Chicago's Lakefront with Geoffrey Baer

[Music] we like to think big in chicago just  ask anyone who's been to millennium park   it's our newest lakefront park and it's filled  with super-sized traction that dazzle and delight   thousands of visitors every day millennium park  is only a small part of a much bigger story   the story of how chicago made almost its entire  lakefront into a paradise for the people [Music]   i'm jeffrey bear and i'm about to take you on a  tour of the waterfront now in most cities that   would mean a tour of private property factories  ports high class housing we'll see plenty of that   on this tour but what makes chicago's lakefront  unique in the world is that most of it is public   land it belongs to all of us [Music] of  course we didn't get it without a fight   the story you're about to see is full of  colorful characters who fought with each   other and fought against nature for a  piece of this coveted coastline [Music] generous support is also provided by the  joseph and bessie feinberg foundation   the walter e heller foundation in memory of alice  decosta and the a montgomery ward foundation our story begins in the 1830s with a little  notation scrawled on the map that laid out   the property lines for the tiny town of chicago  according to that map the land along the lakeshore   was declared public ground to remain  forever open clear and free of any buildings   but at the dawn of the industrial age it was  tempting to break that promise chicago was   growing faster than any city in the history of  the world and needed land for factories and ports   the lakefront seemed like the perfect place after  all there was lots of space and the lake could be   used for transportation and waste dumping you  only have to go a few miles south of downtown   to see what the chicago lakefront might have  looked like if industry had prevailed [Music]   steel plants oil refineries and shipping terminals   lined the shore in northwest indiana leaving  only a few tiny parcels for public access in the first half of the 20th century  towering sand dunes thousands of years   old were shoveled up and carted away to  make room for factories the grassroots   saved the dunes council with help from u.s  senator paul h douglas managed to halt the   destruction of the dunes by establishing  the indiana dunes national lakeshore you'll find more plant and animal species  here than in almost any other national park   there's even rare midwestern cactus now let's follow the lakefront  all the way to downtown chicago at 71st street an exclusive private club  claimed a chunk of lakefront land this was once   south shore country club it had a private beach a  golf course and a spectacular mediterranean-style   clubhouse from 1916 by aristocratic architect  benjamin marshall the neighborhood became   majority african american in the 1960s but  the club refused to admit blacks as members   it went out of business in 1974.   later that year the chicago park district bought  the club and welcomed the neighbors with open arms north of the old country club an extraordinary   unbroken ribbon of lakefront parks extends for  16 miles starting with jackson park [Music]   it looks like a natural wonder but of course it's  man-made it was designed by the same team that   gave us new york's central park frederick  law olmsted and calvert vox they used the   existing marshes ponds and sandy hills along  the lakefront to create a water-oriented park   olmsted and vox also designed washington park  just to the west there the flat prairie inspired   a broad open sheep meadow the two parks were  connected by a mile long 600 foot wide green strip   olmsted called it the midway plazans these  parks were first envisioned 150 years ago   and boy did we need them chicago  in the 1860s was a boom town   factories and rail lines were sprouting up  everywhere zoning laws and health and safety codes   were unheard of public health advocates banded  together with real estate speculators and proposed   encircling the city with a magnificent system of  parks connected by broad green boulevards it was   the first such system in the country according  to park district historian julia bachrach   by the 1880s the new south side parks were  downright fashionable author lois willey describes   parades of carriages carrying the wealthy to  jackson and washington parks after church on   sundays people went wild for baseball and tennis  and that newfangled contraption the bicycle one of jackson park's most fanciful features  is the animal bridge from 1903. take a look at   those rhino and hippo heads and the ship's prow  they were inspired by the park's water themes   after a century of soot and  deterioration this bridge was rebuilt   stone by stone in 2003. during that  project the workers got a big surprise buried beneath the bridge  they found a statue of a woman   her name was germania and she  was a lost relic from the most   famous event in the history of jackson park  the world's colombian exposition of 1893 it commemorated the 400th anniversary of  christopher columbus's voyage of discovery   it was a 30 million dollar fantasy land and  a grand illusion what looked like gleaming   marble buildings were actually temporary  frame sheds covered in whitewashed plaster   people called it the white city the fair was  built in a grand neoclassical style inspired   by the architecture of ancient greece and rome  chief designer daniel burnham saw it as a way   to combat chicago's image as a hard-nosed  business town with no culture or refinement   daniel burnham was a man with something to prove  he'd been denied admission to harvard and yale   and bounced around from job to job until  he found his true calling in architecture   he told his parents he wanted to be the greatest  architect in the country according to author eric   larson burnham hired the most prominent architects  in the country to create buildings for the fair   but one of those architects louis sullivan  refused to go along with the neoclassical theme   his transportation building was modern and  colorful sullivan groused that the fair would set   architecture back 50 years but most people were  simply dazzled it wasn't just the buildings that   were impressive it was the spaces between them it  was a revolutionary experiment in urban planning   mapped out by frederick law olmsted who designed  jackson park in the first place right here on   olmsted's midway pleisance there were dozens of  exhibits showcasing native cultures from around   the world these days we'd call it a celebration  of cultural diversity but back then it was pure   sideshow there was a persian bazaar a german  village a chinese temple and a turkish mosque   there were indians and eskimos a  hawaiian volcano and swiss alps   towering over the midway was  the fair's biggest attraction   the world's first ferris wheel burnham wanted an  engineering marvel that would top the eiffel tower   built for the paris world's fair of 1889  it was over 26 stories tall each of the 36   cars was the size of a streetcar and held 60  people that's 2160 passengers at a time like   the eiffel tower it was named for its designer gw  ferris was a mechanical engineer from pittsburgh   the fair ran for six months attracted 27  million visitors and even made a profit   but it didn't have a happy ending the nation  had slipped into an economic depression   and then on october 28th the day  before the fair was scheduled to   close mayor carter harrison was gunned down  in his own home by a delusional job seeker   the glorious closing pageant was cancelled  and the gates were shut for good with barely a   fanfare [Music] the buildings were never designed  to last but a plan to tear them down for scrap   failed the white city became a crumbling gray  squatters camp fires started breaking out   and little by little the fair was reduced to ashes if you know where to look you can still find  a few relics of the fair in jackson park   like the railing on this bridge nearby is a  light pole from the fair olmsted's beautiful   wooded island is still a secluded getaway the  osaka garden on wooded island stands on the site   of the ho oden pavilion that gave many people  their first look at japanese architecture this   comfort station was built in jackson park before  the fair and was actually used by fair visitors amid the fragments of the fair in jackson  park one massive pavilion is still standing   back then it was called the palace of fine arts  today it's the museum