Montgomery Ward was all up for aborting the Field Museum, but was willing to let the Art Institute remain east of Michigan Avenue.
Ward's interest in the lakefront began soon after he moved into the 22-story headquarters of his catalog business on Michigan Avenue. The view from his office window overlooking the lake was downright ugly. So, he filed a suit to have all the debris and shanties removed from what amounted to a huge trash dump.
The bottom layers of it dated to 1971, when rubble from the Great Chicago Fire was dumped into the lake. At the time, the lake's shoreline was at about Michigan Avenue.
The Tribune strongly backed Montgomery Ward until it became apparent he also did not want any sort of building constructed in the new land.
The fight for a lakefront everyone could use was on.
--Cooter
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