BRIDGEPORT — The much-anticipated 19,000-square-foot Eleanor Street Boathouse is starting to shape up on the shores of Bubbly Creek.
While construction crews have been pounding away all summer to finish the boathouse by the end of the year, the South Branch Park Advisory Council has been hard at work trying to find out what kind of programs the neighborhood would like to see when the $5.7 million facility opens in the spring.
The park advisory council is now asking residents to fill out an online survey to collect data to share with the Chicago Park District.
"Our role is to the advise the park district,” said James Burns, advisory council president. “We will offer [the survey results] up to the park district, and then they will use that input to inform the programming once the boathouse is finished.”
Programs could include tumbling, yoga, dance, rowing, bingo, fitness, educational lectures and homework sessions for children.
The park advisory council will shut down the survey next week and submit the results to the Chicago Park District. More than 100 people have already responded.
Fill out the survey here.
In 2014, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans to build the 19,000-square-foot, Jeanne Gang-designed boathouse in a bid to expand recreation in several neighborhoods near the Chicago River.
The Bridgeport facility was the last in line, and three other boathouses have already been built in Clark Park, River Park and Chinatown. The city broke ground on the Bridgeport boathouse in August 2015.
Formed by a handful of neighborhood folks between Pilsen and Bridgeport in 2015, the South Branch Park Advisory Council aims to make the Eleanor Street Boathouse a destination that draws business, tourism and foot traffic to the South Side.
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