Maggie Daley Park, Urban recreational park in downtown Chicago, United States
Maggie Daley Park is a 20-acre public park in Chicago's Loop, built over the rebuilt East Monroe Street Parking Garage. It holds a quarter-mile ice skating ribbon, faceted climbing walls with red and blue holds, and the 3-acre Play Garden with six themed areas. The BP Pedestrian Bridge links it to Millennium Park.
Maggie Daley Park replaced Daley Bicentennial Plaza on the same Grant Park site; plans were announced on 26 August 2012 by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former mayor Richard M. Daley after a contested children's museum proposal fell through. Construction took two years and cost $60 million, including rebuilding the underground parking garage, and the park was dedicated with a ribbon cutting on 13 December 2014. It is named for Maggie Daley, the city's former first lady, who died of cancer in 2011.
Several sections carry names that refer to nature themes and community, including a garden for cancer survivors and a woodland play area with tree structures. Families gather on the wave-shaped lawn for picnics and events while children move between themed zones.
The park is bounded by Randolph Street, Monroe Street, Columbus Drive and Lake Shore Drive, and the BP Pedestrian Bridge links it to Millennium Park. The Play Garden, for children aged 12 and under, is open from 6:00am to 11:00pm. Dogs are not allowed anywhere in the park.
The park's 3-acre Play Garden holds six named zones, among them The Sea, an 8,500-square-foot play loop with a large metal play ship, and the Enchanted Forest, where upside-down trees form archways and a Turning Stone pivots on its vertical axis. The Slide Crater is reached by the Tower Bridge, a suspension bridge on two towers.
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