Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago called for a chain of five man-made islands in Lake Michigan to be built parallel to the city’s waterfront south of the Loop all the way to Jackson Park, and to be used as green open space and for recreation. Only one was created at the north end of the proposed series, hence the name Northerly Island (in fact a peninsula). It was the site of the 1933 ‘Century of Progress’ world’s fair and after WWII a small airport, Meigs Field. In 1995 he Chicago Parks District and the Friends of Northerly Island sponsored an ideas competition for the island’s future.

The proposal continues the original dredging operations to form a series of linked lagoons and islands, creating a walking / biking trail along the perimeter. Their spacing corresponds to the existing street grid of Chicago extended.

The ‘floating’ runway is used for festivals, parades, flea markets, skateboarding, and other uses requiring a paved surface. A major function is a tree farm for growing weather-hardy trees for eventual transplanting to Chicago streets and parks.

The islands of the new and newly treed archipelago host a variety of recreational and cultural uses, many in existing structures. New man-made beaches and an aquatic center are on the lake side of the re-shaped Northerly which, though not in the form Burnham proposed, continues much of his vision.