Garfield Park Fieldhouse

Address: 100 N. Central Park Ave. Year Built: 1928 Architect: Michaelsen & Rognstad Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: November 18, 2009

The Garfield Park Fieldhouse--known to Chicagoans as the "Gold Dome Building" for its distinctive gold-leaf dome towering over Garfield Park--is an architecturally impressive building in the Spanish Baroque Revival style, an unusual motif in the context of Chicago's architectural history. This visually-flamboyant style uses decorative details drawn from historic Spanish Baroque and Spanish Colonial architecture including twisted columns, portrait busts and sculptures, and other ornamentation including scallop shells, scrolls, pinnacles, niches, and swirling, naturalistic plant forms. The interior includes a two-story rotunda with a colorful patterned terrazzo floor and marble-clad walls decorated with sculptural panels. The Garfield Park Fieldhouse was built in 1928 as the headquarters for the West Park Commission, and converted into a fieldhouse in 1934 after the creation of the Chicago Park District.