Designs Detailed for 3 Playground Overhauls in Lake View

Lake View’s park scene has been getting a lot of attention lately, and now Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) is showing off what three neighborhood parks could look like by the end of 2013.

Tunney announced in late May the playgrounds were chosen by the city to receive complete overhauls, a surprising move considering only 35 were to be selected across Chicago.

“The 44th ward has three parks as a part of that Chicago Plays! Playground Replacement Program, which is great. It’s kind of unheard of for us to get three parks,” said Tunney’s director of communications Erin Duffy. “They should be completed sometime this fall.”

The three parks include Kenmore Playlot at 3141 N. Kenmore, Wendt Playlot at 667 W. Roscoe St. and Telscer Park at 3151 N. Lake Shore Drive.

Each park was given two designs fitting the footprint of the lot, and residents are currently choosing which layout they’d like implemented. For residents surrounding Kenmore Park, a makeover comes as excellent news after petitioning earlier this year for funds.

Neighbors already chose what Kenmore Park will soon look like, while others surrounding Telscer Park are still deciding between two designs. Renderings were not immediately available of Wendt Park when this article was published.

Duffy says each park was chosen because the wooden equipment actually failed safety inspections this year. But the modern upgrades—while still using wood chips rather than rubber turf—will bring them up to standards.

“This will be all brand new equipment which I think will be wonderful for the neighborhood,” Duffy said.

And according to Tunney, the facelift at Telscer will hopefully be just the beginning. In February he said he would love to inject almost $1 million into that playlot to construct a field house resembling Margate Park in Uptown.

Sporting amenities like a gymnasium, fitness center, kitchen, dog-friendly areas, community garden and soft-surface playground, Margate Park is a far cry from Telscer’s old, wooden playground.

But Tunney notes the challenges in funding such a massive development.

“I’m looking for money anywhere I can get it,” Tunney said in February. “The problem with the Margate Park is it’s a $1 million investment, at the least. They used impact fees, aldermanic menu money, not to mention the chairman of the parks committee was the alderman of the (48th) Ward, (former Ald. Mary Ann Smith).”

The Chicago Park District initially planned to simply update Telscer by replacing rotting wood on the playground and repainting, but now it’ll receive a new, state-of-the-art set of equipment.