New Park is a Tribute to Chicago's Fallen Police

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Apr 18, 2005 2:58PM

On May 2, 2005, the groundbreaking is planned for the city's new memorial to police officers killed or seriously wounded on the job. The 5-acre memorial park, called Gold Star Families Memorial and Park, will feature a spiraling concrete and granite wall with the names of fallen officers and a central plaza where as many as 5,000 people can gather. The park also features tall, rectangular glass panels at the north and south entrances as "welcoming doorways" and 5 circular nodes embedded in the lawn to represent the values held by many officers: honor, courage, dedication, pride, and family. These 5 spaces will be connected by a "thin blue line" that is to symbolize the protection the police provide.

Gold Star Families Memorial and Park was designed by local landscape architects Wolff Clements & Associates, is scheduled to be completed next year, and will cost about $3 million to complete. It will be located on the lakefront between Soldier Field and Burnham Harbor.

For more information on the park, more artists renditions of what it will look like, and to find out how you can contribute to the park fund, check out the Gold Star Families Memorial and Park official site.