Working Group Scope

 

Though the Museum Campus is sometimes narrowly defined as the 57-acre strip of land that contains the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and the Adler Planetarium, for the purpose of this working group the Museum Campus has been defined more broadly as the 307-acre area bounded roughly by Roosevelt Road to the north, DuSable Lake Shore Drive to the west, and the Stevenson Expressway to the south. This land is owned by the Chicago Park District (“Parks”); the institutions that are hosted within its boundaries are operated by separate organizations through various agreements with Parks.

This broader scope recognizes the interconnectedness of many adjacent venues and features within this larger space. In addition to three world-class cultural institutions, the Campus is home to entertainment and event venues, such as Soldier Field, Huntington Bank Pavilion, and the McCormick Lakeside Center. These institutions have stunning views of the skyline and Lake Michigan, and coexist with an abundance of natural spaces, including Northerly Island and the McCormick Place Bird Sanctuary. Other public-facing amenities such as Burnham Harbor, 12th Street Beach, and a sledding hill round out the Campus.

Particularly with respect to transit access, the working group recognized that even this broader view of the Museum Campus is limited and therefore considered connections to transportation nodes and community areas, especially to the west and south (illustrated in the “Museum Campus scope” map), as part of their focus.