“We’ve had a lot of architects in this town, some of them — Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Jeanne Gang and on and on — rising in notoriety and star-status equal in the civic celestial realm to ballplayers and politicians and mobsters.
“But one who does not consistently reach such heights is Alfred Caldwell. Though he worked closely with famous collaborators and mentors — Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Jens Jensen — he was something of a cantankerous sort, and landscape architects, which he was, were then rarely accorded the stature of their contemporaries, those who designed buildings, and often exercised their self-promotional skills. Still, he created here and elsewhere some of the most stunning and life-affirming spaces in this land.
“He made masterpieces. I have long been an admirer of Caldwell, growing up within easy walking distance of one of his creations. It is at the northern end of the Lincoln Park Zoo, a three-acre oasis of trees, limestone paths and a meandering pool, what Caldwell called ‘a cool, refreshing, clear place of trees and stone and running water.’ Created in 1936, with Caldwell using some of the money from cashing in his own $250 life insurance policy, it was a bird sanctuary and first known as the Zoorockery. It had fallen on hard times by the 1990s, until a beautiful renovation. In the wake of Caldwell’s death on July 3, 1998, it was renamed, fittingly, the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool.
“Now, many others, especially South Siders, might prefer his Promontory Point. That’s the man-made peninsula constructed of landfill in the late 1930s and jutting into Lake Michigan at 55th Street. It has thick groves of trees and shrubs surrounding a central meadow and a seawall made of limestone blocks arranged in a series of steps leading to a promenade. It is just what Caldwell wanted: ‘A place you go to and you’re thrilled — a beautiful experience, a joy and delight.’ (Kogan, Chicago Tribune, 6/24/25)
Read the full story at the Chicago Tribune