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Here is the Final Landmark Recommendation for PROMONTORY POINT in WARD 5, East of S. Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Between 54th and 56th Streets
Staff Recommendation--Staff recommends that the Commission approve the following: Pursuant to Section 2-120-690 of the Municipal Code of the City of Chicago (the “Municipal Code”), the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (the “Commission”) has determined that Promontory Point, specifically that portion located east of S. Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive between 54th and 56th Streets, Chicago, Illinois (the “Site”), is worthy of Chicago Landmark designation. On the basis of careful consideration of the history and architecture of the Site, the Commission has found that it satisfies the following four (4) criteria set forth in Section 2-120-620 of the Municipal Code: 1. Its value as an example of the architectural, cultural, economic, historic, social, or other aspect of the heritage of the City of Chicago, State of Illinois, or the United States. 4. Its exemplification of an architectural type or style distinguished by innovation, rarity, uniqueness, or overall quality of design, detail, materials, or craftsmanship. 5. Its identification as the work of an architect, designer, engineer, or builder whose individual work is significant in the history or development of the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, or the United States. 7. Its unique location or distinctive physical appearance or presence representing an established and familiar visual feature of a neighborhood, community, or the City of Chicago. I. BACKGROUND The formal landmark designation process for the Site began on January 12, 2023, when the Commission approved a preliminary landmark recommendation (the "Preliminary Recommendation") for the Site as a Chicago Landmark. The Commission found that the Site meets four (4) of the seven (7) criteria for designation, as well as the integrity criterion, identified in the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance (Municipal Code, Section 2-120-580 et seq.). The Preliminary Recommendation, incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit A, initiated the process for further study and analysis of the proposed designation of the Site as a Chicago Landmark. As part of the Preliminary Recommendation, the Commission adopted a Designation Report, dated November 2022, the most current iteration of which is dated March 9, 2023, incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit B (the “Designation Report”). On January 31, 2023, the Commission officially requested consent to the proposed landmark designation from the owner of the Site, the Chicago Park District. On February 22, 2023, the Commission received a form dated February 22, 2023, and signed by Rosa Escareno, the General Superintendent and CEO of the Chicago Park District, consenting to the proposed designation. At its regular meeting of February 9, 2023, the Commission received a report from Maurice Cox, Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), supporting the proposed landmark designation of the Site. This report is incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit C. II. FINDINGS OF THE COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 2-120-690 of the Municipal Code, the Commission has reviewed the entire record of proceedings on the proposed Chicago Landmark designation, including the Designation Report, the DPD Report, and all of the information on the proposed landmark designation of the Site; and WHEREAS, the Site meets the four (4) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Section 2-120-620 (1), (4), (5), and (7) of the Municipal Code; and WHEREAS, the Site was first envisioned as part of Daniel Burnham’s seminal 1909 Plan of Chicago which proposed the use of artificial fill to construct a magnificent stretch of new parkland between Grant and Jackson Parks; and WHEREAS, in 1934, Chicago voters approved the Park Consolidation Act, thereby establishing the Chicago Park District and, with it, the means to access money through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), President Roosevelt’s New Deal program to provide work to millions of jobseekers through the completion of public works programs. The Chicago Park District secured WPA funds from 1935 through 1939 to complete the Site, employing thousands of Chicagoans during the Great Depression while creating a new peninsular park which provided South Siders with a beautiful haven just steps from Jean- Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive with spectacular views and access to the lake; and WHEREAS, in 1953, during the Cold War, the United States military installed a Nike missile launcher area in Jackson Park and a radar area at the Site. Although some community organizations resented the installation of radar towers and were supported by Hyde Park Alderman Leon Despres and Congressman Barratt O’Hara, it was not until the anti-Vietnam War movement grew that community members became more ardent in their demands for removal of the structures. In 1970, U.S. Congressman Abner Mikva led 500 demonstrators who protested the Vietnam War and demanded the removal of the Nike missile bases. The federal government finally closed the Site’s Nike installation in 1971; and WHEREAS, Alfred Caldwell, landscape designer of the Site, was mentored by Jens Jensen and is considered to be one of the great landscape architects of the Prairie style. This naturalistic approach to landscape design developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and used native vegetation and other features of the Midwest to emphasize the region’s open character and horizontal expanses; and WHEREAS, the Site’s Pavilion Building is a fine French Eclectic-style