Letters to the Editor March 2016
Land grab: Eleanor Hall
A response to John Vinci’s “The Obama Library double parks,” (January 2016).
To the Editors:
I live in Chicago, less than two miles from the two proposed sites for the Obama presidential library in Jackson Park and Washington Park addressed by John Vinci in the January 2016 New Criterion. Here are my comments:
First, Chicago has a tradition of building museums in parks; there are ten museums in different parks around the city. Second, the library would take only a small part of a very large park, less than 6 percent of either park.
Third, Vinci refers to parks by great designers as “living works of art. The removal of any part of the landscape is like cutting off the corner of a treasured painting.” But a painting is put on a wall to be admired, while a park is to be used and is modified as needs change. This happened with Olmsted-designed Central Park in NYC. In the 1930s, Robert Moses put part of the park to recreational...
A Message from the Editors
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