Friends of the Parks’ Walter Netsch Lecture Series

Inaugural Lecture featuring

Ed Uhlir, Executive Director of Millennium Park, Inc.

CHICAGO (February 8, 2012) – Chicago would be a very different city if it weren’t for renowned architect Walter Netsch’s vision and influence that changed the culture of parks in Chicago.  Friends of the Parks will be celebrating Netsch’s life through a special presentation, The Chicago Parks Legacy of Walter Netsch, by Ed Uhlir, Executive Director of Millennium Park, Inc., IIT adjunct professor, and expert on contemporary Chicago architecture.

Walter Netsch served as the President of the Chicago Park District from 1986 through 1989.   He was appointed to the Board by Mayor Harold Washington and given the task to reform the Chicago Park District from a political patronage system to a professionally managed agency. Netsch took on the task.  He developed a city-wide plan to decentralize the Park District which was implemented in short order.  He created a professional Department of Research and Planning and hired creative and accomplished architects and planners which led to better designed fieldhouses and landscapes.  Under his tenure, all 500 children’s playgrounds were reconstructed in five years, 100 playgrounds a year were rebuilt, and each involved the planning and volunteer work of the community.   

Netsch also led the team which designed the original University of Illinois Circle Campus.

During his career, Netsch designed 15 libraries, as well as academic buildings for colleges and universities in the United States and Japan, including the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago. He may be most well known as the lead designer for the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado and its famous Cadet Chapel. The Cadet Area at the Academy was named a National Historic Landmark in 2004.

What:              The Chicago Parks Legacy of Walter Netsch by Ed Uhlir

When:             Wednesday, February 29 – 5:30 PM – Light hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Location:        The Cliff Dwellers Club, 200 S. Michigan Avenue

We are sorry but registration is closed for this event.  Please join us at our upcoming lecture on Thursday, March 8th at 12:15 PM for author Dick Simpson’s talk about Twenty-First Century Chicago at the Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Auditorium, 78 E. Washington, Chicago.