Chicago opens COVID-19 monument, first new Illinois Medical District park since 1946

Overview

Updated 59 minutes ago

Chicago cut the ribbon Tuesday on its first new public park in the Illinois Medical District since 1946. The one-acre IMD Park, between Stroger Hospital and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, centers on a 25-foot stainless steel monument that fuses a dandelion puff with the core of the COVID-19 virus.

The $4.95 million project, funded mostly by state money, gives the country's largest concentration of hospitals a green space for workers, patients and neighbors. Its monument honors the essential workers who kept the city running and the more than seven million people worldwide who died from COVID-19.

Why it matters

The first new park in the Medical District since 1946 gives hospital workers and patients a permanent place to mourn and recover from the pandemic.

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Key Indicators

$4.95M

Cost of IMD Park project

Combination of state capital funds, open-space grants and Hektoen Institute support.

Stainless steel sculptures in the monument

Three soaring forms combining a dandelion puff with the COVID-19 virus core.

$3.4M

State capital appropriation secured by Sen. Lakesia Collins

Largest single funding source for the $4.95 million project.

25 ft

Tallest sculpture height

The tallest of the three monument sculptures at the Polk and Damen corner.

Voices

Curated perspectives — historical figures and your fellow readers.

People Involved

Sally Metzler

Chair, COVID-19 Monument Commission

Led the monument project to completion under the Hektoen Institute of Medicine

Casey Schachner

Monument designer

Won 2023 international design competition; teaches sculpture at Georgia Southern University

Allyson Hansen

CEO and executive director, Illinois Medical District Commission

Led the district's park development and partnership with the Hektoen Institute

Lakesia Collins

Illinois state senator, 5th District

Secure $3.4 million in state capital funding for IMD Park

Yolanda Morris

Illinois state representative, 9th District

Secure $500,000 in state funding toward the park

Organizations Involved

Illinois Medical District Commission

Public agency

Developed IMD Park; hosts the COVID-19 monument on its grounds

Public agency managing the 560-acre Illinois Medical District on Chicago's Near West Side, the largest urban concentration of healthcare facilities in the country.

Hektoen Institute of Medicine

Nonprofit research and education institute

Hosts the monument project; provided grant funding for the park

Chicago nonprofit medical research and education institute that hosts the COVID-19 Monument Commission and Sally Metzler's monument work.

COVID-19 Monument Commission

Volunteer commission

Ran the design competition and fundraising; pushed the project to completion

Volunteer commission founded by Sally Metzler in 2021, now including more than a dozen professors, doctors and public health experts.

Timeline

2021 December 2026

9 events Latest: Yesterday

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December 2026
Full park opening expected
Upcoming Opening

Park expected to fully open, unfenced and accessible 24/7.
December 1st, 2026
October 2026
Ribbon-cutting opens IMD Park
Latest Ceremony

City and state officials cut ribbon on IMD Park and the Global COVID-19 Monument of Honor, Remembrance and Resilience.
Yesterday
Monument dedication at UIC
Ceremony

Hektoen Institute holds indoor dedication ceremony at University of Illinois Chicago.
October 2026
November 2025
Ground broken on IMD Park
Construction

Officials break ground on the new Illinois Medical District park.
November 2025
2024
Old Easter Seals building demolished
Demolition

Former Easter Seals building on the site is torn down.
2024
August 2023
Design submissions close
Competition

More than 100 designs submitted from around the world.
August 31st, 2023
April 2023
Design competition opens
Competition

Commission opens worldwide call for monument design concepts.
April 1st, 2023
2023
Winning designer selected
Competition

Casey Schachner wins $20,000 prize for dandelion-and-virus concept.
2023
2021
Monument commission founded
Founding

Sally Metzler forms volunteer COVID-19 Monument Commission in Chicago.
2021

Scenarios

IMD Park opens fully on schedule

Likely Resolves by Dec 15, 2026

Discussed by: Block Club Chicago, citing the Dec. 1 target set by district officials

Block Club reported the Dec. 1 target as crews finished planting and landscaping at the Oct. 27 ribbon-cutting. The unfenced park then goes fully public, activating its playground, fitness areas, walking path and lawn. Construction is nearly complete, making this the most likely path.

Sculpture night lighting stalls past 2027

Possible Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: Metzler, who told Block Club the lighting depends on final details with the city and ComEd

The monument's sculpture tops are meant to illuminate in different colors at night once agreements with the city and utility ComEd are finalized. Utility coordination can lag after construction ends. If the paperwork stalls, the lighting feature could stay off well after the park opens.

Monument anchors an annual remembrance tradition

Possible Resolves by Oct 31, 2027

Discussed by: Project leaders, who framed the site as an 'enduring purpose' for remembering the pandemic

The monument's online Memory Garden and the early-October UIC dedication suggest the commission intends ongoing programming. An annual ceremony at the site would make the memorial a lasting tradition rather than a one-time dedication. It depends on volunteers sustaining the effort without dedicated staff.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

November 1982

Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982)

A national design competition drew 1,421 entries; Yale student Maya Lin's black granite wall, bearing the names of the dead, won. The memorial opened on the National Mall in November 1982 after a bitter public controversy.

Then

Dedicated in November 1982; became one of Washington's most visited memorials.

Now

Set the template for open public design competitions and memorials that provoke dialogue rather than consensus.

Why this matters now

Casey Schachner's 2023 win used the same mechanism — an open, juried competition — to give the COVID monument its dandelion-and-virus form.

1946

Louis Pasteur Monument (1946)

Chicago relocated a monument to scientist Louis Pasteur from Grant Park to Harrison Street in the Illinois Medical District, across from the old Cook County Hospital building.

Then

Gave the district its only public monument for eight decades.

Now

IMD Park now ends that stretch as the district's first new public green space since 1946.

Why this matters now

It frames the scale of the moment — the district went 80 years without a new public park.

1918-1919

1918 influenza pandemic

The flu infected about a third of the world's population and killed an estimated 50 million people, yet produced almost no lasting public monuments in the United States.

Then

Few permanent memorials were built; the dead were remembered privately, in obituaries and family records.

Now

Historians cite the flu's absence of public memory as a reason later generations underestimated pandemic risk.

Why this matters now

COVID-19's deliberate memorialization — a 25-foot steel monument plus an online Memory Garden — marks a sharp break from the 1918 flu's silence in stone.