The Changing Face of Public Gardens

by Heather Prince

and butterflies flutter through the garden spaces that embrace the Art Institute of Chicago. One of the grande dames of Chicago’s public institutions and one of the most visited museums in the world, this Beau Arts building has anchored Michigan Avenue since 1893. As with any built environment of this longevity, it evolves and changes through the decades. We are fortunate that this jewel of a museum is set within three beautiful landscape spaces designed at different points in the building’s development. Talking to Patrick Thomas, Grounds Manager, we discussed each of these roof gardens that are open to the public and receive heavy foot traffic, creating some special challenges and opportunities.

The North Garden

The North Stanley McCormick Memorial Garden resides on Michigan Avenue, and with its honey locust trees embracing the Ferguson Wing, is a place of green respite. Installed in 1959, it was a gift by Mrs. Stanley McCormick in memory of her husband, who was the youngest son of Cyrus McCormick, of mechanical reaper fame. The initial garden was designed by Holabird, Root, and Burgee. After several decades, landscape architect Laurie Olin was commissioned to re-design the space, and the new garden opened in 1990. The Olin design created a space to showcase four stunning pieces of sculpture: Flying Dragon by Alexander Calder, Large Interior Form by Henry Moore, Cubi VII by David Smith, and Untitled by Ulrich Rückriem.

You step down into the North Garden and through trimmed yew hedges to a private green experience. Sculpted mature honey locust softens the terrace against wall of the Ferguson Wing and cools the eastern edge of the garden. Colorful planters line the balustrade filled with seasonal shade-loving plantings. Crabapples add fragrant spring flowers to the southern end of this rectangular space and tuck underneath the classical loggia of the Robert Allerton building. “In the North Garden, you step in, and you’re really separated from the street scape by the hedge of clipped yews,” commented Thomas. “It makes it very quiet and green.”

Mature bottlebrush buckeye and oak leaf hydrangea provide summer blossoms in the shade. A rectangular panel of lawn in the center offers a place for a picnic lunch and a green carpet to feature the sculptures. “One of the goals for the North Garden plantings are minimal maintenance plants that don’t require much care, as we are a three-person crew. We also have to keep the plants around the Calder low to respond to the sculpture,” mentioned Thomas. The Flying Dragon sculpture sits here in a layered bed of perennials carefully chosen to feature the piece. Along Michigan Avenue two old venerable American elms spread wide branches for shade and shelter. The Art Institute contracts with Bartlett Tree Experts to maintain the woody plants. “We’ve had some mimosa webworm in the honey locust, but we got on top of it,” said Thomas. “We treat the elms for Dutch elm disease. Our arborist at Bartlett saved the one when a storm broke one of the main branches. They came the next day and cabled and braced it and it bounced back.” The lawn panel features one island bed of river birch. Unfortunately, “the birch has bronze birch borer, so we are losing them year by year. We’re working on switching up this bed.” The team is also working on new shade perennial plantings in the beds as “shade requirements are changing in the North Garden as the trees mature and change.”

Along the front of the museum, low classical concrete urns line the balustrades and allow the horticulture team to flex (continued on page 26)

(continued from page 25) their creativity. You’ll find container plantings throughout the museum campus designed in complimentary colors to accent the architecture while holding up to the tough demands of the space. “We get an extraordinary amount of wind down Michigan Avenue and off the lake on the Columbus Drive side. Anything we plant in the containers needs to be able to handle wind and drought,” recounted Thomas. “We change the plants out seasonally, and I love that we change up the colors and textures each year. At the holidays, it’s really fun to work with evergreen boughs and branches, too.”

