Greetings all,

GOOD NEWS!  At last night’s Fifth Ward meeting Alderman Leslie Hairston announced that she has asked the Chicago Park District to convene a community process to review Project 120’s proposals for Jackson Park.  Hairston noted that Project 120’s varied proposals have not, as yet,  come to fruition, and said that the meeting she has requested could establish a timeline and sort out what is fact and what is fiction.

JPW coordinators Brenda and Margaret will keep track of these plans and keep everyone informed.  In the meantime, please THANK ALDERMAN HAIRSTON for stepping forward to ensure community review of Project 120’s proposals!  She can be reached by e-mail via her website http://hairston.squarespace.com/contact-us/, at ward05@cityofchicago.org or by regular mail at 5th Ward Service Office, 2325 East 71st Street (60649) .

Brenda Nelms and Margaret Schmid
Jackson Park Watch

http://jackasonparkwatch.org
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Greetings all,

We have been in communication with Bob Karr regarding our April 4 request to have a comprehensive community input process for developing new plans for the Park and particularly for reconsidering the Phoenix Pavilion concept. He told us after the April 11 JPAC meeting that he had been in discussion with Park District CEO Michael Kelly about the matter, and he has since reiterated that he and Kelly are reviewing the options and timing for a design process with public engagement. We will continue to push for such an open process.

Also at that same JPAC meeting, questions were asked about the Yoko Ono “Sky Landing” sculpture.  Bob would say only that it will be installed in the fall. This has prompted some recurring questions about how this installation came to be, what financial and maintenance agreements are in place, and more.  We have asked Bob to help shed some light on these issues as well.

In the meantime, we know that there continues to be understandable confusion about the Phoenix Pavilion – both the original Pavilion on Wooded Island and the new proposed Phoenix Pavilion on the parking lot just east of the Darrow Bridge – as well as about the Music Court.  We have developed the “Facts and Questions” piece that follows to help sort these things out.  We hope you will find it useful – please let us know. We will post it on the JPW website as well.

Facts and Questions about Project 120’s “Phoenix Pavilion and Music Court”

• Project 120, on its website and in its presentations, refers to the “Phoenix Pavilion and Music Court” as if these were a single entity rather than two distinct concepts. It describes the proposed new Pavilion’s amenities as including “a new performance venue that incorporates the historic outdoor amphitheater (Music Court) designed by Olmsted” in a way that some might consider misleading. In fact, the two have separate histories.

• The original Music Court was located on the east side of the (now closed) Clarence Darrow Bridge, adjacent to the current parking lot. At present, elements of the original semi-circular design are still in evidence in the remnants of the diagonal walkways, but otherwise the Court is difficult to discern today.

• The Music Court was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1895 to have a bandstand in its center around which people might gather. The walkways were to be lined by formal rows of trees to provide ample shade for concert-goers. No permanent bandstand or other structure was ever erected though there were temporary platform stages at times.

• The original Phoenix Pavilion, located on Wooded Island, has a separate history based in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.   In designing the site for the exposition, Olmsted hoped to keep Wooded Island free of buildings, wanting to retain it as a quiet, natural area.  However, exhibitors continued to petition to build there, and Olmsted concluded that the least disruptive plan was a temple and floral display proposed by the Japanese government.  Accordingly, in March 1893 the original Phoenix Pavilion, known as the Ho-o-den, was dedicated.

• At the end of the Exposition, the Phoenix Pavilion was given to the City of Chicago. Restoration work was done on the structure in the 1930s as part of a variety of WPA projects in the Park. Sadly, the Pavilion was destroyed due to arson in 1946.

• Starting in 2012, Project 120 developed plans for a radically different Phoenix Pavilion in a new location, on the parking lot east of the Darrow Bridge. Characterized as a visitors’ center, it would have a vastly expanded range of new functions including a café, exhibition space, a music venue, a multi-purpose room for meetings and (fee-based?) events including parties, lectures, and workshops, and of course restrooms (though, in fact, a restroom exists not far away that just happens to be the oldest extant building in the Park). Thai architect Kulapat Tantrasast of the firm wHY was hired to do the conceptual design that appears on the Project 120 website.

• Questions have been raised as to the impact of this new Phoenix Pavilion on the Osaka Japanese Garden on Wooded Island not far away, since the proposed Pavilion would certainly disturb the tranquil atmosphere for which Japanese gardens are famed.

• Questions have also been raised about the parking area that would be displaced by the new Phoenix Pavilion. Is it truly under-utilized today as some have claimed?   Nearby residents and Park users believe that claim is not merited. Of course, since the Clarence Darrow Bridge has been closed making it impossible to get from one side of the Park to the other, usage has in fact gone down. However, when ready access was available, the parking lot was well used by a variety of park visitors, ranging from birders to visitors to the Japanese Garden to people enjoying group picnics.

• As a second-level consequence of the displacement of parking spaces by the large new pavilion, Project 120 is proposing to institute automobile traffic across the Clarence Darrow Bridge with parking along both sides of the roadway to replace the lost spaces. This would bifurcate the Park at its northern end and would likely turn what had been a safe pedestrian and bicycle path across the Darrow Bridge into a disruptive traffic artery that would also affect the space around the Columbian Basin now used for family picnics.

