By Patty Enrado, Editor
CHICAGO — The Chicago Park District manages 570 parks covering more than 7,600 acres. The park district is unique because it encompasses 24 miles of lakefront and 31 beaches. Park amenities include 10 museums, nine harbors, nine ice skating rinks, eight skate parks, six golf courses, 90 gardens, 50 community gardens and two world-class conservatories. With so many parks to choose from, HIMSS staff makes choosing easy with their top recommendations.
Hands down, Millennium Park (http://www.millenniumpark.org) was the choice of many HIMSS staffers, including Racquel Orenick, HIMSS corporate counsel. “Want to feel that you are in Europe? Then visit Chicago’s World Renown Millennium Park!” said Tricia Spellman, director of HIMSS Marketing. “Beautiful gardens, artwork, entertainment, restaurants, tennis, the famous Bean and must-see Crown Fountain!” Millennium Park, located in the heart of downtown Chicago, is bordered by Michigan Avenue, Columbus Drive, Randolph Street and Monroe Street. The 24.5-acre park, built over railroad tracks and parking lots, was the vision of Mayor Richard M. Daley and Frank Gehry. Among its architecture and monumental sculpture design are British artist Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, affectionately known as “The Bean,” and Spanish artist Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain, two 50-foot glass block towers displaying rotating video images of 1,000 residents. “This is one of the best places to visit in Chicago,” says Phil Shaffer, Provider Services account executive.
Grant Park http://tinyurl.com/r6yzl (337 E. Randolph St., 312.742.7648), named for Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), 18th President of the United States, is a favorite of Sonal Sullivan, program manager of Meeting Services, and Adam Bazer, manager of Education. The site of President Obama’s acceptance speech on Election Night, Grant Park is also home to three world-class museums – the Art Institute, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium – and the Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain, built in 1927.
Jackson Park (6401 S. Stony Island Ave., 773.256.0903,
http://tinyurl.com/oyeon) gets the vote of Matt Schlossberg, senior editor of Communications. Home of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Jackson Park has 600 acres of recreational activities, beaches, expansive gardens and a new state-of-the-art fitness center.
Humbolt Park (1400 N. Sacramento Ave., 312.742.7549,
http://tinyurl.com/yggltt) is “surprisingly beautiful,” says Christine Chung, associate of Market Research for HIMSS Analytics. Named after Baron Freidrich Heinrich Alexander Von Humboldt (1759-1859), the famous German scientist and explorer, the park’s design was influenced by William Le Baron Jenney, father of the skyscraper, and Jens Jensen, Danish immigrant and 1905 General Superintendent and Chief Landscape Architect. Jensen created a long meandering “prairie river” and a circular rose garden and an adjacent naturalistic perennial garden. Jensen commissioned Prairie School architects Schmidt, Garden and Martin to design a boat house and refectory building, which stands at one end of the historic music court he designed. Best seen during the day, says Chung.