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

North Grant Park at Block 37, Archeworks Mid-Year Design, McCurry's Distillations, Urculo and Bruder - still more for January

Still more for January Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events:

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The latest revisions for North Grant Park, a/k/a/ Daley Bicentennial Plaza, will be on display for the next week in the lower level pedway of Block 37.  Today, Wednesday, January 25th, buy a soft pretzel and hear the Park District and landscape architect Michael van Valkenburgh present where the still evolving plans are now.

For tomorrow, Thursday the 26th, we wrote yesterday about the lecture by Thomas Heatherwick at IIT.  Also Thursday, 6:00 p.m. at Access Living, Archeworks presents it's Mid-Year Design Review, including the projects Sustainable Food Through Design Innovation, and the Cermak Creative Industries District.

And a reminder that today, Wednesday, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m., there's a reception at Poliform showroom for Margaret McCurry and her new book Distillations: The Architecture of Margaret McCurry, and at 6:00 p.m. at the Graham, there's a lecture by Madrid-based architect Luis Urculo.  The month closes out Friday the 27th with Will Bruder at Crown Hall.

Check it out:  There's still over a dozen great events to come on the January 2012 Chicago Architecture Calendar.

Future of Grant Park Postponed, Nicholson's Aliens, Ghosts and Spirits invade, Lumenhaus to MP, Nickel archives to AIC

Apparently, the future is not yet here.  We received word today that an unveiling of the plans by Michael van Valkenburg and Associates for North Grant Park, aka Daley Bicentennial Plaza, aka Children's Museum battlefield, scheduled for this Wednesday the 17th has been cancelled.  "The team is not fully ready to present and other timing issues have arisen," wrote the Grant Park Advisory Council's Bob O'Neill, who said the session will be rescheduled at an unspecified date in the future.

Stepping into the void, the always provocative Ben Nicholson will be kicking off the Chicago Architectural Club's fall schedule with a talk on "aliens, ghosts and spirits" 7:00 p.m., at Archeworks, 625 N. Kingsbury, at Ontario.

Also on Wednesday,  Lumenhaus, Virginia Tech's entry to the DOE's 2009 Solar Decathlon competition comes to the north-south promenade of Millennium Park for a five day residency during this years Greenbuild Conference and Expo.

Inspired by the glass pavilion style Farnsworth house designed by Bauhaus architect Mies Van Der Rohe, Lumenhaus is a structure with open, flowing space that connects inside living with the outside world and is completely powered by the sun.  The north and south walls are all glass, maximizing the owner’s exposure to bright, natural daylight. The fully automated Eclipsis System, comprising independent sliding layers, permits a revolutionary design in a solar-powered house, while filtering light in beautiful, flowing patterns throughout the day.

The structure will be open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for tours.

The big news today:  as reported by the Trib's Blair Kamin, the Richard Nickel Committee has announced its archive of 15,000 items has been donated to the Art Institute of Chicago.  The news follows the recent publication of over 800 of those images in The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan, a landmark catalog of all the firm's known work.