Questions? Comments? suggestions? Let us know at jacksonparkwatch@gmail.com

Brenda Nelms and Margaret Schmid
Jackson Park Watch

http://jackasonparkwatch.org
Like us on our Facebook page.

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Greetings all!

We have GOOD NEWS.  Not long after we sent out last week’s JPW Update, we heard from CPD’s Kim du Buclet, who verified that Spring Awakening will NOT be in Jackson Park. She told us that while the event organizer is still selling tickets online, it is doing so without a Park District permit and is looking for another venue for the festival.

Thanks to everyone whose expressions of concern about the destruction that this event would have brought to Jackson Park helped bring about this good ending.

Brenda Nelms and Margaret Schmid
Jackson Park Watch

http://jacksonparkwatch.org
Like us on our Facebook page.

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Greetings all!

Project 120 and Community Input

We met earlier this week with Bob Karr, president of Project 120, to explore whether his stated commitment to community input on Project 120 plans extended to a thorough review and possible revision of the  current Phoenix Pavilion plans posted on that website (and also on the website of the Garden of the Phoenix Foundation).

We observed that the pavilion plan as presented now on the website is a lightning rod for major negative reactions for reasons ranging from its size, design and location to noise, its impact on parking, its potential to harm birds, and the absence of any viable business plan for its operation.  We noted that while many support the idea of a pavilion, we have encountered no discernible support for the particular pavilion concept as portrayed on the Project 120 website.  We said that if Project 120 made clear its intention to include the pavilion plans in an effective community review process – such as, for example, by a public statement from Bob to that effect and by modifying the website to clearly indicate that the pavilion as presented there is not a final plan but is a “concept” that is subject to thorough-going community review and potential revision – we believe that there could be good opportunities for productive collaboration on plans for improving the Park going forward.

Considerable discussion ensued, including about the role of the Park District and possible elements of an effective community review process.  Bob reiterated his support for community input as stated at the March 14 JPAC meeting. We restated the need for a clear and public sign that the pavilion concept presented on the website is not final, but rather is subject to review and revision.  The meeting ended with Bob saying he would get back to us on possible next steps.  We await his response.

FOTP’s Listening Tour

We had learned that Friends of the Park was planning “listening tours” in selected parks this spring, and that one would take place in Jackson Park at the request of Alderman Leslie Hairston.  Thus, we met with FOTP Board President Lauren Moltz, Executive Director Juanita Irizarry, and Nicole Machucha, Director of Environmental Education and Neighborhood Parks, to learn more about what such an event would look like and whether it might be of interest to JPW participants.  We think it will.

The Jackson Park event will likely take place in May, and we will let you know when the specific date and place are set.  FOTP’s goals are to find out the major questions and concerns on people’s minds and to create a space for discussion of park-related issues already known to exist. To allow that to happen, the event will feature facilitated round-table discussions of open-ended questions.  Depending on what transpires, FOTP, which has a major focus on assuring community input on park-related issues, may then be in a position to foster community discussions and actions to address the issues that surface.

Spring Awakening

Many on the JPW list continue to inquire  about Spring Awakening.  Despite the Park District’s Kim du Buclet saying at the March 14  JPAC meeting that the event would not take place in the Park, the event sponsor continues to sell online tickets for June 10-12 in Jackson Park.   Recently we heard that a key CPD official gave very ambiguous response when asked whether that electronic dance festival would be held in our Park. We have contacted Du Buclet directly to ask for confirmation of the cancellation, and will report her response to you.

Jackson Park Advisory Council

The next JPAC meeting is Monday evening, April 11.  JPW has not asked to have anything on the agenda.  JPW coordinators Brenda Nelms and Margaret Schmid will be in attendance and will report on anything of note.

In the meantime…

Let us know your top five!  In our March 18 JPW Update we suggested that JPW can begin to develop a list of three to five key elements in Project 120 plans that are top priorities for community review and input.  We have received some useful responses, and urge others of you to also send us your thoughts.

Share the news of our website and Facebook page! As some of you have observed, the Jackson Park Watch website and Facebook page are in fact up and available at http://jacksonparkwatch.org  and  https://www.facebook.com/jacksonparkwatch .  We urge you to share these links with your friends and neighbors and organizations that are or should be interested.  Publicizing our questions and concerns is an essential step in ensuring that the community voice is heard and effective.  If you have suggestions about the JPW website, please let us know at jacksonparkwatch@gmail.com .    We are greatly indebted to Eric Allix Rogers and Susannah Ribstein for establishing these additional lines of communication for JPW.  Thank you, Eric and Susannah!!

Brenda Nelms and Margaret Schmid
Jackson Park Watch

http://jacksonparkwatch.org
Like us on our Facebook page.

Greetings All!

We don’t want to clutter your inbox, but do want to let you know we’re still working to gather information.  Things have been delayed a bit by the recent holidays and busy schedules, but we have several meetings with stakeholders scheduled for the coming days, so should have news to share sometime next week.

Brenda Nelms and Margaret Schmid

Jackson Park Watch

jacksonparkwatch@gmail.com