Maggie Daley Skating Ribbon Opens Saturday at Northeastern Corner of Grant Park

Maggie Daily Park (via Chicago Tribune)

To cap off our (impromptu) civic project week coverage here at Sloopin, we're venturing slightly out of the Sloop to the northeastern corner of Grant Park and the new Maggie Daley park.  Yes, it's not in the South Loop but it's definitely close and probably worth a trip if you have kids or like to ice skate.

The Tribune reports:

The public will get its first look at the new Maggie Daley Park when the meandering quarter-mile long ice skating ribbon opens to the public at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, the Chicago Park District announced.  

The skating ribbon is the first attraction to open at the $55 million downtown park named in honor of Chicago's beloved former first lady who died in 2011. The park stretches from Randolph Street south to Monroe Street and from Columbus Drive east to Lake Shore Drive and is connected by the BP Bridge to Millennium Park.  

Admission to the ice skating ribbon, which slopes and circles around two climbing walls, will be free. There will be a $12 fee to rent skates, just like Millennium Park next door.

As a former hockey player who likes to lace it up occasionally and skate at the Millenium Park ice rink, a quarter mile skating ribbon sounds interesting (even though it seems slightly silly to have two public skating facilities so close to each other).

The article goes on to talk about other components of the park (such as a climbing wall and 120,000 square foot "play garden" for kids) which all sound pretty interesting.  The grand opening of all the entire park is scheduled for Spring 2015.

See you on the skating ribbon!