of science and industry   unlike other fair buildings this one had  sturdy brick walls behind the plaster facade   that's because it was built to house art treasures  from around the world after the fair the building   was used as a natural history museum displaying  a vast array of artifacts left over from the fair   but in the early 1920s that collection  was moved to the brand new field museum   downtown the abandoned old palace  quickly fell into a ruinous state   sears chairman julius rosenwald joined an effort  to save it from the wrecking ball he pledged three   million dollars to help turn the building into  an interactive museum of industry and technology   like so many kids who grew up in chicago i have  great memories of the museum of science and   industry i used to love pushing the buttons and  pulling the levers on the interactive exhibits   i remember the coal mine the world war ii  german sub the hatching chicks of course   the huge train set and they're all  still here but the museum has kept   up with the jet age the space age and  the information age as well [Music] the university of chicago is another  legacy of the world's fair of 1893 fair promoters had convinced the public  that chicago was a major world city   so they had to hurry up and build a major world  university over the years the ufc has produced   no fewer than 81 nobel prize winners in the  late 1950s a group of u of c alumni called   the compass players regularly performed  improvised sketches in a hyde park bar the troop evolved into second city you're  here for football 202 i certainly am one   of their classic scenes lampooned the notion  of intellectual ufc students learning to play   football gentlemen let's say you have the  ball on the 47-yard line here can i pick   a pardon sir those things you keep referring  to is lines yes those are not lines if there   were lines that would go all the way out to the  end of the universe and make the game very long   laugh all you want but in the 1920s u of c was  a football power it dominated the big ten under   coach amos alonzo stag but alonso stag's name went  down in history for another reason stag field at   the u of c was the site of a top secret experiment  in 1942 that changed the world forever the first   controlled nuclear reaction this sculpture called  nuclear energy by henry moore marks the spot today   that successful experiment led to the cold war  which in turn led to missiles in jackson park   they were part of a nationwide nike missile  system built to shoot down invading soviet bombers   the system was dismantled in the early 1970s a  forest of radar towers designed to control the   missiles stood for years here at promontory point  it's hard to imagine today this peaceful peninsula   is one of hyde park's most popular lakefront  gathering places and hyde parkers like it just   the way it is they successfully fought  off a plan to replace the crumbling   limestone shoreline with sleek concrete walls  called revetments the revenants were built on   the rest of chicago's shoreline in a 300 million  dollar project that started in the late 1990s the lakefront stretching north from promontory  point is named for daniel burnham because burnham   designed it or at least envisioned it as part  of his 1909 plan of chicago one of the most   ambitious city plans of all time burnham  got interested in urban planning a decade   earlier working on the world's colombian  exposition and if ever a city needed a   plan it was crowded chaotic chicago burnham  had moved his own family to evanston in 1886   he wrote i can no longer bear to have  my children in the streets of chicago the plan was published in 1909 burnham and  his collaborator edward h bennett imagined   transforming the city into a paradise of  order and beauty artist jules garan created   renderings that showed a city of heroic classical  buildings designed to ennoble the daily grind   an efficient system of streets throughways  and rail lines would make getting from place   to place convenient even pleasant and most of  all public plazas parks and forest preserves   would restore the spirit and create community the  crown jewel of it all was the glorious lakefront   park stretching from one end of the city to the  other on the lakefront south of downtown the plan   called for a string of man-made islands connected  by bridges to a park along the shore the shoreline   was filled and one island was finished but then  the great depression hit and construction stopped to this day burnham's vision remains unfinished  along the south lakefront but since 1999 a   remarkable transformation has taken place here the  once desolate park has been beautifully landscaped   15 acres of new lakefront land have been added  north of 45th street there's a new beach there too   there's a popular new skateboard park at 33rd  street a six-acre lakefront bird sanctuary   near mccormick place and a butterfly garden  and bird sanctuary at 47th street [Music]   new pedestrian bridges and underpasses help to  solve one of the biggest problems for users of   the south lakefront just getting there lake  shore drive cuts people off from the lake and so does the railroad now you might well ask  if the lakefront is supposed to be public land   who gave the railroad permission to use it well you can thank the man who's entombed  here at 35th street overlooking the tracks   he was u.s senator stephen a douglas  the little giant douglas is probably   best remembered as abraham lincoln's  opponent in a series of famous debates   but he was a wheeler dealer too douglas obtained  a federal land grant allowing the illinois central   to enter chicago via the lakeshore in the  1850s then he bought property along the route   douglas built residential subdivisions on some of  the land this one called groveland park survives   douglas died of typhoid in 1861 just a year  after losing the presidential election to lincoln   then the union army used his  land as a prisoner of war camp   26 000 confederate prisoners were imprisoned  here thousands died in the horrible conditions   the lake meadows apartment complex now stands  on part of the site of that old prison camp i wonder how many people playing  softball here at lake meadows park   know that the game was invented  right across the street this monument marks the birthplace  of softball in 1887. it happened at   a gathering of yale and harvard alumni at  the farragut boat club which stood here   at one point someone threw a rolled-up  boxing glove at a rival alum he hit it   back with a broomstick within two years rules were  written leagues organized and the game was a hit   right now the softball monument is hidden on the  grounds of michael reese hospital but it might   soon be on the doorstep of a 1.1 billion dollar  olympic village that's if chicago is chosen to   host the 2016 summer games the lakefront plays  a starring role in the city's glitzy proposal   monroe harbor will host rowing  soldier field will be used for soccer   and mccormick place will be the venue for indoor  events like fencing badminton and weightlifting   beach volleyball and cycling competitions  will be held at northerly island   jackson park will host field hockey and  lincoln park lagoon will be converted to   white water for canoe and kayak slaloms who's  paying for all of this well the city guaranteed up   to 500 million dollars in taxpayer money against  operating losses but it says private sources and   funding from the international olympic committee  will more than cover the multi-billion dollar cost   the winning city will be announced in 2009 at the northern end of the park named for daniel  burnham is mccormick place now burnham liked   big thinking but this complex of four vast  exposition halls would almost certainly make   him turn over in his grave now how did chicago  end up with a convention center on its prized   lakeshore well to answer that question we have  to go back to the great depression [Music]   city government was virtually insolvent  thousands were out of work [Music] decided   to battle the economic crisis  by throwing another world's fair it would be a beacon of hope and optimism  celebrating the city's hundredth birthday   it was dubbed a century of progress [Music]   the huge fair covered the lakefront from adler  planetarium all the way south to 37th street   architecturally it was a complete contrast  to the classically inspired fair of 1893   this one was futuristic to go along with the theme  of scientific progress [Music] and