The bold Park District plan would expand the plaza around Buckingham Fountain to the lakefront — with DuSable Lake Shore Drive tunneled underneath the new public space. Critics say it’s a “pipe dream.”
by Mack Liederman July 31, 2025
DOWNTOWN — A long-awaited improvement plan for Grant Park calls for the famed park to be extended to the lakefront — with DuSable Lake Shore Drive routed underneath the expanded green space.
That is, if city officials can find the money to pull it off.
After a series of public meetings seeking community input, the Chicago Park District unveiled new renderings last week for its Grant Park Framework plan: an “aspirational” blueprint for park improvements over the next decade or two, district spokesperson Michele Lemons said. The framework plan hadn’t been updated since 2002.
Among the hallmark proposals is a “deck-over” allowing pedestrians and cyclists to go directly from Buckingham Fountain to the lakefront without crossing traffic. A fully connected public space could extend all the way back to Michigan Avenue, according to the plan.
DuSable Lake Shore Drive would be “depressed” below the deck, creating a brief tunnel “envisioned as an animated and light-filled experience with graphic art and natural light,” according to the updated framework plan unveiled in a Park District presentation titled “The framework plan emphasizes “mobility” as a driving force and includes concepts to slow traffic near Grant Park to increase safety, add bike racks and expand “third places” around bike and jogging lanes.
The plan would remove multiple pedestrian crossings along DuSable Lake Shore Drive, providing greater and safer access to the lakefront from the park known as “Chicago’s front yard.”
Chicagoans have previously advocated for safer DuSable Lake Shore Drive crossings Downtown. Those calls were renewed in 2023, when a driver smashed into the median at Balbo Drive and destroyed a ghost bike that acted as a memorial for bicyclist Gerardo Marciales, who was killed at the intersection the previous year.
“[T]he proposals to cross DSLD [DuSable Lake Shore Drive] would be costly, but are also proposed in direct response to public concerns about public safety on DSLD and conflicts between cars, bikes and pedestrians,” Lemons said. “We would likely need to work with our local and state transportation agencies as well as seek other funders were those proposals chosen to move forward in the final framework plan.”
But Leslie Recht, president of the Grant Park Advisory Council, considers the proposed park-to-lake project a pipe dream.
“It will be very expensive, and it’s unlikely they would find the funding for that,” Recht said. “Lowering Lake Shore Drive into a tunnel, I don’t know how feasible that is.”
This isn’t the first time a proposal has been floated to tunnel DuSable Lake Shore Drive underground.
An official framework plan is expected to be finalized by the end of the year after the Park District wraps up the public feedback process in mid-September, Lemons said. Feedback can still be submitted here.
“Once a community agrees on things they would like to see in a park, the plan is finalized,” Lemons said. “The plan will be completed all at once in a comprehensive document.”
Recht said she left the presentation last week “encouraged” but that the updated plans overall were a “mixed bag.”
Advisory council members were encouraged by proposals to add public restrooms and concession stands to the park, Recht said.
Baseball and softball diamonds would also be moved to Butler Field from Hutchinson Field, which previously hosted leagues that had been pushed out in recent years to accommodate mega-events like Lollapalooza and the NASCAR street race.
Recht said she’d like to see more proposed improvements to the south end of the park, including repairs to the Harrison Street pedestrian bridge.
If dreams become realty, the bathrooms would be a good place to start, Recht said.
“That’s an immediate need,” she said.
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