The Last 4 Miles:
Completing Chicago's Lakefront Park System
Two stretches, totaling approximately 4 miles of Chicago’s 30 mile-long lakefront, are not public parks, but remain in private or quasi governmental ownership. On the south side, approximately 2 miles of the lakefront are not publicly owned, including the segment from 71st to 75th Streets, the USX site and the Iroquois landing from the Calumet River to 95th Street. On the north side the undeveloped park system includes nearly two miles from Hollywood Avenue to the Evanston border. Both the Burnham 1909 Plan of Chicago and the 1972 Lakefront Protection ordinance call for Chicago’s entire lakefront to be public parks.
Friends of the Parks new “Last 4 Miles” Initiative uses our community organizing experience and ability to foster positive public policy change to engage the community to develop concept plans for “The Last 4 Miles” of Chicago’s lakefront. In 2006 we began working with citizens, community groups, architects, planners, elected officials on the south side to develop a community-inspired lakefront park design.
Southside Community Design Charette
On May 13th, Friends of the Parks sponsored a community-design charrette at Calumet Park with residents and park advocates to envision the completion of the parks from 71st Street south to Calumet Park and the Indiana border. A group of pro-bono architects and planners worked with citizens, park advisory councils and community organizations to develop concept plans for future new parks where no public parks now exist from 71st to 75th Streets, the former USX steel plant site; and Iroquois Landing, just north of Calumet Park. A number of community meetings were held during the summer and fall. Through this series of “community dialogues”, further modifications to the initial concept plans have been made resulting in a preliminary concept plan.
The plan envisions the addition of over 500 acres of new parkland, including new beaches, recreational fields, greenways and nature areas.
Background
Chicago is one of the world’s most beautiful cities, unequaled among large industrial cities, due to the vision of our founding citizens and park advocates. Credit for preserving our lakefront heritage first belongs to the trustees of the Illinois and Michigan Canal who, when selling city lots in 1836, crafted a caveat that protected a portion of Chicago’s lakefront to be “forever…open, clear and free.”
Preservationists and environmental champions such as Fredrick Law Olmsted and A. Montgomery Ward followed, establishing and preserving important natural and man-made lakefront parcels that eventually became Jackson Park and Grant Park.
The culmination of this preservationist tradition was crafted by Daniel J. Burnham and Edward Bennett in their classic Master Plan of Chicago, 1909. The Chicago Plan established a unique vision for the city that sets us apart from most cities in this country, and indeed, all across the globe. Our 26 miles of public lakeshore park system creates a beautiful park expanse that is unrivaled around the world for its beauty and public accessibility.
In the years that followed 1909, several city administrations and generations of citizens took up Burnham’s bold plan. Taxpayers approved referendum after referendum to pay the costs of creating the landfill for parks stretching north to Hollywood and south to 71st Street. Through the 1950’s the City implemented much of the lakefront plan, to the point where today, 26 of Chicago’s 30 miles of lakeshore boast public parks and amenities for the recreational enjoyment of all. Indeed, most recently the vision of Mayor Richard M. Daley was a major factor in converting an ugly commercial rail yard into our exciting new Millennium Park.
Yet for the last nearly sixty years, there has been a conspicuous absence of definitive action to complete Burnham’s lakefront plan. While nearly everyone agrees that Burnham’s open shoreline project has helped to make Chicago one of the world’s great cities, and most concur that the great plan should be completed, no concrete steps have been taken in the last 50 years to complete the system and achieve the 30-mile goal.
Friends of the Parks is partnering with community groups, the Chicago Park District, the City of Chicago, and elected officials to stimulate interest in completing the lakefront. The 2009 Centennial of the Burnham Plan offers everyone a targeted date to complete a community based planning process that will result in a consensus park design for the Last 4 Miles.
Get Involved!
YOU are invited to a series of events to continue an ongoing community dialogue:
Visit the Chicago Architecture Foundation Design Exhibit or one of the Design Displays!
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Design Displays, Completing the South Lakefront Parks
The display features designs from architects who worked with citizens, Park Advisory councils, community groups to envision a plan to complete the south lakefront parks.
You are invited to help continue the community dialogue about completing the south lakefront parks. Arrange a meeting with your neighborhood group
Please contact Eleanor Roemer (312-857-2757 #12) or ekroemer@sbcglobal.net
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