this was no   white city joseph urban created a lavish scheme of  24 colors including chrome yellow bright vermilion   and tomato bisque pink the fair showcased  synthetics and modern conveniences   like air conditioning and dishwashers  automakers set up working assembly lines and this fair had its midway too [Music] featuring  sally rand with her strategically placed feathers the fair was a huge hit it reopened for a second  year at the urging of fdr himself who hoped it   might help spark an economic recovery in all it  drew almost 39 million visitors and made a profit   so what does all this have to do with  mccormick place well the century of progress   was held right on this site it was followed  by several successful railroad fairs   those events were such a hit that political and  business leaders decided they wanted to build   a permanent fair and exposition  center right here on the lakefront   the plan's biggest booster was colonel robert  mccormick he was the editor and publisher of   the chicago tribune and a former world war one  artillery officer for years mccormick filled   his editorial pages with praise for the idea  of a lakefront convention hall and for years   lakefront defenders fought the idea but finally  in 1960 a massive convention center was erected   it was named for colonel mccormick who had died  five years earlier opponents must have considered   it poetic justice when the building burned to  the ground just seven years after it was built   but despite their pleas to return the lakefront to  the public this powerful steel and glass structure   with enormous cantilevered eaves was built on the  site in 1971 a second building was constructed   in 1986 across lakeshore drive a third great  hall opened in 1996 and a new hotel in 1998.   the newest building opened in 2007 adding  almost three-quarters of a million square   feet of exhibition and meeting space all in all  mccormick place now has a staggering 2.7 million   square feet of exhibition space making it  the largest convention center in the country   mccormick place isn't the only legacy of the  1933 world's fair you could still find a few   other actual artifacts around like this 2 000  year old roman column it was given to chicago by   fascist italian dictator benito mussolini  to commemorate the arrival of the fair   of a squadron of italian seaplanes led by general  italo balboa general balboa had a great time   if this was propaganda pure and simple the  public and press took it in stride [Music]   much of the world's fair was held on the  only island built as part of the burnham   plan northerly island today it's a peaceful  park as daniel burnham originally intended   but the history of this island is anything but  peaceful after the fair was held here the island   was proposed as the site for the united nations  headquarters when new york city was chosen instead   it was converted into an airport named for its  biggest booster merrill c meigs he was publisher   of the chicago herald examiner and a pilot meigs  foresaw the coming age of business air travel but when the airport's 50-year lease expired  in 1996 mayor richard m daly wanted meg's field   gone airport supporters fought to keep it open but on march 30 2003 the mayor  unilaterally ended the debate he   dispatched a fleet of bulldozers in the  middle of the night to dig up the runway the faa fined the city 33 thousand dollars  for closing the airport without notifying them since then they've done some prairie  planting and put in these walking paths   but as of 2008 mayor daley's  400 million dollar dream of   fully transforming this island into a natural  waterfront landscape was still on the drawing   board not too many people use the park  yet but it's been a lifesaver for birds   literally a part-time bird hospital here treats  thousands of birds [Music] including those   that collide with downtown skyscrapers during  migration season he's got a break to the ulna   85 percent of the birds survive and it should  heal on its own and are released into the wild across from northerly island is another  controversial lakefront icon soldier field   many people say the rehab of this historic  stadium in 2003 looks like a spaceship   crash landed on top of it but others say it  makes a bold modern statement on the skyline the goal of the project was to preserve  the classical colonnade and other historic   features of the exterior while making the  outdated facility totally state of the art but after the renovation the national park  service stripped the building of its national   historic landmark designation saying soldier  field no longer retains its historic integrity   and the stadium certainly has a lot of history   a crowd of more than a hundred thousand  watched gene tunney and jack dempsey duke   it out there in 1927. charles lindbergh  received a hero's welcome that same year there were pageants and even rodeos the bears moved to soldier field in 1971   from wrigley field in a deal cooked up by the  first mayor daily but fans never really loved it until now everyone agrees the new soldier  field is a great place to watch a game   it's used for a hundred events every year but  critics say it's a boon for the few that is   bears fans and the team owners at the expense of  the many that is the taxpayers the bears did put   up an unprecedented 200 million dollars toward the  more than half billion dollar cost of the stadium   but most of the rest came from one of the largest  government contributions in the history of pro   sports according to the chicago tribune  in return the project gave the public   between 11 and 17 acres of new park land  depending on who's doing the counting directly north of soldier field standing like  a great greek temple is the field museum of   natural history daniel burnham's design was in  fact inspired by a greek temple the erecthion on   the acropolis in athens big crowd pleasers here  are the dinosaurs like these in the new evolving   planet exhibit and of course sue the largest and  most complete tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found   the museum has 22 million objects and specimens  in its collection incredibly less than one percent   of that collection is on display millions of  other precious objects like this 1500 year old   etruscan sarcophagus are stored here underground  in the new collections resource center [Music] the   museum calls it a library of life for researchers  from all over the world items are catalogued just   as in a library except instead of books there are  things like pickled specimens of extinct animals   and anthropological artifacts  from the 1893 world's fair [Music]   on the public side you'll find field museum  classics like the man-eating lions of savo   the art of life like taxidermy was pioneered at  the field museum in the late 1800s by an outdoor   adventurer named carl akeley akeley thought the  mounted animals of his day looked nothing like   what he'd seen on safaris so he invented a way to  stretch animal skins over a paper mache mannequin   to create a much more realistic effect these  fighting elephants are akeley's best known works   his wife killed the larger of the two  on a museum-sponsored trip to africa next door to the field museum is another  museum encrusted in classical ornament   but there's something fishy about  it the shed aquarium opened in 1930   and the architects graham anderson probest in  white followed an aquatic theme everywhere [Music]   but of course the big attraction here is going  eye to eye with real live denizens of the deep like the piranhas in the new amazon rising exhibit   the pacific northwest is showcased in  the oceanarium built in 1991. [Music]   it's home to chicago's beloved beluga whales you  can visit a caribbean reef in the building's road   tundu watching a diver feed the fish here  has been a shed favorite for many years the aquarium opened with a three million dollar  gift from john g shedd to fill up its fish tanks   for the very first time the aquarium shipped a  million gallons of sea water from key west florida   in 160 railroad tank cars if that sounds like a  big moving project imagine this the shed imported   more than 17 tons of sand from the philippines  for the seabed of the new wild reef exhibit   here you can watch sharks through the  glass walls that curve over your head after your voyage to the bottom of the sea it's  only a few steps to the farthest corners of the   universe at nearby adler planetarium it was the  first planetarium