The South Garden

The South Garden along the Morton Wing is also a few steps down into a private space. One of the few extant public gardens designed by modernist landscape architect Dan Kiley, this architectural garden room was installed in 1962 and is regarded as one of his finest outdoor spaces. Here the murmur of the fountains quiets the traffic of Michigan Avenue as you pass under a double row of mature honey locust into a courtyard of 16 cockspur hawthorn trees set into a grid of granite planters. A rectangular reflecting pool leads you to the large Fountain of the Lakes sculpture by Loredo Taft against the wall (continued on page 28)

(continued from page 26) of the Morton Wing. The square granite planters aise the trees and create an interlaced canopy of carefully pruned branches while providing ample seating for visitors. Groundcovers and hardy perennials fill the planters with four-season green. It is a well-loved space for Chicagoans and visitors with its serene beauty. The challenges here are maintenance. “Bartlett sprays the hawthorns for diseases,” observed Thomas. “We regularly prune the thorns to keep visitors safe.” Beneath the honey locusts, Thomas has included native northern sea oats and palm sedge for layers of green texture while requiring little care. The biggest challenge in the near future is one corner of the garden is sinking. “We had the locusts air spaded and backfilled with soil, which worked for a while,” commented Thomas, “but it’s going to require more investigation.”

The East Side

On the east side of the Art Institute along Columbus Drive, you’ll find a very different landscape. Here, Roy Diblik was commissioned to create two perennial gardens in the New Perennial Movement style. Native plants and cultivars blend in complex layers and soften the hard lines of walks and buildings while offering dynamic four-season interest. Flowers are buzzing with bees, butterflies, and pollinators. A monarch butterfly lights on the Joe Pye weed for an early morning snack as goldfinches feast on echinacea seeds. “I’ve been taking pictures of monarchs in this garden all summer,” chuckled Thomas.

The Louis Sullivan arch from the Chicago Stock Exchange anchors the north bed. “It undulates and has catch basins that holds pretty much all the stormwater it collects,” reported Thomas. “The whole thing is a roof garden. Our soil tends to be sandy, so this has irrigation, but the ginkgos planted in the tree wells outside the garden bed do not. They had irrigation, but they kept getting flooded out, so we turned it off and only hand water now.” Diblik typically visits several times a year to help edit and replace plants. “One of the biggest challenges are keeping the self-seeders in bounds, so we edit to keep to Diblik’s plans,” said Thomas. “He does come in and check on us and bring plants to add. Some things will work, and some get crowded out. The stonecrop and baptisia are finally starting to establish and get going.” The team does not use pesticides here, only hand-pulling weeds and stragglers.

One of the most dramatic plants in these garden areas are the prairie docks with their huge leaves. “One of the questions I do get the most is about the prairie dock. ‘What is that?’ and ‘Is that a tropical?’ (continued on page 30)

(continued from page 28) is something we hear a lot,” recounted Thomas. “I love it when they dry out in the fall as well for winter interest.” Because these spaces mimic the style of Lurie Garden across the street, they are noticed by the public, even if they are gardens people are more likely to move through. “It’s not like the North or South Gardens where people get to sit in those, have lunch, and spend time. This is more of a transient kind of space,” observed Thomas. “I get a lot of feedback from people walking by. They go two ways – the people who are into gardens say it’s beautiful; the people who aren’t think it looks like a bunch of weeds. It’s mostly good, though. People love it.” Thomas loves it too. “This is my favorite garden. I love seeing how it evolves and differs in every season.”

The biggest overall challenge with these very public gardens is people. These landscapes are heavily used and so there is a considerable quantity of litter, graffiti, and vandalism that Thomas and his team deal with every day. “We’re constantly changing hats. We do all the grounds maintenance, we pick up the trash, we do the plowing, it’s not just gardening,” commented Thomas. Overall, Thomas and his team are using sustainable techniques and products like environmental-friendly ice melters as much as possible. “We are trying to go organic and use beneficials, but the more ornamental gardens require higher maintenance to keep them healthy and looking good,” commented Thomas. This year, watering has been a priority as the Chicago area moves in and out of drought. “The North and South Gardens are handwatered. They do not have irrigation. We end up lugging hoses about a quarter mile.” The pandemic shutdowns gave them an opportunity to do some much-needed maintenance and deep cleaning. It also gave wildlife a chance to claim the gardens. “We see foxes and coyotes. During the COVID shut down, there was a coyote walking right up Michigan Avenue. It liked the South Garden.” An owl moved into the South Garden as well, helping keep the rabbit population in check.

