Tiger Wood's TGR Design is Selected to Redesign the South Shore Golf Course
For many years a few golfers would take advantage of improving their golf game on a course located right on lake Michigan. Neighborhood golfers, considered it to be one of the best kept secrets in the city. Now that distinction may be in jeopardy. The city of Chicago has announced the formation of an entity called the Chicago Parks Golf Alliance. This organization will be tasked with developing the South Shore and Jackson Park golf courses into a PGA world class facility. Part of the plan is to merge these two courses into an eighteen hole course. The course is expected to stretch 7,300 to 7,600 yards, cost about $30 million and is projected to be completed by 2020.
South Shore Golf Course - is part of what was once called the South Shore Country Club. It was founded in 1905 as a suburban counterpart to the urban clubs of Chicago, such as the Athletic Club. The original building was built at that time, designed by architects Marshall and Fox in a Mediterranean Revival style. In 1909, a theater was added, but in 1916, Marshall and Fox were engaged to design a newer building, still in the Mediterranean Revival style. This is the building that still stands. Originally built as an exclusive club, it practiced discriminatory policies. As the neighborhood diversified the country club closed and was later purchased by the City. The property was turned over to the Chicago Park District who contracted Billy Casper Golf, a leader in private club management, to manage the CPD courses.
Jackson Park Golf Course - In 1890, Chicago won the honor of hosting the World's Columbian Exposition. In 1891, Jackson Park was selected as its site. Olmsted and Chicago's architect and planner, Daniel H. Burnham, with his partner John Wellborn Root, laid out the fairgrounds. A team of architects and sculptors created the "White City" of plaster buildings and artworks in Beaux-Arts style. The historic World's Fair opened to visitors on May 1, 1893. It was Root's last project, as he caught pneumonia and died in January 1891, two years before the fair's opening. After the fair closed, the site was transformed back into parkland, as the fair buildings were not designed to be permanent structures. Jackson Park featured the first public golf course west of the Alleghenies, which opened in 1899.
Barack Obama Presidential Library - will be sited adjacent to Jackson Park Golf Course. The Obama Foundation, responsible for building the library, has already selected two firms, New York-based Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Chicago-based Interactive Design Architects, to jointly lead the design and engineering of the center. The park, designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, already houses the Museum of Science and Industry. Construction of the center is expected to be completed in 2020 or 2021. The estimated total cost is more than $500 million. The Presidential Library in conjunction to the development of the golf course is part of a larger resurgence of economic development in the area.