in the western hemisphere when   it opened in 1930. the famous sculptor  alfonso iannelli created the low relief   zodiac figures ianelli also created the bronze  figures of the planets in the entry hall   pluto is missing because it wasn't discovered  until just before the museum was set to open   but pluto lost its status as a planet in 2006  so ianelli's sculpture is once again accurate   the museum's collection includes everything  from ancient astronomical instruments to the   gemini space capsule flown by jim lovell and buzz  aldrin before their separate voyages to the moon the three museums we just visited were all  connected together in 1997 when lakeshore drive   was moved west of the field museum creating the 85  acre museum campus part of that project included   this underpass which allows us to  stroll directly into grant park [Music] grant park is downtown chicago's  grand classical front yard   unlike the parks to the north and south which  imitate nature this one is formal symmetrical   it's modeled after gardens  at versailles near paris at the south end of grant park these 106 headless  cast iron giants were hand molded by poland's most   famous living artist magdalena abakinovic the work  called agora is a comment on people's tendency to   blindly go along this enormous work of art is a  sign that the long sleepy south end of grant park   is waking up thanks in part to a huge condo  building boom in the south loop [Music]   there's no statue of grant in grant park  grant's statue is in lincoln park and lincoln   has a statue here in grant park from 1926 by  augustus saint-gaudens but the real hero of grant   park wasn't lincoln and it wasn't grant either or  any other u.s president it was aaron montgomery   ward chicago's catalog king he fought a 20-year  long battle to preserve the downtown lakefront   for the people but in his own day he was widely  considered a nuisance and an obstacle to progress ward left his home in niles michigan  as a teenager to seek his fortune   while working as a traveling salesman in rural  america he got the idea that made him rich   he realized he could offer better products  and prices than small town general stores   by selling merchandise through the mail  to help win over skeptical customers   he made an unheard unheard-of guarantee  your money back if not satisfied by 1885   ward's company was so successful that he  built this eight-story building right on   michigan avenue it gave ward a sweeping lakefront  view but what he saw out his windows made him   fighting mad on maps it was called lake park but  it more closely resembled a trashy no-man's land   there were squatters shacks piles of rubbish  and even the occasional traveling circus   and oh yes the illinois central railroad remember  the illinois central came up the lakefront in 1856   in the downtown area the trains actually ran on  a trestle about a hundred yards out in the lake   the city planned to fill the area  between the shoreline and the trestle   to create a new lakefront park but they didn't  really get around to finishing the job until the   great fire of 1871 when the charred remains of  the city were dumped into the lake that's right   when you visit parts of grant park today you're  standing on the ashes of the chicago fire   the city proposed improving the shabby park with  various civic buildings including city hall a   police station and a power plant but montgomery  ward believed the lakefront belonged to the people   so in the 1890s he began a 20-year series of legal  battles to force the city to clean up the land   and to forbid it from erecting any buildings  there by 1897 he had forced the city to clear   the property and to turn it over to the  parks commission they enlarged the park   even more with landfill east of the tracks  but ward's biggest battle was yet to come   it was a fight over this spot where buckingham  fountain stands today and believe it or not he   found himself opposed to the wishes of that  other great lakefront advocate daniel burnham   in his plan of chicago burnham clearly proposed  a museum for this site and marshall field left   the city 8 million dollars to build it  but to montgomery ward the idea clearly   violated the promise of a lakefront free of  buildings and he went to court to stop it   newspapers politicians and business leaders all  came out against ward the tribune called him a   human icicle but the state supreme court ruled  in ward's favor [Music] a month before martial   field's bequest was set to expire a location was  found near 12th street and the problem was solved   ward said in an interview had i known in 1890  how long it would take me to preserve a park   for the people against their will i doubt if  i would have undertaken it perhaps i may yet   see the public appreciate my efforts but i doubt  it he died in 1913 after years of failing health but battles over buildings in the park didn't die  with montgomery ward in 2008 a huge fight erupted   over plans supported by mayor daley to build  a new chicago children's museum in grant park   the design puts most of the museum under  the park the city council approved the plan   but the neighborhood aldermen and a coalition of  interest groups vowed to file lawsuits to stop it   montgomery ward may never have gotten the  appreciation he deserved but the public   sure came to appreciate the park it's mobbed  during summer mega events like taste of chicago there are big music festivals and of course the 4th of july fireworks  which as every chicagoan knows happened on   july 3rd the chicago marathon starts and  finishes here and hundreds of thousands come   every year for a sometimes silly parade  of lighted boats called venetian night   ladies and gentlemen it's the oldest and  longest running city event the eyes of   the world were on grant park on november 4th  2008 as tens of thousands of people gathered   to celebrate barack obama's historic  election change has come to america at the very center of chicago's front yard  on the site of montgomery ward's last stand   is buckingham fountain architects bennett parsons  and frost modeled it on one of the fountains at   versailles but it's twice as large in fact it was  the largest decorative fountain in the world when   it was completed in 1927. the central jet shoots  water 13 stories into the sky [Music] the fountain   symbolizes lake michigan the four bronze sea  creatures represent the four bordering states   a wealthy heiress named kate buckingham gave  the fountain to chicago in memory of her brother   clarence now everybody knows buckingham  fountain but what almost nobody knows is   that the lakefront here by the  fountain is called queens landing that's because in 1959 a young queen  elizabeth was ferry to shore here for a grand   entrance after arriving in chicago aboard her  royal yacht and after that it seemed as though   the whole great city were combining to roar its  full-throated welcome she spent part of her time   at the conrad hilton hotel across michigan avenue  from grant park the decor was fit for a queen but   this sculpture which once stood in the lobby is  all american because one of the two boys who posed   for it grew up to be a u.s supreme court justice  john paul stevens and his brother modeled for   it when they were little boys at the request of  their father and grandfather who built the hotel   when it opened as the stevens hotel in 1927 it  was supposedly the largest hotel in the world   the street in front of the hotel  was the scene of one of the most   dramatic events during the democratic  national convention of 1968. [Applause]   vietnam war protesters were demonstrating  across the street in grand park later they masked in front of the hotel because  many convention delegates were staying there   it turned into a riot that was beamed  live to tv audiences all over the world next door to the hilton is another hotel  made famous by a political convention   the term smoke-filled room was  coined here at the blackstone hotel   during the deadlocked 1920 republican  convention cigar chomping political   bosses huddled together in this room on the ninth  floor and picked warren g harding as the nominee   the associated press described this as a  smoke-filled room when it reported on the deal   you can still book a stay in this room today  it's 3 500 a night and it's not in smoking the   blackstone and the hilton are part of a cliff of  early 20th century buildings along michigan avenue   right in the middle of this classical