Museum Campus

Museum Campus is a 57-acre (23 ha) museum park that sits near Lake Michigan in Chicago and surrounds three of the city's most notable museums, all dedicated to the natural sciences: the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Field Museum of Natural History. It is also known for holding the Soldier Field football stadium and the Lakeside Center of the McCormick Place. It used to hold the now demolished Meigs Field airport, which is now Northerly Island. The campus now comprises the southeast corner of Grant Park. The Museum Campus was created to transform the vicinity of these three institutions, among the city's top cultural draws, into a scenic pedestrian-friendly area. The area is landscaped with greenery and flora as well as jogging paths and walkways. A picturesque promenade along Solidarity Drive, a narrow isthmus links Northerly Island to the mainland. The drive itself is lined with a number of grand bronze monuments commemorating Kościuszko, Havliček and Nicholas Copernicus, the last of which is a replica of a famous 19th-century work in Warsaw by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. The Museum Campus opened on June 4, 1998, when the northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive were moved west of Soldier Field following the route of the expressway's southbound lanes. By removing the roadway which bisected the area, the Museum Campus was transformed into a green space for the enjoyment of both visiting tourists and residents strolling through this corner of Chicago's lakefront.