The Chicago Park District was set to unveil a new plan for the northeast corner of Grant Park on Wednesday night, floating the idea of replacing what had been a rigidly structured plaza with a flowing, open green space.

Daley Bicentennial Plaza is set to get a $35 million revamp, as the parking garage beneath it is rehabbed. As essentially a massive green roof, it’s become leaky over the years and needs to be replaced.

But replacing the roof entails tearing up and replacing the entirety of Daley Bicentennial Plaza, which runs from Monroe and Randolph streets between roughly Lake Shore and Columbus drives.

Renovations on the interior of the garage make this an easy time to do it, and so the park district’s landscape architect for the project, Michael Van Valkenburgh, was set to present a plan for the park to a public meeting on Wednesday evening, after Chicago Journal’s deadline.

But a draft of the plan shows a very different park from the current Daley Bicentennial Plaza. Completely gone is the rigid structure of the current plaza, heavy on concrete with meticulously aligned and pruned trees and shrubs. All 12 of the area’s tennis courts are gone as well.

Instead, the park has been replaced with a wandering, curved and very passive design that’s almost pastoral. The park’s new paths mimic the ebb and flow of Frank Gehry’s BP Bridge, which leads across Columbus Drive to Millennium Park. While the old park was nearly flat, the new park will have more topographic variation, and Lake Michigan should be visible from parts of it.

Gardens will be a major element, with multiple “picnic gardens” and “play gardens.”

One of the few elements that’ll return from the original park is the ice rink, but it’ll be in a distinctively different shape from the previous rink, as well as from its neighbor next door at Millennium Park. The ice will meander in a winding loop around a center island, which could feature rock climbing.

Bob O’Neill, head of the Grant Park Conservancy, said he was excited about the new design for the park but was a bit sad that most of the large, mature trees in the park would need to be removed.

“I really like it a lot, and I think it’s very innovative,” O’Neill said. “The plan is much nicer than what’s out there, but it’s hard to lose all those trees.”

The new park should be much more pleasant, though, he said. It’ll create more of a natural connection to the lake — something that’s not easily seen from the north end of Grant Park right now.

“This is designed much more around people,” O’Neill said. “You notice when Frank Gehry meandered over with the bridge, it’s supposed to almost be like a river flowing into the lake. So now we’re saying OK, let’s pick up on that. Now it’ll flow much more naturally — most people that live here don’t even know that once you cross over that bridge you can get to the lake.”

While the tennis courts are popular with many neighbors, O’Neill agreed with the decision to take them out.

“There’s two people per court, at most four, and they take up a lot of natural green space with pavement,” O’Neill said. “That will be presented for people’s reaction, and I tend to agree with the decision.”

O’Neill emphasized that the plan was just a draft at this point, and that it would be a public input process.

The project is being paid for with $35 million from the lease of the city’s parking garages and meters, but O’Neill said the park district is seeking corporate sponsors for the park’s redesign.

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By Pat Rippel from 400 E Randolph
Posted: 10/28/2011 6:08 PM

****Please, please save the trees.....isn\'t there some way the plans can include keeping the huge old beautiful trees that provide wonderful shade? It would be a travesty to remove them. I was out of town and could not make the meeting. I would appreciate any input from the meeting. I am sure many people share my view.****

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By MK from SLoop
Posted: 10/27/2011 2:28 PM

I actually like the current "rigidly structured plaza". It's a peaceful and classy little garden.