cliff is  a shimmering modern jewel the spurtus building   a jewish museum library and college that  opened in 2007. architects crick and sexton   took their inspiration from the  theme of light in jewish teachings natural light pours into the building  through the folded glass facade from one cutting edge building to another this  is the auditorium building now it might look   like a big old stone fortress to you but  when it opened in 1890 it dazzled people   every bit as much as the new spurtus building  does today it proclaimed chicago's arrival as   a city of great culture and it instantly  made architect louis sullivan famous   sullivan rejected historical ornament which  he considered dishonest in a modern building   instead he let the building's  structure speak for itself [Music] the enormous and ornate theater has nearly  perfect acoustics thanks to the engineering   skill of sullivan's partner dankmar adler  today it's the home of roosevelt university   daniel burnham worked on the great plan of  chicago from a top floor office in this building   he could look right out on the lakefront  as he planned its transformation   burnham also designed the building itself which  opened in 1904 as the railway exchange burnham   designed orchestra hall next door in a desperate  attempt to save the chicago symphony orchestra   the orchestra originally performed in  louis sullivan's auditorium theater   but that hall was just too big to sell out   fiery conductor theodore thomas threatened to  quit the orchestra didn't get a new smaller home   but less than a month after it opened thomas  was dead and some people blamed the building   thomas held marathon rehearsals in the unfinished  hall even though he was starting to feel sick   it was very damp and cold inside because  the plaster was wet and it was december   after giving just five performances in  the new hall thomas died of pneumonia over the years the cso  achieved international acclaim   but the acoustics of burnham's  hall were continually criticized   finally in 1997 a 110 million dollar renovation  reshaped the interior to improve the sound   seating and audience amenities were also improved across michigan avenue from orchestra hall is  the site of chicago's first convention center no   it's not the art institute it's a building that  stood here before the art institute was built   it was the interstate industrial exposition  building republican james a garfield and   democrat grover cleveland were both nominated  for president at conventions held in this hall   the exposition building was raised in 1892 to  make room for what is now the art institute   the new building was first used by the world's  colombian exposition of 1893 to host a series   of international conferences representing every  conceivable activity of humanity it was the only   fair building not in hyde park when the fair  ended the art institute moved in but the list   of artists etched into the freeze was either  false advertising or wishful thinking [Music]   the early collection had few significant  paintings beyond a handful of dutch masters   and virtually all of the sculptures  were replicas of famous works over time the permanent collection grew as many  of chicago's wealthy families bequeathed major   works of art and helped to fund important  purchases [Music] one of the most sobering   galleries is a display of fragments from great  chicago buildings that have been demolished   the biggest fragment of all is the entire  trading room from louis sullivan's magnificent   stock exchange building a ragtag group of  preservationists salvaged it piece by piece   even while the great building was being torn down  around them one of them the great architectural   photographer richard nicol was killed when  a part of the building collapsed on him   the entrance arch from the stock exchange was also  saved and reassembled outside the art institute   it joins other artworks outside the museum  most notably the famous lions by edward   chemies which were installed in 1894 the art  institute has expanded many times since 1893   but nothing comes close to the opening of the new  modern wing in 2009 the most dramatic feature is   what architect renzo piano calls the flying carpet  roof that seems to levitate above the building   it's made of custom designed fins that bathe  the top floor gallery in soft natural light   while blocking out the harsh rays of direct sun   the new wing houses modern and contemporary  art photography architecture and design   it increases the museum's overall gallery  space by 30 percent the modern wings rooftop   sculpture garden is open to the public free  of charge you can get there from monroe street   or from millennium park by crossing this 620  foot long bridge also designed by renzo piano even land lovers swoon at this site   chicago's lakefront in summer dotted  with thousands of pleasure boats [Music] i love to sail so i pitched us a ride on red  witch a 77-foot wooden schooner built in 1986   this is just one of dozens of charter and  tour boats that work the chicago lakefront   lake michigan and the other four great lakes  hold one fifth of all the world's fresh water   for all its vastness the lake has suffered  at the hands of humankind we've polluted the   water and radically upset the ecological  balance by introducing non-native species and there's another threat dropping  lake levels due to global climate change   scientists now generally agree that over  the next century the mean water level in   lake michigan will drop by several feet an odd  benefit of low water is bigger beaches this is   kathy osterman beach on chicago's north side the  lakefront park system ends rather abruptly here   lakeshore drive swerves inland disgorging  traffic onto hollywood avenue and sheridan road daniel burnham's plan proposed continuing the  lakefront parks all the way north to winnetka   but from here to the evanston border  most of chicago's shoreline remains   private property one of those private  buildings became an icon of 1970s television i have a beautiful view a warm street morning   plenty of sunshine that's  what i love about chicago extending south from hollywood is the most  ambitious stretch of man-made lakefront   lincoln park chicago's  largest and most popular park [Music] the park was built  in stages partly on lakeville   over a hundred year period starting at the south  end and working northward when the most recent   extension to hollywood avenue was finished in  1957 it left a lakefront landmark landlocked   the popular edgewater beach hotel by benjamin  marshall famous for its pink stucco and boardwalk   in this hotel baseball star eddie waitquis  was shot by a female stalker in 1949   the incident was recreated in the movie  the natural starring robert redford   that's right the hotel was demolished  in the late 1960s all that remains is   the neighboring edgewater beach apartment  building which still sports the pink paint job   now we'll start our journey south  through lincoln park where the   man-made lakefront is sculpted with  hills harbors meadows and promontories for millions of city dwellers lincoln park is like  the big backyard they don't have at home [Music] golfers have a nine-hole course here  [Music] the park also has dog beaches chess at north avenue and a summer theater at  fullerton what's wrong what is it will you go   away what is now called theater on the lake  was built in 1920 as the chicago daily news   fresh air sanitarium for sick children the prairie style building by dwight perkins  was equipped with wire basket cribs or 250   babies to swing in healthy lake breezes  maybe the most amazing feature of linkin   park isn't man-made [Music] it's an urban  sand dune [Music] started establishing itself   a few years ago after a park district crew  forgot to comb a section of montrose beach   with the help of volunteers the dune  area has grown to more than nine acres   montrose point was another nike  missile site during the cold war   this thick honeysuckle hedge was planted to  screen the missile base from view [Music]   after the base was torn down birders started  noticing that migrating birds loved to use the   hedge as a stopover there's some crackles up there  these things here they're common birds the birders   started calling it the magic hedge because of  the amazing variety of birds it attracts [Music] many people think daniel burnham would roll  over in his grave if he could see how his   winding lakefront carriage drive has been  