HYDE PARK — The Chicago Park District is debating building a wave-powered pipe organ as part of a plan to add nearly 7 acres to the south lakeshore.

The Park District is planning to expand the lakeshore an additional 70 feet out into the lake between 45th Street and 51st Street, and the planners said they think it would be a good place to try a Croatian sea organ.

Bob Foster, the senior project manager developing the plan, said inspiration for the idea came from said Zadar, Croatia, where along the coast of the Adriatic Sea the town has built a sea organ.

The swells that push in to the coast off the Adriatic force air through a series of tubes built into the town’s seaside revetments, creating a series of tones reminiscent of a pipe organ.

Silver Spray Anniversary View Full Caption Dan Peterman

Foster said it’s an idea the Park District would like to try, and he included it in the plans for the south lakefront to gauge how it would go over in the community. He said Hyde Parkers at a meeting last week were thrilled with the idea, though would like it moved south of where he originally drew it in at the top of the pebbly beach off 48th Street.

Though the concept Foster presented last week included the organ and new features like a separate bike trail for commuting bikers and joggers, scenic lookouts and a new comfort station, it was dramatically scaled back from a 2006 plan that called for a new peninsula or a small island chain that would have buried a 100-year-old shipwreck.

Sam Cholke explains the project:

About 100 yards off the shore at 48th Street lies the wreck of the Silver Spray, a ferry that crashed on the rocks of Morgan Shoal about 100 yards off the shore in 1914.

When the plans to redo the shoreline were revived last year, the Park District planned to extend the coast out to the shoal, but it slowly scaled that plan back after meeting with swimmers and sunbathers in Hyde Park and Kenwood who frequently swim out to explore the underwater rocks and its shipwreck.

“They ended with a plan that does not touch the shoal, and that is very significant, and they should be recognized for that,” said Greg Lane, a Hyde Parker who frequently dives to the wreck.

In December, Foster presented a concept that would have brought the shoreline out to the tip of the shoal, but last week unveiled maps showing the shore would dip to skirt around the shoal as residents had asked.

“We did listen to them because people really wanted to protect the shoal,” Foster said.

Morgan Shoal is a 3 million-year-old dolomite formation 7 feet below the waves off 48th Street. Mussels and gobi fish thrive among the rocks. The pebbly beach at the shore is formed from the fossil-dotted stones that wash up from the shoal.

The Park District concept calls for much of the shoreline to be lined with granite or limestone blocks similar to the recent work at Montrose Harbor. At pebbly beach, the shore would sink more gradually into the water, allowing the shoal’s stones to continue tumbling in to form the beach.

“We’ll let the lake determine what the beach looks like,” Foster said.

He said the plan is still in the early phases and a framework that solidifies all the negotiations with the neighborhood will be released in April.

“Within five years we would like to see it constructed,” Foster said.

He said he thought the construction would take up to two years to complete once it's started.

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