Final Chicago Landmark Designation wording

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.