Northerly Island Park

Northerly Island Park — a prairie built on a demolished runway

Ninety-one acres of made land pushed out into Lake Michigan, and one of the strangest biographies any park in America can claim. It was drawn by Daniel Burnham as the first of five offshore islands, built as only one, hosted a world’s fair, spent half a century as a downtown airport, and had its runway destroyed overnight on a mayor’s order in 2003. Then Jeanne Gang was asked what to do with it, and the answer was prairie. Today it is a mile of trail through restored grassland with the entire Chicago skyline standing across the water behind you — the best view of the city from the city, and almost nobody knows to come here for it.

Highlights

• The restored prairie and savanna — the southern forty acres were rebuilt as Midwestern grassland and woodland beginning in the fall of 2012, a landscape designed by Studio Gang with SmithGroupJJR and opened to the public in September 2015.
• The skyline view — looking back across the water at the whole downtown wall from the lake side, an angle you cannot get from anywhere on the mainland.
• The lagoon and its constructed hills — a pond ringed by engineered topography, built specifically to draw wildlife onto an entirely artificial piece of ground.
• The bird stopover — the island sits on a major migratory corridor, and in spring and fall it concentrates migrants in a way that its size has no right to.
• The Adler Planetarium — the 1930 domed building at the island’s northern end, the first planetarium built in the western hemisphere.
• The Huntington Bank Pavilion — the seasonal outdoor concert amphitheater on the island’s northern half, which fills the whole peninsula with people on show nights.

What you’ll find

The island reads as two halves. The north is hard-surfaced and event-driven, with the planetarium and the concert venue; the south is the restoration, a deliberately rough landscape of grass, water and low hills that feels nothing like the manicured lakefront on either side of it.

• A trail loop of roughly a mile through the restored southern grassland.
• The lagoon, its shoreline and the low constructed hills that shelter it from lake wind.
• Native prairie and savanna planting, left tall and unmown through the growing season.
• A small lakefront beach on the island’s eastern shore, connected to the lakefront path.
• Open views in every direction: downtown to the west, the Museum Campus to the north, open water east.
• Fishing spots along the water’s edge, popular with local anglers.

Things to do — and who it’s for

• Photographers — the skyline from the southern end at sunset is the single best reason to make the trip, and it costs nothing.
• Birders — migration turns a modest patch of engineered grassland into one of the more productive spring and fall stops in the city.
• Walkers and runners — a flat, quiet loop with lake air on both sides, a genuine escape from the crowded lakefront trail.
• Architecture and urbanism readers — a physical case study in what a city does with land after the use it was built for disappears.
• Concertgoers — the pavilion puts a stage on the lake with the skyline behind it, which is hard to beat as a venue.
• Anyone visiting the Museum Campus — a short walk delivers you from a crowded museum district into something close to open country.

Getting there & practical

The island lies just off the Museum Campus, south of the downtown core and reachable on foot along the lakefront. The Roosevelt station serves the Red, Orange and Green lines and is the closest rail stop; CTA bus route 146 runs to the Museum Campus year-round and route 130 adds a seasonal shuttle in the warm months. The lakefront trail delivers cyclists straight to the causeway. Entry to the park, the trails and the prairie is free and it keeps standard Chicago Park District hours. The Adler Planetarium is a separately ticketed museum with its own hours, and concerts at the pavilion require tickets sold by the venue; neither is included with the park. One practical warning: erosion from lake storms has damaged the trail on the eastern side, and sections along the open water have been closed indefinitely. Check conditions before planning a full loop. Allow an hour to ninety minutes for the southern restoration on foot.

When to visit

Spring is the birding season and the moment the prairie begins to green after the burn cycle; expect wind straight off cold water, so dress for more than the forecast. Summer is the busiest, with the beach, the concert schedule and long evenings that keep the skyline lit until late; it is also when the grassland stands at full height and the island looks least like a park and most like open country. Autumn is arguably the best of the four — the prairie goes bronze and copper, fall migration passes through, and the crowds vanish once the concert season ends. Winter is severe and largely empty: ice piles along the shore, the wind is genuinely punishing, and the reward is having the finest skyline view in Chicago entirely to yourself.

Good to know

Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago proposed a chain of five artificial islands along the lakefront; this is the only one that was ever built, created by landfill in the 1920s and linked to the mainland by a causeway in 1938. It carried the Century of Progress International Exposition, the Chicago world’s fair of 1933 and 1934. In 1948 it became Merrill C. Meigs Field, a single-runway downtown airport named for the newspaper publisher who had campaigned for it. Its end was abrupt and famous: on the night of March 30, 2003, Mayor Richard M. Daley sent bulldozers to gouge X-shaped trenches into the runway without notice, stranding aircraft and closing the airport permanently. Habitat restoration of the southern forty acres began in the fall of 2012 to a design by Studio Gang working with SmithGroupJJR, and that section opened to the public in September 2015. The scheme deliberately embraced the site’s artificiality rather than disguising it, building topography to generate varied habitat. The one thing that has not gone to plan is the shoreline: the wave action of Lake Michigan proved stronger than the engineering allowed for, and the eastern trail along the open lake has been closed by erosion.

Visitor tips

• Come for the last hour of daylight. The skyline lights come on while the sky is still blue, and that window is the reason photographers make the walk.
• Dress heavier than you would downtown. There is no shelter out here and the lake wind adds a season to whatever the forecast says.
• Check trail closures before you go — the eastern lakeside section has been shut by erosion and the loop may not be complete.

Questions & answers

Is Northerly Island free? Yes. The park, the trails and the prairie restoration are free and open to the public. The Adler Planetarium and concerts at the pavilion are separately ticketed.

Was this really an airport? Yes. Meigs Field operated here from 1948 until March 2003, when Mayor Richard M. Daley ordered the runway destroyed overnight without warning.

Is it a natural island? No. It is entirely made land, built as landfill in the 1920s from a proposal in Daniel Burnham’s 1909 plan, and joined to the shore by a causeway in 1938. Strictly speaking it is a peninsula.

Can I walk the full loop? Not reliably. Erosion from lake storms has closed sections of the eastern trail along the open water indefinitely, so check current conditions before counting on a complete circuit.

How long does a visit take? An hour to ninety minutes for the southern restoration on foot. Add time if you are also visiting the planetarium or arriving early for a concert.

Is it good for children? It works as a nature walk and a beach trip rather than a playground visit. There is open water and exposed shoreline, so young children need supervision.

Who designed the prairie? Studio Gang, the practice of Jeanne Gang, working with SmithGroupJJR. Restoration began in the fall of 2012 and the southern section opened in September 2015.