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AUTHORIZATION TO CONSENT TO THE DESIGNATION OF PROMONTORY POINT IN BURNHAM PARK AS A CITY OF CHICAGO LANDMARK
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To: The Honorable Board of Commissioners of the Chicago Park District
I. Recommendation
It is recommended that the Board of Commissioners adopt an order directing the General Superintendent or her designee to provide Chicago Park District consent to landmark designation of Promontory Point in Burnham Park as a City of Chicago Landmark. The request to make Promontory Point a City Landmark was initiated with the City of Chicago by members of the surrounding community and has the support of the local elected Alderwoman representing the area.
II. Explanation
History of Promontory Point in Burnham Park
Promontory Point lies within historic Burnham Park, which totals about 600 acres, and sits on Chicago’s Lakefront just south of Grant Park. The park was named for Chicago's famous architect and planner Daniel H. Burnham, who envisioned a south lakefront park with a series of manmade islands, linear boating harbor.
Renowned architect, Daniel H. Burnham envisioned a great south lakefront park with lagoons, islands, and a promontory, in his seminal 1909 Plan of Chicago. This concept eventually led to the creation of Burnham Park Landfill operations to create Burnham Park began in 1919,a breakwater was constructed and the Promontory Point area was filled in the mid-1920s.
In the early 1930s, lakefront improvements were halted and the South Park Commission was bankrupt due to the Depression. All twenty-two of the city's independent park commissions were consolidated into a single Chicago Park District in 1934. The following year, the Chicago Park District began acquiring funding through President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA). The development of the 55th Street Promontory was one of fifty-three WPA projects originally approved for the Chicago parks in 1935. Improvements resumed in 1936 and were completed in 1939.
Alfred Caldwell (1903-1998), who is now considered the last of the great Prairie School designers, designed Promontory Point’s landscape. Caldwell was the disciple of Jens Jensen, who began creating landscapes inspired by natural Midwestern scenery in the late 1880s. After working as Jens Jensen's assistant for five years beginning in 1925, Caldwell went on to become a Chicago Park District landscape designer between 1936 and 1939. Later, he collaborated with renowned architects including Mies van der Rohe, and taught at the University of Southern California and the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1936, Caldwell developed the planting plan for Promontory Point and construction began. The project included a stone structure, known as a combination shelter and comfort station, designed by Chicago Park District architect Emanuel V. Buchsbaum. Today, the structure is considered a field house.
Promontory Point, originally known as the 55th St. Promontory, was one of two lakefront promontory landscapes designed by Alfred Caldwell. The second is in Lincoln Park, known today as Montrose Point. For both of these breath-taking lakefront sites, Caldwell included a great meadow surrounded by native trees, shrubs, and flowers. Both promontories were meant to provide refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city. According to the Chicago Park District's Annual Report of 1936, "Lake Michigan offered designers stimulation to develop areas in a vigorous, naturalistic manner which people may visit for relaxation and recreation, unannoyed by disturbances so common to the modern American city." In a 1986 interview, Alfred Caldwell said he had wanted Promontory Point to convey "a sense of space and a sense of the power of nature and the power of the sea."
Between 1938 and the mid 1950s, Promontory Point was a popular spot for picnicking, strolling, archery and jogging and the field house was used for a variety of dances, club activities and other social events. In the mid 1950s, use of the Point was limited when the U.S. Military installed a radar site south of a field house to coincide with a nearby NIKE missile site in Jackson Park. These were finally removed in the early 1970s, and Promontory Point began regaining its popularity. In the late 1980s, the Chicago Park District restored Promontory Point's landscape and field house. Alfred Caldwell was a consultant on the restoration of the landscape. Today, the field house is used for a variety of activities including concerts, drama, teen programs, weddings, receptions, and other social and cultural events.
Promontory Point was originally included in the 1990 General Re-evaluation Report that allowed the Army Corps, Park District and Chicago Department of Transportation to undertake design measures to fortify the lakefront parks against storm damage from Lake Michigan. During the early 2000s, the community surrounded Hyde Park objected to the replacement of the limestone wall with a concrete structure. The community’s objections resulted in plans for a concrete revetment to be abandoned at Promontory Point.
In recent years, community advocacy has resulted in several preservation efforts related to the Point, including the designation of Promontory Point on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition, the City of Chicago, Chicago Park District and the Army Corps of Engineers have agreed to pursue a historic preservation approach with respect to the design of the Point going forward.
In the latter half of 2022, the community advocated for the Chicago Landmark Commission to designate Promontory Point as a City of Chicago Landmark. The Chicago Landmark Commission heard testimony on a preliminary designation on January 12, 2023. The features proposed to be landmarked including the following:
- All exterior elevations and roofline of the Pavilion Building; and
- The pathways, council rings, David Wallach Fountain, and limestone revetments; and
- Alfred Caldwell's landscape design of a central meadow edged by irregular groupings of plants and trees.
Routine landscape maintenance is excluded from review. Species selection of individual plants and trees is also excluded from review in recognition of the potential need for change to the plant palette to ensure that the park landscape is resilient in the face of climate change.
II. Explanation (continued)
Chicago Park District staff have reviewed the proposed features and suggested edits to the language, especially as it relates to plant selection and routine maintenance being excluded from review. The other elements recommended for designation are able to be maintained by the Park District and as they are historic, we would follow the Secretary of the Interiors Standards for historic properties even without landmark designation. The landmark designation however ensures that additional permit reviews by the City will be done should changes be needed to any of the landmarked features.
As part of the landmark designation process, the Chicago Commission on Landmarks is formally requesting the Chicago Park District’s consent to landmark designation. A consent form is enclosed for your consideration.
While owner consent is not necessary for landmarking to take place, it is generally sought by the Commission, and in this case staff sees no reason to withhold consent.
The next steps for landmarking include the Commission receiving a report from the City’s Department of Planning and Development at the Commission’s and if final landmark designation is approved by the Commission its recommendation would go to the Chicago City Council.
It is the recommendation of staff given the widespread community support that the Chicago Park District consent to the landmarking of Promontory Point.