MEDICAL DISTRICT — A new park is coming to the medical district, bringing fitness equipment, walking paths and green space just steps from some of the city’s most prominent hospitals.
The Illinois Medical District broke ground last week on the new park, currently unnamed, that will take over a vacant lot at the intersection of Ogden and Damen avenues. The one-acre park will be located across from Stroger Hospital and the Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and will be near Rush Medical Center and University of Illinois Hospital.
The park is set to feature two fitness zones, a playground and a track for walking and running, according to the medical district’s governing body. A sensory garden and walking path will also be available alongside green space that can host programs and events.
“This new park will be a game-changer for the [Illinois Medical District] and Near West Side,” Allyson Hansen, Illinois Medical District Commission CEO and executive director, said in a statement. “Our vision for the [medical district] is that of a thriving community where people want to live, work, play, and learn, and high-quality public spaces are an essential ingredient for turning that vision into reality.”
A groundbreaking event was held Nov. 18, with the park slated to open in the second half of 2026, according to the Illinois Medical District Commission, the board that oversees the medical district on the Near West Side.
This is the first new park for the medical district in 80 years, following the 1946 relocation of the Louis Pasteur Monument from Grant Park to West Harrison Street, outside the old Cook County Hospital, according to the medical district. The park is the second new public space in the district in recent years, following the August 2024 opening of a Welcome Plaza at the intersection of Ogden Avenue and Harrison Street.
The land set to become the park previously held a building owned by education nonprofit Easterseals Chicago for decades before becoming vacant and later being acquired by the Medical District Commission from University of Illinois Chicago, according to a commission spokesperson. The medical district partnered with local graffiti artists in 2022 to make an art installation on the Easterseals’ building before it was demolished in 2024 to clear the land for the park.
Funding for the park, which is being designed by Site Design Group, was provided in part by the Illinois Medical District Growth and Community Plan, which is supported by $5.9 million in state funding. Additional funding was provided by the state’s Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant.
“Improvements like these will make it easier to attract new investment to the Near West Side and strengthen the [medical district] for future generations — an economic engine for the State of Illinois that already generates almost $8 billion in annual economic impact and supports a robust and essential life science ecosystem of hospitals, research institutions, and startups,” Hansen said in the statement.
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