Hamilton Park Fieldhouse Rehabilitation
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- Civic
The Chicago Park District worked with McGuire Igleski to purposefully design a rehabilitation project around funding earmarked for recreational site improvements at the historic Hamilton Park Fieldhouse. Sensitively installing modern improvements to the building, the rehabilitation expanded the availability of programming to the community by providing ADA upgrades to the main entrance, updating the antiquated lighting, restoring the deteriorated annex entrance, replacing and restoring the damaged auditorium and stage flooring, and providing a modern and clean kitchenette. In addition, deferred maintenance was addressed at the flat roofs, where new skylights were installed to match the original configuration, and structural repairs were completed at the historic main lobby staircases.
Photos: Will Quam
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago Park District
20,000 SF
Opened in 1904 by the South Park Commission, Hamilton Park was designed as part of the Chicago Boulevard System – a revolutionary system of neighborhood parks providing relief to Chicago’s congested tenement districts – and was the first public park in the Englewood neighborhood. The park was designed by the landscape architecture firm the Olmsted Brothers, with the fieldhouse design completed by Daniel H. Burnham and Company. Named after the national political figure Alexander Hamilton, the theme of national political history is conveyed in the fieldhouse murals by noted Chicago artist John Warner Norton. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.