In the 1970s, Chicago and the State of Illinois embarked on a plan to place parks on undeveloped land remaining after the creation of the expressway system. Under the so-called Expressway Property Development plan, the city leased sites along expressways from the Illinois Department of Transportation to create parks. While a few of these parks still exist in good condition, most seem to have decayed over the years from lack of maintenance. One wonders if they were ever well used. Perhaps placing parks next to loud, polluted expressway right-of-ways wasn’t such a good idea after all.


Left: This unnamed park is located next an onramp to the southbound Kennedy Expressway at Division Street. Little more than a patch of grass with a path running through it, the park has clearly seen better days. Right: We’re not sure why this park was deemed deserving of a plaque when none of the others we’ve found so far have one. It indicates it was built in 1978 under the Community Improvements Development Program. Another plaque, exactly like this one, can be found at the eastern end of Fargo Avenue, just before the beach. There it commemorates an equally diminutive public works project.


Left: Grape Park, at Avondale and Mozart along the Kennedy Expressway, has actually been kept up over the years. At some point it was given a name, unlike most of the other parks. Also, this park was originally built with wooden “adventure” playground equipment that apparently didn’t work out too well; it now has more modern equipment. (Editor's note): Jake makes a cameo in the far right of the picture. He was searching for a plaque to no avail. Right: Grape Park is located directly across from the Kennedy on Avondale, a street that parallels the expressway for most of its length.



These three views show the expressway park at Wood and Avondale along the Kennedy. This unnamed park has apparently been abandoned, as all of the original equipment is gone. This park also originally had wooden “adventure” equipment when built in the 1970s. Only the concrete footings and sidewalks remain, giving the park a very desolate feel. Oddly enough, a fence was added somewhat recently, guarding the boundaries of the barren park.


Gracing the east side of Union Street, between 17th Place and 18th Street, exists an overgrown but not underused expressway park. We didn't find record of this park on the Park District website, nor did we find a plaque. Infact, we didn't find anything except for the homeless man in the left image. Not shown is these images is the most amusing aspect of this park; it is bisected by the 18th Street off-ramp from the Dan Ryan.

Page authored 4 April 2007.
Last updated 26 July 2007.
Written by Jacob Kaplan.

Your Ad Here

Back to Architecture section.
Back to main page.