For Immediate Release
December 6, 2007
For More Information:
Larry Schaffel/PR Director
Tricia Van Horn/VP Marketing
312/642-8869
A corner of Lakeshore East, the blossoming new urban village rising between the Chicago River and Millennium Park, has been set aside to house a permanent memorial to fallen Chicago firefighters.
In a Dec. 4 ceremony attended by hundreds of community and business leaders, including aldermen Ed Burke and Brendan Reilly, the bronze Walter Watroba Memorial Statue, named after firefighter Walter Watroba of Chicago Fire Department’s Engine Company 13 was unveiled.
Dedicated to the memory of Watroba and all Chicago firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty, the statue features a firefighter’s jacket draped over a steel architectural column with a helmet and a pair of boots at its base and a life-size bronze American flag in the background.
Lakeshore East developer Magellan Development Group noted that it was eager to participate in developing the memorial and arranging the ceremony after it was approached by retired Capt. George Rabiela. According to Magellan co-CEO James Loewenberg it has been a goal of Capt. Rabiela for more than 30 years “and we were more than happy to become a major sponsor and benefactor and program coordinator.”
“We at Magellan are proud to have taken an active role in the design, planning and funding for the Watroba Firefighter’s Memorial. because our Aqua development … is adjacent to the Engine Company 13 fire house. The services of Engine Company 13 are vital to the community that we are creating.” he said.
Loewenberg noted that Lakeshore East will one day be home to 10,000 residents and countless visitors and thousands more live and work in the Lakeshore East neighborhood and placing the memorial adjacent to the Aqua will make it both visible and memorable and an important fixture in the growing community.
The statue was designed by Jeanne Gang, principal of Studio/Gang/Architects, who also designed the celebrated 82-story Aqua, hailed by architectural critics as “Chicago’s most sensuous skyscraper.” Now under construction with a scheduled opening in spring 2009, Aqua will be a blend of 264 luxury condominiums rising from a level equal to or higher than many city penthouse levels, 474 rental units, 210 hotel units, 42,000 square feet of office space and 37,000 square feet of retail space.
Temporarily placed outside Engine 13, which is situated at the west end of the Lakeshore East complex, the statue will be placed permanently at a shaded, park-like seating area for visitors along Columbus Drive at Lake Street next to the Aqua tower.
An undulating garden wall between the Engine 13 fire station at 259 N. Columbus Drive and Aqua will provide the sculpture with a landscaped backdrop.
Watroba died in 1976. On Nov. 22 that year he and other members of Engine 13 were deployed to a fire outside their district at what was then the Commonwealth Edison Co. Fisk generating station on Cermak and Carpenter streets. Watroba was trapped for seven hours under a collapsed coal conveyer. His leg was amputated in order to free him from the burning building and he died a short time later.
Engine 13 has been part of Chicago history since 1867 and even helped battle the Great Chicago Fire. Walter Watroba is the only member of Engine 13 ever to die in the line of duty.
The Walter Watroba memorial was made possible through contributions from ComEd, Magellan, Midwest Generation, Loewenberg Architects, McHugh Construction, the National Foundation for Public Safety, NNP Residential, Studio/Gang Architects, True Form Productions and Wolff Landscape Architecture.
