Hard hats, hot asphalt and a sweeping view of Chicago’s gleaming skyline—it’s not a typical walk in the park when former Mayor Richard Daley gives you a tour of what will be the city’s newest playground come fall 2014.

As part of the Chicago Ideas Week (CIW) Monday $55 million, broke ground in October 2012 to create a new world-class public landscape and reflect the love Daley’s late wife, Maggie, had for children. She passed away from cancer in 2011.

“When you look at the Maggie Daley Park, you look at Chicago’s history…we’ve really established what the lakefront should be along the river and what parks should be,” Daley said, sporting a white hard hat and neon yellow vest.

What was once a parking lot will span 20 luscious acres between Columbus and Lake Shore Drive near Millennium Park, creating a destination for the winding silver bridge known as “Nowhere,” a nickname given by Daley because the bridge used to lead to an endless expanse of chain link fence and a dirt farm. He said it will complement—not compete—with Millennium.

The plans feature a gigantic climbing wall, a ribbon of ice for skating in the winter and larger-than-life playground equipment, including a lighthouse and a ship.

“It’s a series of rooms,” said Gia Biagi, Chicago Park District’s chief of staff. “With [Maggie Daley Park] it’ll be more of an experience that you deliver to yourself…it unfolds in front of you.”

It will also be home to 1,000 trees of species not typically found in Chicago, like Black Oak, in order to diversify the city’s urban forest and prevent the spread of disease, according to Michael Kelly, Chicago Park District’s superintendent.

“There will be a three-acre play garden—and I’m in the business, there’s no one else doing this in the country,” Kelly said. “This is spectacular.”

Taking a loop around a barren gravel landscape filled with bulldozers, steamrollers and yellow-vested construction workers, it might be hard to imagine the grandeur of what will be Maggie Daley Park. But those lucky enough to score the tour had the vision imprinted in their minds.

“We work in the Aon Center, so we see this every day,” said Una Pipic, a Lab attendee and senior vice president of business development at Edelman. “We’ve been wondering for a while what’s going on, so just being able to see it up-close is great.”