“The Garfield Park Bandstand, built 128 years ago to host live musical performances, is undergoing a $2.2 million restoration after spending decades in decay and disuse.
“The work includes restoring the marble cladding on the bandstand’s 1,600-square-foot cloverleaf-shaped base and also fixing up the mosaic panels along the structure’s parapet. And the bandstand’s most visible feature — an ornately-detailed copper dome that’s a showstopper, even in its long-dulled state — will be restored as well.
“Garfield Park and the West Side can benefit from this kind of encore. The bandstand hasn’t been used since the 1990s and hadn’t seen a significant rehabilitation or restoration since the 1950s.
“Chicago Park District Preservation Architect Michael Fus, who is overseeing the project, said the bandstand is worthy of the glow-up.’I love this structure,’ he said. ‘It’s a jewel box in Garfield Park.’
“Built in 1897 just east of Hamlin Avenue along Music Court Drive on the southern half of the historic West Side green space, the bandstand isn’t as well-known as the 184-acre park’s famed conservatory or its magnificent golden-domed Garfield Park Field House at 100 N. Central Park Ave.
“But the bandstand is a fine architecture in own right, designed by Joseph Lyman Silsbee — one of the top architects of the day who was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Chicago employer — at the top of his game.
“‘I think that it really shows how during the late 19th century and the early 20th century, there was such a strong commitment to [the idea that] every structure in a public park should be of a very high quality and beautiful,’ said historian Julia Bachrach, author of ‘The City in a Garden: A History of Chicago’s Parks.’
“The Chicago Park District gets — and deserves — all the smoke for the sad conditions of far too many of its buildings and green spaces on the city’s South and West sides.
“But credit is due here in Garfield Park. Here’s hoping the work happening there now restores the bandstand to its architectural glory while giving West Siders a properly programmed venue they can enjoy.
Read the full story at Chicago Sun-Times