The city’s preliminary plans to rebuild Hyde Park’s Promontory Point have won conditional approval from a key historic preservation agency, much to the consternation of activists opposed to the city’s vision for the project.
“The preliminary plans that were submitted were very positive,” said Dave Blanchette, spokesman for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. “We’ve given the go-ahead for design construction plans to be drawn up.”
After those plans are 25 percent complete, the agency will again review them to make sure they follow U.S. Secretary of the Interior guidelines for historic preservation. That’s required under a 1993 memorandum of agreement among five city, state and federal agencies for rehabilitation of the city’s lakeshore.
“It’s far from over, of course, but we think we are moving in the right direction,” Blanchette said.
The Point is a limestone revetment, or lake wall, between 55th and 57th Streets built on a peninsula created with landfill in the 1920s. It was completed with a promenade by Prairie School landscape architect Alfred Caldwell in 1938.
City plans call for demolishing most of the Point before rebuilding it using steel, concrete and limestone. That troubled some activist groups, including the Community Task Force for Promontory Point and the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.
“It’s equivalent to looking at a historic building, demolishing the whole thing and rebuilding it and putting on a facade,” said Greg Lane, spokesman for the task force. “The vast majority of Promontory Point simply needs to be repaired.”
David Bahlman, president of the council, said the city plan “doesn’t look like a preservation solution.” But he also said his group is waiting to look at more detailed plans to make a final assessment.
The council “is very, very much intent and committed to a proper preservation solution at Promontory Point,” he said. “We want to see as much limestone as possible, as little concrete as possible.”
University of Chicago professor Peter Rossi, who has gathered 361 signatures in favor of the city’s plan, said he is pleased with the state agency’s decision.
“Basically, the whole thing has to be torn down and rebuilt because the whole structure has failed,” he said. “I’ve always thought the compromise plan is an excellent plan, and it’s also a preservation plan.”
Under the plan proposed by the city Environment Department and Chicago Park District, which are working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers, the top two steps would remain limestone and the bottom two would be cast in concrete atop a steel-reinforced foundation.
Much of Caldwell’s original promenade would be restored, and handicapped accessibility would be created. About 90 percent of the original limestone would be reused, according to the state agency.
Former Park District General Superintendent David Doig first presented the plan in late January, but talks between government officials and community representatives then broke down. That tightened a logjam that began to form in January 2001 when activists panned the city’s original $22 million plan, which called for creating an all-concrete structure.
The government agencies involved then put the plan on hold until a community consensus could be reached for the plan, part of a $301 million effort to rebuild 8 miles of lake wall. If consensus is not reached by next year, federal funding for the project could dry up, Park District officials said.
Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) in June formed an ad-hoc committee that included the state agency to restart negotiations. But agency officials said they won’t meet again with the committee until it sees more detailed plans, saying there’s nothing else for it to contribute at this point.
