Northerly Island is a 91-acre (370,000 m2) man-made peninsula along Chicago's lakefront. [1]. The site of the Adler Planetarium, Northerly Island connects to the mainland through a narrow isthmus along Solidarity Drive dominated by Neoclassical sculptures of Kościuszko, Havliček and Copernicus[2]. With the demolition of Meigs Field Airport, it is now a part of the Museum Campus and slated to be converted into parkland. A temporary concert venue, the Charter One Pavilion occupies the site of the former airport.
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The idea for Northerly Island began with Daniel Burnham’s “Plan of Chicago” which called for the creation of Northerly Island as a lakefront park at the northern end of a five-island chain between Jackson Park and 12th Street, the only lakefront structure to be built based on Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. In the image to the upper right, Northerly Island forms the southern border of Chicago Harbor (now Monroe Harbor). As indicated by the color green on the original plan, the island was to be populated by trees and grass for the public enjoyment. Work on the island began in 1920 when Chicago voters approved a $20 million bond issue to create Northerly Island, and construction was completed by 1925. A short time later in 1930 Adler Planetarium was built, and in 1933-34 the island was at the center of festivities at the “Century of Progress” World’s Fair. Local publishing mogul Merrill C. Meigs first recommended converting Northerly Island into an airport in 1935, but construction did not begin until after Chicago lost a bid to site the United Nations Headquarters on the island in 1946. The Works Progress Administration connected the island to the mainland via 12th Street in 1938 in the interim period when Northerly Island was full of paths and walkways as well as a beach at 12th Street. Although Mayor Richard J. Daley unofficially proposed converting Meigs Field into a lakefront park, the airport's lease was not set to expire until 1996. His son, Mayor Richard M. Daley, who had pledged to keep the airport open until 2006, reneged and controversially tore up the runways at Meigs Field in the middle of the night, in 2003, purportedly in the name of Homeland security. Plans followed to convert the area into green space and expand upon the neighboring Museum Campus.
By August 2003, construction crews had finished the demolition of Meigs Field. Northerly Island is now a park that features prairie grasses and strolling paths. In 2005, the 7,500 seat Charter One Pavilion opened on the site, which hosts music concerts in the summer. In February 2006, the city announced plans to open a heliport on the island.[3] The island also has a modest beach, named 12th Street Beach (beach house pictured).
On January 23, 2007, the Chicago 2016 Olympics bid committee revealed that Northerly Island would play a major role in the 2016 Olympics should Chicago be selected to host the event. In addition to venues on Northerly Island, the plans would call for rowing events to take place in Monroe Harbor, just north of Northerly Island.[4]
Other Chicagoans had a different vision for the lakefront area. After the 2003 closure, the Friends of Meigs Field introduced a new plan, "Parks and Planes," which promoted the idea of an aviation museum, small operating runway, and park land on the property. This plan suggested that Chicago could qualify for federal funds earmarked for airport property acquisition, to purchase many more area of parkland in Chicago's neighborhoods and to improve the Chicago Park District's maintenance budget.[5]
The FAA maintains a Remote Communications Outlet (RCO) on the property, for two-way radio communications between the Kankakee Flight Service Station and nearby aircraft. This transmission facility (122.15 MHz) provides unique coverage for the busy lakefront flight corridor.[6]
There is also a proposal to erect a 1:1-scale replica of Wacław Szymanowski's Art Nouveau statue of Frederic Chopin found in Warsaw's Royal Baths on the site for the 200th anniversary of Frederic Chopin's birth. The location is being lobbied for due to its proximity to the monuments honoring the prominent Poles Tadeusz Kościuszko by Kazimierz Chodzinski and Nicholas Copernicus by Bertel Thorvaldsen along Solidarity Drive.
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