• Construction start: 1922
• Construction finish: 1939
• Designed by: Holabird & Roche
• Cost: $13,000,000.00
• Renovated: 1978-1981
• Renovated: 2001-2003
• Type: Entertainment Venue
• Maximum Height: 151 feet / 46 meters

» September 27, 2003 - Soldier Field is rededicated.
» July 21, 2004 - The 2003 renovation may have been too successful. The federal government says it may take away Soldier Field's landmark status because the renovation changed it so much that it removed its historic character.
> April 21, 2006 - Soldier Field loses its status as a National Historic Landmark because of the severity of alterations made during the $660,000,000 renovation, completed in 2003 and pushed by Mayor Daley.

»The Chicago Tribune derided the 2003 renovation of Soldier Field as disguising the stadium as an "Alien toilet bowl."

»The Sledding Hill - A slope 33 feet tall, and 220 feet long. In the winter months, the city parks department makes sure it's covered with snow for the children.

There are two comments.

  One might say it's symbolic of the modern treatment of sports; chock-full of glitzy advertising, parks renamed to sponsor cell-phone companies, overreported/oversold celebrity scandals, all imposing themselves on the original American tradition. But hey, that's just me.

Nathan Willcockson - Monday, June 11th, 2007 @ 2:11pm  

  The mistake-on-the-lake. Terrible clash between the old and the new. Too overpowering. With McCormick Place down the street, the worst area to travel Lake Shore Drive and of course the least scenic. Too bad. It's like having a junk yard at the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Thomas Semesky - Saturday, June 3rd, 2006 @ 7:39pm