Before and after images of Washington Park show how existing greenspace is expanded westward to allow the lush, campus-like setting of the Barack Obama Presidential Center without compromising the historic landscape.  The Center directly embraces the park, enhancing its experience and supporting Olmsted’s goals, in part by completing the visual street wall as a backdrop, but also by sheltering the park from traffic and noise of the elevated trains.

To further support the park itself, by reducing dangerous through-traffic, as well as the pedestrian and logistical / security needs of the Obama Presidential Center, a tunnel is introduced below.  This tunnel, shown in the graphic dash in yellow and in the following slide, straightens the route through the park and introduces a grade-separated crossing where today Morgan and Rainey Drives dangerously intersect.  Portions of Garfield Boulevard (east-west) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (north-south) are underground in the vicinity of the Center.  Grade and functionality separations were key elements of Frederick Law Olmsted’s planning principles; the tunnel upholds these ideals, as well as the uncompromising spirit of Daniel Burnham.

The Garfield Boulevard tunnel has been planned with the goals of being cost effective and doing as little damage to the park as possible.  Making use of the South Open Green for the majority of its expanse, very few trees will be impacted by its construction.  Furthermore, utilizing a cut-and-cover methodology on public land, free from utilities and other obstructions, will provide a cost-effective approach. Funds currently allocated for the pointless reconfiguration of roads in Jackson Park, currently $174 million and likely to grow, can be used instead for this much more beneficial purpose.