As the Obama Center nears completion, a long-neglected Jackson Park pavilion finally gets its due

The Burnham Building, a century-old, temple-like pavilion in Jackson Park that for years has lain in near ruin, appears finally set to receive the restoration it rightly deserves.

Designed by D.H. Burnham & Co., the firm led by the legendary architect and planner Daniel H. Burnham, the open air structure at Marquette Drive north of 67th Street will get a top-to-bottom makeover starting this year, according the Chicago Park District.

The park district is keeping mum on the exact cost of the job until construction bid documents hit the streets this quarter or next. But Chicago Park District Director of Planning and Development Heather Gleason said the project is likely to be "a few million."

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has kicked in $500,000 toward the effort. Park district capital improvement bonds would cover the rest, Gleason said. "We're trying to bring it back to its former glory."

That's a good sign for the 551-acre park, which, like the Burnham Building, suffers from decades of chronic underinvestment.

Jackson Park is still a jewel thanks to its lakeside location and Frederick Law Olmsted's masterful design, but it's a faded one. And that'll become even more apparent come June when the $850 million Obama Presidential Center, with its new buildings and landscapes, opens on 20 acres at the park's north edge.

‘Absolutely beautiful back in the day’

Restoring the Burnham Building is just one item on Jackson Park's list of needs, but it's an important start.

The Burnham Building has been in rough shape for at least a decade, with its facade crumbling away and the roof collapsing to the point where it had to be removed.

Preservation Chicago included the building on the organization's annual Seven Most Endangered Buildings list from 2017 to 2021.

Also in 2021, an SUV driver accidentally rammed into the building, causing even more damage.

The pleasant little space deserved so much better. In better days, the building was a rest spot for visitors and golfers on the southern end of the park's 18-hole golf course. The building's center courtyard also provided pretty nice views of Lake Michigan.

Both restoration and rehab work are planned for the Burnham Building. The landmark-quality improvements would include a restored aggregate concrete exterior, historically accurate windows, a new Spanish clay tile roof, restroom facilities and mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems.

The high-level restoration is required by the federal government because Jackson Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gleason said an ADA-accessible pathway into the building is also planned, as are bollards along Marquette Drive to help prevent cars from running into the landmark structure.

"This will be a very visible improvement for Jackson Park," Arda Design Principal Andrea Terry said. Arda Design is overseeing the restoration.

Workers will also unearth and restore a monumental stairway and landing that have been lost for years on the building's west side.

"It was absolutely beautiful back in the day," prominent South Shore resident and parks advocate Carol L. Adams said of the Burnham Building. "So I'm really happy to see us reclaiming our spaces and preserving them instead of destroying them."

Gleason said work on the Burnham Building should conclude in 2027.

Meanwhile, there is still much to do to repair buildings and historic infrastructure in Jackson Park. For instance, the Clarence Darrow Bridge built for the 1893 World’s Fair and located at the park’s Columbia Basin is so overgrown and structurally unsafe that it’s been cut off from the public since 2013.

Chicago Park District General Superintendent and CEO Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, a former alderman who has been on the job slightly less than a year, seems aware of the problems at Jackson and the agency's other parks.

"We are having more of a special focus on historic preservation of our buildings and our monuments — that is definitely coming from our leadership," Gleason said. "To make sure that we are taking our historic projects into account and properly funding them and getting all the grants that are available to us."