replaced by a multi-lane expressway but actually   daniel burnham looked forward to the day when  automobiles would replace horses and steam engines he wrote with no smoke no gases no litter of  horses your air and streets will be clean and pure   according to author eric larson lakeshore drive  was chicago's first freeway when it opened in   1941. the bridges had nice art deco style  detailing much of it still survives when the   expressway first opened there were cloverleaf  interchanges at montrose wilson and lawrence   but exiting onto city streets at highway speeds   turned out to be dangerous and the clover leafs  were removed there were also reversible lanes   a system of mechanical barriers could be raised  and lowered to accommodate rush hour traffic   even in the days before automobiles people were  concerned about traffic on lake shore drive   way back in 1873 lincoln park hired a police force  that enforced a speed limit on horses of six miles   per hour except on tuesdays and friday afternoons  when the limit was suspended quote for the benefit   of owners of vast horses the elks memorial here at  diversity is a real treasure hidden in plain sight   it was dedicated in 1926 to the memory of the  1 000 members of this fraternal order killed in   world war one [Music] the elks spared no expense  they said their goal was to arrest the attention   of every beholder it certainly impressed a very  young charlton heston woe to the hand that shed   this costly blood he and other recent graduates  of northwestern university's theater department   used it as a setting for their low-budget  film adaptation of shakespeare's julius caesar   let each man render me his bloody head  some other classically inspired buildings   along the lakefront were also used  in the movie including soldier field   forget not in your speed antonius and the  museum of science and industry [Applause] our next stop in lincoln park is another  hidden gem north pond is part of a chain of   man-made waterways that meander through some  of the oldest parts of lincoln park [Music]   just steps from city streets you're immersed  in woodland prairie and savannah landscapes at the other end of north pond this new building  houses chicago's oldest public museum today it's   called the peggy notabart nature museum but it was  founded in 1857 as the chicago academy of sciences a favorite attraction here  is the indoor butterfly haven   where visitors can watch as butterflies  emerge and test their wings for the first time directly across the street from the nature museum  is this chicago's most amazing secret garden   but for its designer alfred caldwell it  was the biggest heartbreak of his career   in 1936 caldwell redesigned this old victorian  lily pool as a river of glacial melt water   cutting through midwestern limestone caldwell was  a brilliant and ornery landscape architect trained   in the naturalistic prairie style he designed many  of the lakefront parks we've seen on this tour   but he and the park district  butted heads again and again   the confrontation came to a head at the lily  pool his budget was cut and so he cashed his   own life insurance policy to buy the native  wildflowers he needed to complete his masterpiece but just eight years after it opened the park  district allowed the lincoln park zoo to turn it   into an open-air exhibit of exotic birds the birds  destroyed plants causing erosion of the lagoon   all that dirt that's adobe phones up there  when caldwell returned to visit it in 1990   he was outraged what idiot chopped this up or what  idiot put this stuff in front of it what idiot   the garden was meticulously restored between  2000 and 2002 at a cost of 2.5 million dollars   it was renamed in alfred caldwell's honor sadly  caldwell died in 1998 before the restoration began right next door to caldwell's midwestern  paradise is a tropical jungle under glass   the lincoln park conservatory built in the 1890s  seeing exotic plants was a big attraction during   the smoky industrial age [Music] it's not only  a jungle in here it's a jungle out there wow lincoln park zoo is just past the conservatory   it's one of america's oldest public zoos and it's  also one of the only free zoos left in the country   the zoo got a modest start in 1868 when new  york's central park donated a pair of mute swans   they were put in southpaw  which became known as swan lake   later people swans joined the flock  next came a bear cub purchased for 10 during the great depression the zoo adopted  animals from circuses that could no longer   care for them [Music] many zoo buildings  are miniature masterpieces architecture   some were designed by prairie  school architect dwight perkins   this zoo building housed chicago's first  aquarium it's now a cafeteria for zoo visitors   dwight perkins most magnificent building here is  for people not animals it's cafe brower from 1908   it has a superb prairie style exterior and an arts  and crafts style great hall on the second floor the irresistible mere cats are part of the  regenstein african journey that takes you through   a variety of naturalistic african environments  to see some of the world's rarest creatures and the african apes got a new 26  million dollar home in 2004 [Music]   the chimpanzees and endangered gorillas rotate  between three different enclosures to keep life   interesting hello there i'm glad you could join  us again today marlon perkins got his start in tv   when he was director of linkin park zoo in the  1940s jim i wonder would you please hold these   for me for nearly a decade he hosted a weekly  show called zoo parade you'll see how broadcast   live from the lincoln park zoo on nbc would you  wake up please and come over here on this side at   first he was just trying to attract more visitors  to the zoo cute little kittens they were [Music]   but eventually tv became his full-time job with  his wildly popular program mutual of omaha's   wild kingdom working with young animals is always  rewarding jim earlier i told you there's no statue   of grant in grant park chicago's great monument  to the civil war hero turned chief executive   is here in lincoln park the statue  overlooks north avenue beach [Music]   the beach house here resembles  a great lake steamship   it's modeled on an older beach house  built in 1939 which had deteriorated the top deck is a unique lakefront restaurant   it gives you a bird's eye view  of all those young singles   who gather at north avenue beach for that summer  mating ritual called beach volleyball [Music] and of course this is a great place  to see the annual air and water show the organizers say it's one of the largest  spectator events in the world drawing more   than two million people annually but it started  in 1959 as a little family water show at a   lakefront park on chicago avenue the budget was  88 on a whim park supervisor al benedict called   glenview naval air station and they sent a  helicopter to demonstrate an air sea rescue   the next year the air force sent the  thunderbirds and from there it just took off there's an actual relic from the chicago  fire in lincoln park but you really have   to look for it it's down here in the bushes  this blob is what's left of a hardware store   that melted during the fire the store wasn't  in lincoln park it was downtown but like so   many other pieces of chicago's past it's found a  permanent home here at the chicago history museum   it was founded as the chicago historical  society in 1856 when chicago had less than   20 years of history to preserve the museum added  some really cool things to its collection in 2006   after a massive renovation that  nearly tripled its exhibit space   like the city's first l car built in 1892 it  took visitors to the world's colombian exposition   as part of the expansion the museum built a  new parking lot now that doesn't sound too   interesting until you find out that the remains of  81 people were unearthed as part of the excavation   including one body in a kind of iron casket that  was popular in the 1850s it turns out bodies are   often found during construction at the south end  of lincoln park because this was once a cemetery it was established in 1837 the same year chicago  was incorporated but whoever came up with the idea   of putting a cemetery on the lakefront didn't know  too much about public health the high water table   meant shallow graves for chicago's departed  many of whom had died of infectious diseases   like cholera health crusader dr john rausch