In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Chicago’s parks fell on hard times, deteriorating under a shortage of municipal funds.Grant Park was no exception, it was a tarnished jewel.Elm trees died. Balustrades crumbled. Lampposts fell.Grass grew unkempt.The public shunned the shabby, crime-infested, graffiti-ridden park.
During the early 1990s, Chicago enjoyed a renaissance on many fronts, but the rehabilitation of Grant Park seemed to lag behind all other city improvements. In 2000, the Grant Park Advisory Council and the Art Institute of Chicago sponsored a symposium where officials from New York’s Central Park Conservancy spoke about how they had catalyzed the dramatic restoration of Central Park from a tarnished jewel of recent decades to the magnificent international destination of today.
Bob O’Neill, President of the Grant Park Advisory Council and long-time Grant Park advocate, founded the Grant Park Conservancy in 2002 along with Bob Gordon, an architect and member of the Mayor’s Landscape Committee.They envisioned an organization that would work with the Grant Park Advisory Council to leverage funding and ideas from both the public and private sectors for the future improvement and development of Grant Park, as well as the promotion of the park as a lively civic space.
