From Airport to Public Park

Actually, "closing the airport" is a bit of a misnomer, since Daley sent bulldozers in under police escort in the middle of the night in March 2003 to gouge large "X"s in the runway, deeming it unusable and even stranding some small planes parked at Meigs. Even though he cited security concerns (the closure coincided with the start of the Iraq war), he was heavily criticized for the action. It didn't help that the replacement park was not completed before he stepped down from office in 2011.

Before it was an airport, Northerly Island (given that name as it was the northernmost island in a chain of islands envisioned by Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett in 1909 – it was the only island built) served as the site of the 1933 Century of Progress fair.

The Studio Gang/SmithGroupJJR design for the 91-acre park features a lagoon on its southern 40 acres that is rung by bike and pedestrian paths and mounds on the west side that give unique views of the Chicago skyline. This half of the park is envisioned as an urban ecological habitat with prairie, savanna, wetland, and woodland areas.

Currently the northern end serves as a concert venue, which helped to pay for about one-third of the $9.7 million project, the rest coming from the U.S. Government. It will developed in a later phase with an outdoor amphitheater and other uses.

For more information on the park and its opening, see Blair Kamin's coverage at the Chicago Tribune.