Overview

Several factors have combined to provide a rare opportunity to reinvigorate the 20 acres of land along the northern edge of Grant Park:

• The East Monroe Street Parking Garage, which supports Daley Bicentennial Plaza, is in need of extensive renovations to improve its waterproofing system. The repairs will require the entire plaza to be removed;
• In May 2008, the Chicago Children’s Museum gained approval to move from Navy Pier to a new facility on the northern edge of Grant Park;
• The Chicago Department of Transportation is currently working to create a more direct connection for bicyclists and pedestrians between Lake Michigan and the north side of Grant Park;
• The BP Bridge has given park-goers both a new way and a new reason to walk from Millennium Park to Daley Bicentennial Plaza; and
• The emerging Lakeshore East neighborhoods have given the site a brand new local constituency, expanding the park’s role and purpose.

North Grant Park will work in concert with these initiatives to create a new world-class public landscape at a keystone location in the city. (Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, Museum Campus, the Art Institute of Chicago and Navy Pier are all within a short walk).

Currently, the North Grant Park site is comprised of three discrete landscapes, each with their own character. These three individual areas will be redesigned as a cohesive, continuous park that serves as a destination in its own right while also creating strong, universally accessible landscape connections on both the north-south and east-west axes.

The primary goal of the creation of North Grant Park is to develop park uses and landscape experiences that reflect the evolving open space needs of downtown Chicago. By establishing a network of park space that varies in scale and purpose, and that includes innovative play space, North Grant Park will establish a distinctive presence that will significantly broaden the appeal and usefulness of Grant Park as a whole.