The Clark Park boathouse designed by Jeannie Gang is nearing completion along the North Branch just north of Belmont. In honor of such a momentous recreational and architectural happening, archicritic Lynn Becker revisits the history of the site dating to the late-1800s purchase of 22 acres for a shooting range. The site then hosted Riverview Park, a major amusement park, for nearly 60 years until demolition in 1967. It's memorialized by the blight-inducing Western Avenue overpass. Since then the city has cobbled together 19 acres as Clark Park, of which the boathouse and its support areas will eat up two. More on that debate here. Click thru for construction photos. [ArchitectureChicago PLUS, previously, rendering: Studio/Gang]
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