BP Gehry Now Actually Bridge to Nowhere (Temporarily)

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“Nowhere”, is what former Mayor Daley claimed you'd find once you crossed over the sinuous Frank Gehry-designed BP Bridge in Millennium Park into Daley Bi-centennial Plaza.

At the time it was a lie, designed as part of a campaign to jam a Children's Museum into Grant Park.  Now, the Gehry has actually become a bridge to nowhere.  It's fenced off at the far end, and overlooks a devastated landscape . . .

The good news is Daley lost on his gambit to build on public land declared in a famous A. Montgomery Ward court decision to be “Forever Open Clear and Free”.  The bad news is that Daley Bi had to be destroyed, anyway.  The membrane separating the park from the parking garage below had failed, causing major leaks, and it had to be replaced.  And so the the trees, flowers, shrubs and lawn of Daley Bi have been torn out, and the the topsoil carted away.

. . . although if you know the right people to let you in, you can apparently still have a picnic  . . .

The better news, however, is that, instead of a tortured building, we're getting a first class new park designed by famed landscape architect Michael van Valkenburgh.

And perhaps the best news is that technology has evolved to where we may be able to keep the new park for longer than the 35 years Daley Bi lasted before having to be replaced.

According to Grant Park Advisory Council President Bob O-Neill . . .

The new waterproofing is a hot applied monolithic membrane system that has a series of protection layers and drainage layers above it. The benefit of this system is that it has minimal seams because of its hot-applied installation.  Then there are several drainage measures in place to convey water off of the roof before it even comes in contact with the membrane itself.    As a result, a much longer lifespan is anticipated from this system than the previous installation.

You can see some examples of hot melt surfacing here and here,   A lot of riding is on the technique's durability:  a hot-applied rubberized membrane is also what separates Millennium Park from the garage and rail tracks below it.

In another couple years, we should have something very special at Daley-Bi, now renamed as Maggie Daley Park, including a thousand new trees.  (You can keep up to date on the project's website here.) 

For now, the Gehry BP is the bridge you can't cross - you can only go back the way you came - but it's a great observation platform for watching Maggie Daley Park come into being.

Goodbye Daley Bi; Hello Maggie Daley Park - stripping North Grant Park bare

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Former Richard M. Daley condemned it as "Nowhere", the 20 acre park named after his father that he wanted to destroy so he could repopulate it with the stalagmite-styled skylights needed to try to erase the subterranean gloom in the Childrens Museum he wanted to jam beneath its surface.

That was over five years ago, and now, finally, Daley Bicentennial park is about to be erased.  But not for a museum.  The combination of a failing economy, anemic fundraising and persistent public opposition proved to much even for someone as powerful and persistant as Mayor Daley, and the Childrens Museum decided to stay put at Navy Pier.

No, as was always the case, the park is being torn up because the membrane that separates it from East Monroe parking garage below needs to be replaced.   A new North Grant Park, named after the late Maggie Daley, will be constructed atop the new membrane.  Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh, it stands to be a handsome counterpoint to Millennium Park to the west, combining elements both passive . . .

. . .  and active . . .

For now, according to Grant Park Advisory Council's Bob O'Neill, there are over 800 trees to be uprooted. with a mere 38 to remain at Peanut Park to the east, and at the miniature golf course to the south.  None of those 800 trees, which O'Neill claims to be all be aged, diseased or dying, will be replanted, although some of the wood will be reused on the new playground.  1,000 new trees are to be placed in the Valkenburgh landscape, of a mix still being determined.

Chain link fence is going up.  The majestic trees will soon be only a memory.  They served well.

Read a photoessay on the uprooting of a different park:  A Forest Departs - Tree by Tree