#Styrofoam blocks full

Dirt will go over the foam.Ĭome next spring, the ground will become green again, as landscaping and planting will be in full swing. Four inches of stone are placed on top, and then the foam is placed with yet another black tarp over it. It’s then tested to make sure it’s waterproofed to prevent leaks to the garage below. Tar was put over the garage, then a layer of black tarp. Here’s how crews are layering the park: First it was excavated, the dirt placed in nearby Peanut Park to be reused. The mass quantity of snow Chicago received this year did slow work a bit, but crews said phase two of the park - earthwork, utilities, paving, architectural and program elements, soil placement and planting - is on schedule for completion in October. “In order to do that, to get these hills, and these rolling meadows over a whole flat area in Chicago, to get any topography, especially on top of a structure, you need Geofoam.”Ĭrews on Friday said deliveries of Geofoam are about half done. The park will offer these beautiful vistas of Lake Michigan, which it never had there,” said Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy. “With Maggie Daley Park, you’re going to have hills. There are also peaks at the northeast corner, where a picnic area is being built. He said the foam is being used to create a hill that will be even with Randolph Street, making it easy for people to come into the park. “For you to go up high, you almost have to skate super fast, just to get over that little hump.” It’s not just flat,” said Lowell Zarzueta, of Walsh Construction, who is overseeing part of the second phase of the project. “For the ice ribbon, you’ve got up and down. It’s even being used for the park’s ice skating ribbon. By September, dirt will be placed over the foam. The foam installation will be done by early summer.

From various vantage points around the park, onlookers can watch as the foam is delivered every day - six truckloads - and crews have already filled the northeast and northwest corners of the park, and are moving south. The expanded polystyrene is being used around the world and locally to contour flat Midwestern land.Īt Maggie Daley Park, crews are using old Geofoam - already part of Daley Bicentennial Plaza - and a lot of new blocks to shape the park. Landscape architects say the lightweight, cost-effective, environmentally safe and recyclable fill material is key to creativity.

Those giant blocks of Geofoam will transform flat land into a hilly landscape at the park site, which spans 20 acres and is bordered on the west by Columbus, the north by Randolph, the south by Monroe and the east by Lake Shore Drive. – Brian Jackson | Sun-TimesĬhicago’s shoveling days should be over, but the future Maggie Daley Park kind of looks like a winter wonderland, full of white building blocks. Maggie Daley Park is being formed using GeoFoam, a plastic foam substance that has been used once the ’80’s to create landscape and hills on others flat land.