"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!"

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:

• preservation (retain and repair-in-place, reposition the blocks where necessary, leave the original material in place, keep the original design, augment the invisible understructure where you have to)
• restoration (take it apart where it’s failed, rebuild the understructure, reset and reposition the original blocks that have shifted, get more, existing Indiana limestone blocks where needed and replace broken blocks with existing, in-kind materials, keep the same design, shape and material as the original)
• rehabilitation (modify and adapt the design to allow a new use or purpose in select areas such as accessibility for all to the revetment and the water), minimize the concrete and maximize the limestone)

After 23 years of working together, we are much closer to Saving the Point!
 
Truly a beautiful day in the neighborhood!