The address of the John G. Shedd Aquarium is 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, even though the building really comes nowhere close to LSD(the only road that even borders Shedd is called Solidarity Drive[which is another tip of the hat to Chicago's Polish heritage]). Have you ever wondered why this is? Read on to find out...
The Adler Planetarium was finished in 1930. For the next 60 years, the Adler, Field Museum, and Shedd Aquarium were all in the same area, however the Field and Shedd were bisected by the northbound lanes of Lake Shire Drive, which would come right up to the front steps of the building. You could actually take a bus right from the front steps. This also presented a somewhat workman like challenge in getting between the museums. In order to go from Soldier Field parking to either one of the museums, you had to cross a lane of Lake Shore Drive. Luckily, there was a pedestrian underpass for the safety of the guests. This would all change in the mid-90s, when the city conceived of a plan to unify the city's lakefront museums into one interconnected body. This plan involved redirecting the course of Lake Shore Drive from in between the Field and Shedd to a path along the west side of the Field Museum. While the biggest change was undoubtedly changing the course of LSD, once the road was moved, the city faced another question: what to do with the former road space. A solution was quickly found, and the entire area was turned into a big park, with plenty of green space, a food shack located in between the Field and the Shedd, and many different statues and sculptures spread all throughout the park. In fact, what follows is just a partial list of all the stuff that has been put into the Museum Campus over the past 15 years:
- 3 hot dog stands, showing that Abe Drexler's legacy lives on
- Field Museum and its Bushman exhibit, continuing the legacy of Carl Akeley
- The 3 museums all together, with their numerous contributions made by both the Pritzkers and the Rice Family
- A train platform serving both the Metra Electric and South Shore Lines
- Another Thought, a statue by Michael Brown
- A tribute to Thaddeus Kosciuszko
- A statue of Nicolaus Copernicus outside of the Adler
- One word: Kelpies.
- And of course, the Man with Fish fountain
For the first 5 years of its life, the Campus even had an airport attached to it in Meigs Field. Ultimately, this airport fell to Mayor Daley's thuggishness in 2003, and sits today as Northerly Island Park. Today, the Campus serves as a beautiful green area, as well as a seamless connection to the boat launch and the lakefront trail to the Buckingham Fountain, downtown, and Navy Pier, as well as a continued monument to Chicago's status as a green city.
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