Each of the landscapes surrounding the Art Institute has its own distinctive personality. Birdsong is plentiful amid the burbling of fountains and the buzzing of pollinators. As these historic spaces evolve with time, Thomas and his team adapt and continue to manage the beautiful green settings of this venerable jewel of a museum.

by Heather Prince, as described by Landscape Architect Joe Karr

The Dan Kiley South Garden along the Morton Wing on the south side of the Art Institute campus has had deep ties with several Chicago landscape companies over its history. We were delighted to speak to Joe Karr, noted landscape architect, who started his long career in Dan Kiley’s office with this garden.

The Morton Wing was completed in 1962, while the Park District garages were being constructed under the south end of the Art Institute campus. About two-thirds of the garden sits on top of that garage, making it a roof garden. “It took a long time to design the garden,” remembered Karr. “Dan Kiley was working with Mrs. Stanley McCormick and every two weeks they’d meet. Kiley had a cardboard model made so she could visualize the space. I was fresh from the University of Pennsylvania when I joined the project. Every two weeks we remade that cardboard model until it was finally right.” The gardens were designed with deliberate care. “Dan started the design work for the garden in December 1962,” recalled Karr. “I joined the team in spring of 1963 and was assigned to the project with Ian Tyndall, my classmate, who was the lead designer. Design work continued into spring of 1964. The hardscape went in 1964 to 65 and the plantings were done in the spring of 1965 and 66. Four years on a project wasn’t unusual at that time.” Karr handled the softscape elements of the garden. “I pulled together all the construction documents and oversaw the installation of the garden. Dan tapped Harry Weese & Associates to handle the hardscape as he and Harry were good friends. (continued on page 34)

Joe Karr with the frequently-changed model The south garden during construction

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There were four landscape contractors bidding on the installation: Otto Damgaard, Gus Grundstrom, Synnestvedt, and Clauss Brothers. Grundstrom got the contract, but Otto had all the trees. He had started Kaneville Tree Farms to supply his own projects, especially large specimen trees. Those guys were all friendly competitors and worked wonderfully with each other and were great friends.”

The greatest challenge was working with a difficult site. “Working over the parking garage meant a very shallow depth to plant into and work with,” commented Karr. “The hawthorns are in seven-foot, four-inch square wide and two-feet, eight inches deep planters and have been for 55 years. They are tough trees. In the process of Dan going back and forth with the client, he chose the cockspur hawthorns, saying ‘these will become a bower in time’. And that’s what has happened. Their branches have woven together and it’s very special with the light dripping through them.”

One of the best parts of the installation was selecting the trees. “Otto Damgaard had planted the hawthorns on about 14 feet on center so they had a beautiful form,” remembered Karr. “I chose the whole row as each one was perfect! We had 32 identical cockspur hawthorn trees for the center of the design, and 61 cockspur hawthorn trees in total. Otto had planted the honey locusts we chose as seeds when Ron Damgaard was a little boy.”

The plant choices were made for toughness. “Cockspur hawthorn, which I’ve used in many projects, is extremely hardy,” observed Karr. “The Redmond linden I’ve always thought of as the hardiest linden. Honey locust is an excellent city tree because its open habit lets the light go through and its small leaves are easy to clean up. I love Sargent crab for its durability and small stature. The wintercreeper groundcover was chosen because it will grow up and out. The grounds staff have let it climb the walls and tree trunks to beautiful effect.”

Over the years, very few changes have been made to the original Kiley design and it has many stories within its walls. “We had groups of Sargent crabapples originally planted against the wall of the Morton Wing,” recalled Karr. “They grew together to form a solid low mass. About three or four years after the garden was finished, there was a murder in Grant Park. The body was found under one of the crab tree masses a day later. Those crabs were removed after that. At one point, the Art Institute elected to extend its terrace along the south wall, necessitating removal of four hawthorn trees. Loredo Taft also taught at the school. He’d hold a lot of his classes out on that terrace. To this day, the Art Institute grounds staff have maintained the space beautifully.”

The garden continues to be a signature Chicago space. “Dan’s idea was to set the garden down 18 inches so that the sounds of the street were muted,” said Karr. “Dan always liked to have water in his designs. Water brings a little bit of animation and sound that is so important in the landscape. This garden is its own space, separated from the street and