By Ronnie Reese
Special to Inside
For the first time since the installation of mezzanine seating in 1989, the Tribune Company and the Chicago Cubs are planning major renovations to Wrigley Field. A community meeting, co-sponsored by the Cubs and the Lake View Citizens Council, was held in Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center's Olson Auditorium on Tuesday, March 8, to discuss the proposed Wrigley Field Campus expansion. The proposal to improve Wrigley reflects four years of input from community residents and City officials, and must still be approved by the Chicago Plan Commission and the City Council before interior changes are to take place in time for the 2006 season.
According to Michael Lufrano, Chicago Cubs Vice-President of Community Relations, 21 out of 30 major league ballparks have come and gone since the construction of Wrigley Field, and since 1999, 11 have been taken out of commission altogether. "This project demonstrates an ongoing, continuing commitment to our fans, and an investment on behalf of the Cubs to the future of Wrigley Field," said Lufrano. "We would not be making this investment if we didn't believe we were going to be in Wrigley for many, many years to come."
The Cubs are planning a 1,790-seat addition to the bleachers — down from an initial proposal of 2,600 seats — as well as an alteration of the Clark Street facade to accommodate sidewalks, and a commercial building containing a theme restaurant and attractive retail stores and storefronts. Additional highlights include a multi-level parking garage with approximately 400 spaces — available to residents and businesses on non-game days — and an open-air pedestrian parkway between the new building and Wrigley field providing additional walking space, improved entrance and exit accessibility, and open space in the neighborhood on non-game days. A statue of Cubs great and Hall of Famer Ernie Banks is planned for the entrance to the pedestrian promenade.
Other renovations are a new sidewalk and landscaping and exterior upgrades on Sheffield and Waveland avenues. There will also be a new bleacher entrance at that intersection, a replication of Wrigley's ivy-covered outfield on the bleacher exterior and a "knot-hole" feature that will allow pedestrians on Sheffield Avenue to view the field from outside the park. Lufrano estimates the building and park expansion will cost between $30 and $50 million, completely financed by the Cubs and the Tribune. There will also be a payment of $3.1 million from the Cubs to the City of Chicago to resolve a dispute regarding ownership of land west of Wrigley and for the right to build over the sidewalk at Waveland and Sheffield avenues.
Many Wrigleyville residents and business owners are happy with the revised Wrigley Field plan, but concerns do linger. Among outstanding issues are a proposed stoplight at the intersection of Clark Street and Waveland Avenue and a proposed Jimmy Buffet concert tentatively scheduled for Memorial Day weekend. There are also safety issues to consider, as well as increased traffic and parking demand in the neighborhood, the notion of encroachment over public space for private gain, and the construction of additional rooftop seating to keep up with bleacher expansion, which one resident likened to the battle of rising barber chairs between Charlie Chaplin and Jack Oakie in Chaplin's "The Great Dictator."
One local resident complimented the Chicago Cubs for their commitment to follow through with a sensible design for renovation and expansion, but has her own ideas on who should get credit for the plan and what the real motivation was for the team's desire to upgrade the Wrigley Field experience.
"Parks around the country, even though they're new, are imitating Wrigley," she said. "They [Cubs, Tribune Co.] should get down on their hands and knees and thank this community for the fight that we put up which made them a national institution for day baseball, and has kept them in this community and built it up ever since. If everybody had lain down, they would have moved. They were on their way to Schaumburg." |
