Commentary: If Promontory Point receives Chicago landmark status, it would be a victory for community activism, historical preservation, public art and waterfront access.
to tear down the point’s historical limestone revetment and replace it with the concrete that encircles much of Chicago’s lakefront. Now, at long last, Promontory Point is on the cusp of receiving true protection as a city landmark.If all goes smoothly, the full City Council will vote April 19 to make Promontory Point a Chicago landmark.
, one Hyde Parker recalled Mayor Richard M. Daley saying at a community forum, “Those people in Hyde Park, they’re not getting anything. Promontory Point can sink into the lake, and God help them if it does.”, often feeling unheard by the city, the April 19 vote is a chance for the new City Council to embrace a different narrative, one in which city and community interactions are governed by understanding, not hostility.
Photographer William Swislow has documented carvings on the revetment dating to the 1930s. As he noted in comments he made to the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers in January, preservation “allows the art to be seen as it was experienced and left by the artists and their friends over the decades since the Point was constructed in the 1930s.” This is an issue of public arts conservation. At stake are not just the rocks themselves but also the history of our city embodied by and carved into them.
Promontory Point’s east side displays the effect of concrete versus limestone on public use. It is the only side of the peninsula already covered by concrete. People come to sit. They look at the lake, but they do not swim. The east side is the only side that denies the public physical water access. The community proposed limestone restoration plan for the eastern side includes access ramps that go all the way down to the water. The city plans provide access only to a concrete walkway.
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