Adler Planetarium in the context of "Shedd Aquarium"

The Near South Side is a community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, just south of the downtown central business district, the Loop. The Near South Side's boundaries are as follows: North—Roosevelt Road (1200 S); South—26th Street; West—Chicago River between Roosevelt and 18th Street, Clark Street between 18th Street and Cermak Road, Federal between Cermak Road and the Stevenson Expressway just south of 25th Street, and Clark Street again between the Stevenson and 26th Street; and East—Lake Michigan.

Along Lake Shore Drive, the Near South Side includes some of Chicago's best-known structures: Soldier Field, home of the NFL's Chicago Bears; McCormick Place, Chicago's primary convention center; the Museum Campus, which contains the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Adler Planetarium; and Northerly Island. The area is currently undergoing a major residential and mixed-use redevelopment.

Museum Campus is a 57-acre (23 ha) park in Chicago along Lake Michigan. It encompasses five of the city's major attractions: the Adler Planetarium, America's first planetarium; the Shedd Aquarium; the Field Museum of Natural History; Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League; and the Lakeside Center of McCormick Place. Spanning from Roosevelt Road in the north to the terminus of the Stevenson Expressway at Lake Shore Drive in the south, the Museum Campus consists of the southeastern portion of Grant Park, the entirety of Northerly Island, and the northern portion of Burnham Park.

Northerly Island (also Northerly Island Park) is a 119-acre (48 ha) human-made peninsula and park located on Chicago's Lake Michigan lakefront. Originally constructed in 1925, Northerly Island was the former site of the Century of Progress world's fair and later Meigs Field airport and, since Meigs Field's closure, has been a recreational area part of Chicago's Museum Campus. It is the site of the Adler Planetarium, the Huntington Bank Pavilion (a semi-temporary concert venue), the Northerly Island Natural Area, the 12th Street Beach and numerous art installations. Per its name, Northerly Island was constructed as an island, but is connected to the lakefront by a causeway at the northern end carrying Solidarity Drive to the planetarium.

Solidarity Drive is dominated by Neoclassical sculptures of Tadeusz Kościuszko, Karel Havlíček Borovský and Copernicus.