building designed by Emanuel Valentine Buchsbaum, a notable Chicago architect. Buchsbaum’s career began under architect R. Harold Zook with projects including the Maine East High School and Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois. During the 1930s to 1970s while head architect and later an engineer for the Chicago Park District, Buchsbaum built structures throughout Chicago’s park system, some of the most noteworthy being the 1931 Grant Park Band Shell (demolished 1978), the 1938 Art Moderne “lake steamer” North Avenue Beach House (demolished 1999) and 1937 Montrose Avenue Beach House (west wing extant), and the 1956 Henry Horner Park Field House; and WHEREAS, Frederick C. and Elisabeth Haseltine Hibbard, sculptors of the David Wallach Fountain, installed and dedicated at the Site in 1939, were important Chicago artists whose sculptural work was exhibited and installed throughout the United States; and WHEREAS, the Site is a significant example of Alfred Caldwell’s Prairie style of landscape architecture; and WHEREAS, the Site retains the city’s last largely intact stretch of limestone step-stone revetments, variations of which once defined most of Chicago’s shoreline during the twentieth century; and WHEREAS, with its distinctive curved landform that juts out into Lake Michigan and its limestone, step-stone revetments that provide park visitors close access to the water, Promontory Point is an iconic visual feature along Chicago’s lakefront; now, therefore, THE COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS HEREBY: 1. Adopts the recitals, findings, and statements of fact set forth in the preamble and Sections I and II hereof as the findings of the Commission; and 2. Adopts the Final Designation Report, as revised, and dated this 9th day of March 2023, and 3. Finds, based on the Designation Report and the entire record before the Commission, that the Site meets the four (4) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Sections 2-120-620 (1), (4), (5), and (7) of the Municipal Code; and 4. Finds that the Site satisfies the "integrity" requirement set forth in Section 2-120-630 of the Municipal Code; and 5. Finds that the significant historical and architectural features of the Site are identified as follows: • 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. 6. Recommends that the Site be designated a Chicago Landmark.
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This afternoon the Commission on Chicago Landmarks cast its final vote to make Promontory Point a Chicago Landmark. It was unanimous!
Many spoke in favor including the Conservancy's Jack Spicer, Alderman Leslie Hairston, Ward Miller and Mary Lu Seidel of Preservation Chicago, and Kendra Parzen of Landmarks Illinois. Journalist Alison Cuddy summed it up well: "Congratulations!!! The warmth and enthusiasm of the Commission, Leslie Hairston's smile and [DPD Commissioner] Maurice Cox's comments about feeling proud to be 'witnessing history' -- what a wonderful, joyful moment." The ordinance declaring the Point a Chicago landmark will be introduced to the City Council at its March 15 meeting. From there, the ordinance will be reviewed by the Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards before it comes back to the full City Council for a vote. If all proceeds smoothly, the ordinance to declare Promontory Point a Chicago landmark may be voted on at a live City Council meeting on April 19, 10:00am. Join us and attend -- in person or live stream -- this historic vote for the Point. Witness history! Most importantly, the stage is now set for the City (CDOT), the Chicago Park District and the U.S. Army Corps to work openly with the community to fix the historic limestone revetment at the Point instead of destroying it. There is now a shared, common preservation language, precisely the Secretary of the Interior Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, for a common, shared plan for fixing the historic limestone revetment:
Truly a beautiful day in the neighborhood! After receiving 350 letters from Point lovers (YOU!), The Chicago Park District's Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to approve Chicago landmark protections for Promontory Point! As the property owner, the Park District was not required but was requested to give its permission for Promontory Point to move forward in the landmarking process. The vote today means that the Point is ever closer to becoming a Chicago City-landmark!
In a statement to the press, Promontory Point Conservancy President Jack Spicer said, "This is a tremendous moment for the community and for Alderman Hairston who have been fighting side by side for 23 years to protect and preserve the unique and historic limestone revetment at Promontory Point. We are now one step closer. From here on out, we need to be sure that the Chicago Park District, Chicago Department of Transportation and the Army Corps of Engineers follow the federal Secretary of the Interior Standards for preservation and that the Chicago Landmarks Commission follows its legal guidelines for historic preservation. This will ensure genuine preservation -- preservation, repair and restoration -- of the limestone revetment at Promontory Point. Park District Superintendent Rosa Escareno and the Board did the right thing at today’s meeting and are to be congratulated for listenting and responding to the strong voice of the community." Other speakers on behalf of the Point included Ward Miller and Mary Lu Seidel of Preservation Chicago, Kendra Parzen of Landmarks Illinois, Gil Kilgore of Friends of the Parks, preservation historian Julia Bachrach and members of the community who attended the meeting. |
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AuthorDebra Hammond is currently an officer of Promontory Point Conservancy. She has always been tall for her age |