately became known as a “car sewer.”

The elevated Cheonggye Expressway Overpass that ran above the Cheonggyecheon Stream was a decaying corridor of concrete that choked off the city’s downtown, polluted the air, and drove residents and businesses away.

What had been a symbol of rapid modernization in the 1960s ultimately came to be seen as an urban planning catastrophe for life in the downtown core. By the 1990s, traffic around the expressway had grown intolerable, air and noise pollution levels soared, and downtown businesses were shuttering at an alarming rate. Half the downtown population had disap

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