urged  the city to empty the cemetery and convert it   to a beautiful lakefront park the city agreed  and in 1864 officially designated it lake park   designer swain nelson drained some marshes to form  meadows and deepened others to create lagoons he   laid out carriage drives and pedestrian paths and  he personally chewed away the occasional wandering   cow for which he got an extra 15 a year but  removing the bodies to other cemeteries took more   than 10 years and as we now know untold thousands  of the departed never departed lincoln park there's still one marked grave in lincoln park  the couch mausoleum it was built for ira couch   he came to chicago in 1836 and made  his fortune as proprietor of the famous   tremont house hotel his brother commissioned  the family mausoleum at a staggering cost of   seven thousand dollars from chicago's first  professional architect john mills van osdol   so why wasn't this grave ever  moved well we don't really know   a newspaper article from 1900 mentions a supreme  court case but no one's been able to find any   records of that other reports say it was just so  big and heavy that it would have cost too much   the number of bodies inside is also a mystery  because those records haven't been found either   just south of the old city cemetery the  catholic church built a cemetery of its own   it was vacated at about the same time  the church built this magnificent   mansion for the archbishop in 1880  on some of the old cemetery property   the humbled church leader was soon surrounded by  chicago's fanciest neighborhood the gold coast wealthy chicagoans started moving here  from the near south side in the late 1800s   leader of the mass migration was potter palmer  a dry goods merchant and real estate baron   who gave marshall field his first job in  chicago in 1882 palmer filled a frog pond   and built what can only be described as a castle  on the lakefront palmer's wife a kentucky born   aristocrat named bertha honore was the queen  of chicago society her parties were legendary   she entertained in her famous picture  gallery filled with impressionist paintings   mary cassatt advised her on purchases  and she knew claude monet personally   the parties in this gold coast  home would have made bertha palmer   blush this was the playboy mansion where hugh  hefner lived and entertained in the 1960s and 70s   a latin inscription on the front door read si  non osquilas noli if you don't swing don't ring   most gold coast residents wanted homes  designed in traditional classical style   but a wealthy lumberman named james charnley  hired the radical modern architect louis sullivan   to design this house in 1891 assisting sullivan  was his cocky young draftsman frank lloyd wright to me the dramatic three-story atrium gives a  hint of wright's future prairie style the house   is now the national headquarters of the society of  architectural historians and it's open for tours across lakeshore drive from the gold  coast oak street beach was the most   popular spot to see and be seen today it's as popular as ever chicago's most spectacular bike trail runs  for 18 and a half miles along the lakefront   but at times it can seem a little more  like an obstacle course on your left south of oak street beach is a patch of pricey  real estate with a sort of wild west history   originally this land was under the lake but in the  early 1800s as piers were extended from the mouth   of the river sand began to fill in here the newly  created land wasn't technically part of chicago   so it became a lawless vice district called  appropriately enough the sands then in 1886 an   itinerant circus promoter and would-be gun runner  named george wellington streeter ran aground here   in his dilapidated steamboat he decided to  live aboard the wreck and he and his wife   ma streeter became the unofficial first family of  a whole squatters camp that grew up around them   it took more than 30 years of court  fights and even armed battles before the   city finally evicted streeter for selling  liquor on sundays and that opened the way   for development of this prime real estate  today it's still known as streeterville   east lakeshore drive is lined with luxury  apartment buildings from the early 1900s they're   now condos many were designed by benjamin marshall  who was himself a member of chicago's social elite   marshall also designed a luxury hotel  for visitors to the neighborhood   the drake hotel opened on new year's eve in  1920 in the hotel's legendary cape cod room   you can see where joe dimaggio and marilyn monroe  supposedly carved their initials into the bar towering above the drake the sleek art  deco style palmolive building from 1929   by architects hollibert and root cuts a dashing  figure on the skyline it was the headquarters of   playboy magazine from 1967 to 1990. i guess hef  wanted to walk to work when you think about the   footage you've got 4 913 square feet oh my god a  developer started converting it to condos in 2002.   oh man now catherine what's the asking price  here four million six fifty uh-huh no affordable   i'm just old enough to remember the beacon  light atop this building that used to swoop   across the horizon it was named for charles  lindbergh and it was visible in four states   a second fixed beacon pointed pilots to what  is now midway airport but eventually taller   structures went up like the john hancock building  and the neighbors didn't want the light shining   into their apartments it was shut off in 1981  and shipped to an aviation museum in wisconsin the john hancock insurance company which  has gotten so much recognition from this   famous building actually came to own  it because of a construction snafu   a faulty caisson required repairs that  delayed completion of the building   and hancock the primary lien holder assumed  ownership the hancock is a much-loved chicago   building but it opened the door to more  high-rises like water tower place and others   that some say have changed the magnificent  mile into a magnificent mall [Music]   amidst the cacophony of commercialism on  north michigan avenue an island of spiritual   contemplation survives fourth presbyterian  church was built in 1914 when michigan   avenue was still called pine street an even older  north michigan avenue landmark is a chicago icon   the old water tower from 1869 by architect w w  boyington it's of course most famous for being   one of only a handful of buildings to survive  the chicago fire the elaborate medieval looking   water tower is really just a fancy covering  for a mundane standpipe that used to equalize   the pressure over here in the pumping station  which is still functioning across the street   part of the building is now the home  of looking glass theater company [Music] the public station was built to be  the receiving end of the city's first   water tunnel workers dug the two-mile long tunnel  underneath lake michigan by hand in the 1860s   after water near the shore became too polluted  to drink out in the lake at the other end of   the tunnel was a water intake pipe protected  by a building called a crib today the cribs   are connected to water treatment plants on  the lakefront one is adjacent to navy pier   looking back at the shoreline from here you  see a pair of buildings that revolutionized   architecture 860 880 north lakeshore drive built  in 1949 the architect was ludwig mies van der rohe   head of architecture at iit and one of the  most important architects of the 20th century   the chicago landmarks commission said these twin  apartment towers set the standard by which all   subsequent glass and steel high rises are judged  [Music] the museum of contemporary art chose a   modernist style when they built their new home in  1996 german architect joseph paul klejus gave it   an iconic grand stairway in front and an elegant  internal stairway shaped like a leaf [Music]   artists today don't just paint and sculpt so  the museum presents a multitude of media [Music]   next is an apartment tower that's so dramatic  you might actually forget to ask how it ended   up on what's supposed to be public ground  along the lakefront according to the book   the politics of place a city ordinance permitted  construction of harbor and terminal buildings   near the mouth of the chicago river the developers  of lake point tower used this loophole to get   permission for their building which opened in 1968  the architects george shipwright and john heinrich   included a green roof before the term was even  coined the private 2.5 acre garden sits atop   the building's three-story parking garage it's  another work by the great landscape architect   alfred caldwell residents in lake point tower  get an amazing view of navy pier [Music] the agency that operates the pier claims  it's the number one tourist attraction in the   midwest [Music] more than 8.6 million visitors  a year come for the piers many attractions   including the children's museum an  enormous museum of stained glass   featuring antique and modern works  and the chicago shakespeare theater   thing that should repair my youth and  there's the giant ferris wheel inspired   by the world's fair of 1893 at 15 stories  tall it's half the size of the original navy pier is one of several downtown  piers called for in the burnham plan   but it's actually the only one ever built  it opened as municipal pier in 1916.   