Locate 2016 Media
Washington Park, located on Chicago’s South Side, is slated to be the home of a new 95,000 seat stadium if the city wins the 2016 Summer Olympic Bid.
The Olympics, however, would not be the first event to draw international attention to Chicago and the 372-acre park. Washington Park is adjacent to the Midway Plaisance, the strip of land that hosted the sideshows - including Wild West star Buffalo Bill and the world’s first Ferris Wheel - during the 1893 Columbian Exposition and World’s Fair.
Click the play button below to view the slideshow. Or, if you would like to go to Washington Park and experience the story there, look below for options to download the audio file or a GPS-triggered Mediascape story.
If you want to download and play the History of Washington Park mp3 file on-site:
Click this link to download the mp3 file. Then, under the ‘audio files section’ right click on the desired mp3 link and click on “Save link as” to save the file to your computer and to a portable music player. As you listen, you should be standing in front of the Fountain of Time, in the southeastern corner of Washington Park, near the corner of Best Drive and South Cottage Grove Avenue. View map.
If you want to download and play the entire Washington Park Mediascape on-site:
In addition to the History of Washington Park story, we have created two other GPS-triggered multimedia stories that provide more information about the proposed stadium and the community’s reaction to the Olympic plans. Click this link to download the GPS-triggered Mediascape, which includes multimedia stories that can be played on GPS-enabled devices at Washington Park after the Mscape player is installed. Additional instructions are available.
Once you are in Washington Park, here are the locations:
1) Start at the Fountain of Time and stay there to learn about the park’s history.
2) Walk north on Payne Drive to hear about the neighborhood surrounding Washington Park. There will be a minute of silence after this story, but continue to walk and you will also hear about landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead’s original vision for the park.
3) Cross Morgan Drive and stand on the South Open Green to hear about the proposed Olympic stadium, as well as community members’ views on how the Olympics may affect Washington Park.
You can also view and download additional multimedia stories on our main Chicago 2016 Web site.
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