The Garfield Park Bandstand, constructed 128 years in the past to host dwell musical performances, is present process a $2.2 million restoration after spending many years in decay and disuse.
The work contains restoring the marble cladding on the bandstand’s 1,600-square-foot cloverleaf-shaped base and likewise fixing up the mosaic panels alongside the construction’s parapet.
And the bandstand’s most seen characteristic — an ornately-detailed copper dome that’s a showstopper, even in its long-dulled state — might be restored as properly.
Garfield Park and the West Facet can profit from this type of encore. The bandstand hasn’t been used for the reason that Nineties and hadn’t seen a major rehabilitation or restoration for the reason that Fifties.
Chicago Park District Preservation Architect Michael Fus, who’s overseeing the challenge, stated the bandstand is worthy of the glow-up.
“I really like this construction,” he stated. “It’s a jewel field in Garfield Park.”
‘Prime quality and delightful’
In-built 1897 simply east of Hamlin Avenue alongside Music Court docket Drive on the southern half of the historic West Facet inexperienced area, the bandstand isn’t as well-known because the 184-acre park’s famed conservatory or its magnificent golden-domed Garfield Park Discipline Home at 100 N. Central Park Ave.
However the bandstand is a nice structure in personal proper, designed by Joseph Lyman Silsbee — one of many prime architects of the day who was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Chicago employer — on the prime of his sport.
Chicago parks have been constructed to offer a momentary escape from town, however Silsbee took the escape even additional by giving the bandstand a revivalist fashion knowledgeable by the traditional structure of India and the Center East.
“I feel that it actually reveals how throughout the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, there was such such a powerful dedication to [the idea that] each construction in a public park needs to be of a really top quality and delightful,” stated historian Julia Bachrach, creator of “The Metropolis in a Backyard: A Historical past of Chicago’s Parks.”
“Live shows, public free gatherings, music within the park have been simply an enormous a part of Chicago life,” she stated. “The truth that [the bandshell is] so very decorative and so beautiful simply type of ties into the entire philosophy that the whole lot that will be designed in these parks throughout that interval would have that stage of thought and expense and energy.”
The bandstand is superbly sited within the heart of Music Court docket, a round drive. Archival park district photographs from the bandstand’s early years present crowds packing the road and the encompassing parkland to hearken to whomever was on the bandstand.
Musicians would enter the bandstand at floor stage then climb a spiral staircase to the highest of the construction’s marble base, then play to these crowds from beneath that massive copper dome.
Will dwell music return to the bandstand as soon as the restoration is accomplished this fall? The construction hasn’t been used for the reason that Nineties.
“Ideally, it will be used for performances once more,” Fus stated. “We don’t have a plan in place but. However I envision Music Court docket circle might simply be closed off [for] farmers markets or public occasions. So we’re hoping to work with the neighborhood to determine makes use of.”
Park district does the correct factor
The Chicago Park District started the bandstand restoration in 2023 then halted it when the climate turned unhealthy. Work resumed final 12 months and has been carrying on since.
MoDE Architects is dealing with the restoration whereas Marion Restoration is making the mosaic panels look new once more, Fus stated.
The bandstand can also be getting new plumbing and electrical programs, the park district stated. New perimeter paving, landscaping and an accessible pathway are additionally being added.
There might be a brand new spiral staircase inside, too.
The Chicago Park District will get — and deserves — all of the smoke for the unhappy situations of far too lots of its buildings and inexperienced areas on town’s South and West sides.
However credit score is due right here in Garfield Park.
Right here’s hoping the work occurring there now restores the bandstand to its architectural glory whereas giving West Siders a correctly programmed venue they’ll take pleasure in.