from the beginning it had two purposes it  was a terminal for great lakes shipping and a recreational spot for everyday chicagoans  people flocked here to have a drink in the beer   garden dance in the ballroom or just take  in a fresh lake breeze on a hot summer night by the 1930s the shipping business  completely dried up at navy pier   the u.s navy used the pier as a  training facility from 1942-1946 the first president bush got his  aircraft carrier training here   the university of illinois used the  pier as a campus from 1946 to 1965.   but by the 1970s it was more or less abandoned  except for a few festivals and art fairs it sat   vacant until the 1990s when it was transformed  into the urban playground we know today   the piers popularity notwithstanding many  critics say it's just too commercial as   of 2008 the pure authority was  considering plans for a makeover this landmark lighthouse has helped boaters find  the mouth of the chicago river since 1917. [Music]   at the river's mouth former industrial land  that lay vacant for decades has suddenly   sprouted a forest of new condo towers even as  the real estate market continued to sag in 2008   the biggest buzz here is about the spire chicago's  first building by spanish superstar architect   santiago calatrava [Music] at 150 stories and 2000  feet the twisting condo tower will be the tallest   building in the western hemisphere 25 taller  than sears tower the project broke ground in 2007   but amidst the economic crisis at the end of  2008 construction was put on hold and architect   calatrava filed a lien claiming the developer  owed him more than 11 million dollars in unpaid   fees [Music] in 1937 the city erected this great  bridge near the mouth of the river it's called the   franklin delano roosevelt memorial bridge because  roosevelt came to chicago to dedicate it but in   his speech it was clear he had something more  important in mind the growing threat of hitler in   europe it seems to be unfortunately true that the  epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading [Music]   chicago motorists of a certain age will remember  that lakeshore drive south of the bridge used to   take a rather annoying zigzag route called the  s-curve the city straightened the s-curve in the   1980s by rerouting lakeshore drive to the east  a part of lakeshore drive that was abandoned   when the s-curve was straightened was turned into  an inspiring park dedicated to cancer survivors this is another part of what used to  be lakeshore drive now it's a ramp that   leads us into an astonishing new 4 billion  city within the city called lakeshore east   the most eye-catching high-rise  at lakeshore east is called   aqua an 82-story mixed-use building by  chicago architect jeannie gang of studio gang   she says the undulating exterior was inspired  by limestone outcroppings found around the great   lakes this building and all of lakeshore  east stand on property that was once an   enormous railroad yard it was the end of the line  for the illinois central that ran up the lakefront   in the 1970s the illinois center development began  rising on the air rights above the western portion   of the old railroad yard the very first building  developed on the illinois central air rights was   the prudential building in 1955. for many years  the prudential was chicago's tallest building   the chicago cultural center is not built  on illinois central air rights it's across   michigan avenue but one of its most distinctive  features was inspired by the railroad yard   the interior is decorated in glistening mosaics  partly because the architects wanted a kind of   artwork that could easily be cleaned of the  soot from the steam engines across the street   the breathtaking tiffany dome restored  in 2008 is the largest in the world   this magnificent building was built  to house the chicago public library   the area around the cultural center  has seen a boom in condo development   thanks to millennium park new towers have been  built and old ones like montgomery ward's office   building have been converted i can just imagine  ward looking out these windows and tracking the   progress of his battle to transform the lakefront  into a park if only he could see the view today [Music]   millennium park opened in 2004 [Music] crowds  block here to splash in artist jamie plensa's   crown fountain with its glass towers displaying  the spitting images of 1 000 ordinary chicagoans   [Music] a marvel at the skyline mirrored in anish  kapoor's sculpture officially called cloudgate   but universally known by its affectionate  nickname the beam and they take in summer   concerts under the swooping stainless steel of  architect frank gehry's pritzker pavilion other   highlights also include a serpentine bridge also  designed by frank geary a perennial garden with a   man-made stream that separates a light side and a  dark side the harris theater for music and dance   and a recreation of the peristyle a monument  that stood on this site until the grant park   underground garage was built in the 1950s [Music]  millennium park in a way completed the work that   montgomery ward started a century earlier it's  built on the one slice of downtown lakefront   that had never been converted into a park it was  part of the old illinois central rail yard even   after the yard was mostly abandoned it remained a  hole in the otherwise seamless downtown lakefront   now mayor richard m daly's dentist office was  in one of the buildings across michigan avenue   from here every time he'd have his teeth cleaned  he'd look out the window just as montgomery ward   had done years ago and think about filling that  cavity on daly's orders the city devised a plan   to build a new park on stilts high above the old  railroad yard the first design was restrained and   classical like the rest of grant park the cost of  building the park was supposed to be covered by   revenues from a new parking garage underneath it  but construction problems forced delays and costs   skyrocketed far beyond the predicted garage  revenues chicago's philanthropic community came   to the rescue and in the process they commissioned  a much more dramatic and expensive park [Music]   we'll never know if montgomery ward  would have approved of millennium park   or if he would have gone back to court to stop the  building of these massive monuments of billions   but in the court of public opinion it's a winner   whether you're a millionaire with a penthouse  view or just a kid from a city neighborhood   this is your park and so is  the rest of chicago's lakefront it's a haven for birders and bikers ball players young parents pushing strollers and seniors  strolling through their retirement years   boaters with luxury yachts or just a pair of oars   it's a people's paradise that's  truly unique in the world   and somewhere daniel burnham is smiling [Music]   generous support is also provided by the  joseph and bessie feinberg foundation   the walter e heller foundation in memory of alice  decosta and the a montgomery ward foundation   with additional support from richard and mary l  gray robert j and roberta l washlow ken norgan   richard lennon peter keller her junior and  diane kelleher and these generous supporters [Music] you

Channel: WTTW

Views: 213,558

Keywords: geoffrey baer, chicago history, chicago documentary, chicago architecture, geoffrey baer chicago videos, geoffrey baer chicago, chicago neighborhoods, geoffrey baer wttw, geoffrey baer pbs, chicago history documentary

Id: qyA4f83sFfk

Length: 90min 20sec (5420 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 17 2021