July 26, 1940 – A grade separation in Lake Shore Drive north
of North Avenue opens although the $750,000 project will not eliminate traffic
problems in Lincoln Park immediately.
Ramps onto and off the drive are now open, but work still continues on
Lake Shore Drive north of the bath house at North Avenue while the connection
to Clark and LaSalle Streets to which the Lake Shore Drive ramps will lead is
not scheduled to open for another two weeks.
The pedestrian bridge over Lake Shore Drive at North Avenue is also still
under construction. Basically, the roadway
that opens on this day will only allow motorists access to the parking area at
the North Avenue beach. Otto K. Jelinek,
traffic engineer for the park district, says, “The capacity of the pavement has
been reduced by about a third, so it’s impossible to get the efficiency that we
had when Beach drive was in service.” [Chicago
Daily Tribune, July 27, 1940] The 90,000 motorists trying to find their way
through Lincoln Park during rush hour look forward to the end of construction.
July 26, 1902 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that the People’s Gaslight and Coke Company has purchased a building and leasehold interest of the property at the northwest corner of Adams Street and Michigan Avenue for $200,000 from the Lake Hotel Company. This will be the site of the company’s new headquarters, a 21-story building designed by Daniel Burnham and Company, to be finished in 1911. Although People’s Gas moved out in 1995, the building still makes a statement across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago with each of the columns at its base made out of a solid piece of granite that is 26 feet tall, four-and-a-half feet in diameter, weighing 30 tons. The photo above shows the new skyscraper going up in April of 1910. The building was built in two sections with a hollowed-out middle, the north section being completed first.
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