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 purposes, adding nineteen playgrounds, twelve ball fields, and handball courts. During the Cold War, a Nike Missile site was put in Jackson Park!
Care should be taken in modifying parks, but we’re talking about a presidential library and museum for our first African-American president, a role model for black youth, and our first Chicago president. So let’s not talk about a “land grab.” Rather, the Obama library involves repurposing a small part of a park in a worthwhile way.
Eleanor Hall
Chicago, Illinois
