As Mayor Richard Daley formally unveiled plans on Monday for a $150 million park, outdoor concert venue and garden for the downtown lakefront, George Ranney Jr.’s thoughts drifted back 20 years.
That’s when Ranney and his wife, Vicky, were among civic leaders pushing for a very similar addition at Grant Park.
But the politics of the time were different than they are now, and then-Mayor Michael Bilandic and Chicago Park District General Supt. Ed Kelly could not come to an agreement on the project, said Ranney, former president of what is now the Metropolitan Planning Council.
The council and Friends of the Parks, once headed by Vicky Ranney, “came up with this idea and kept it alive,” Ranney said with satisfaction at the Monday press conference during which Daley announced his plans. He credited the mayor with bringing to reality “something we thought of but couldn’t do.”
The Lakefront Millennium Project will include an outdoor stage facing a “Great Lawn” able to accommodate up to 30,000 visitors; a 300-seat indoor performance theater behind the stage; an outdoor amphitheater for poetry readings and small performances; a plaza with a reflecting pool that will become a skating rink in the winter; and flower gardens.
The park is to be built atop a new parking garage on a 16.5-acre parcel of former railroad land bordered by Michigan Avenue, Columbus Drive, Randolph Street and Monroe Street.
No sooner did Daley announce the project than officials of the Art Institute of Chicago said they are making preliminary long-range plans of their own for additions and two gardens totaling about 750,000 square feet of space.
“The Lakefront Millennium Project was very inspiring for us, the perfect incentive to look at our own future,” said Eileen Harakal, a spokeswoman for the Art Institute, which lies immediately south of the new park’s site.
The timing for the Lakefront Millennium Project is more specific: Construction is to be completed by the summer of 2000 to welcome the new century.
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“It will be a monument to the very essence of the city of Chicago,” declared John Bryan, chairman of Sara Lee Corp. and co-chairman of a $30 million private fundraising effort.
Besides corporate donations, Bryan’s committee also will seek small contributions by “selling” bricks that will be installed on paths and walkways.
“There is no lack of confidence we can get private support,” Bryan said.
Proceeds from the 2,500-space parking garage are expected to cover $120 million of the cost. No taxpayer funds will be used, officials said, being careful to add that no money will be siphoned from neighborhood parks to cover any of the new park’s expenses.
Also part of the project, but still in the planning stages and to be funded separately, is a busway that would run beside Metra railroad tracks between the park and McCormick Place, serving the museum campus along the way.
The Petrillo Music Shell is to be razed and the Lakefront Millennium Project will become the city’s main festival site, officials said. Taste of Chicago and other major events will spread over adjacent park areas.