Category Archives: Gardens
Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden Breaks Ground
The Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden broke ground on their $11.6 million improvement plan this month. Iowa’s state capitol has a number of citizens committed to public horticulture and we’ve been fortunate enough to work with them on some major greening efforts, like the World Food Prize garden and the medians of Fleur… Read More >
Chicago Landscapes in Autumn
Chicago’s civic landscapes attract people from all over the country. One of our landscape architects was out and about recently and took photos of how autumn was expressed this year within a few of the city’s wonderful designed landscapes. As this beautiful season comes to an end and our beloved… Read More >
Up on the Roof
This month’s issue of Traditional Home Magazine features Doug Hoerr’s personal roof top garden at his family residence in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The article highlights how Doug, his wife Tracy and their two children Malcolm and Amelia enjoy and live in their urban oasis. Having spent a lot of… Read More >
Design Tips for Terrace Walls and Fences on Rooftop Gardens
This month’s issue of Garden Design Magazine includes a great article on roof garden design that features a wide variety of design styles from across the country. One section of the article gives tips on something few people get excited about when envisioning the perfect rooftop space – walls, fences… Read More >
Terrarium Landscape Design for Rush University Medical Center Pavilion
Several weeks ago I posted some images on the theme of inside/outside. The open-air terrarium in the lobby of the newly completed Rush University Medical Center Brennan Entry Pavilion is a good example of the challenges and planning it takes to successfully translate the concept into reality. In the entry,… Read More >
Garden Views – Inside/Outside
Just some eye candy based on a theme today. Enjoy!
Tulip Mania
Chicagoans know better than to rely on the proclamations of groundhogs. Each year it is the tulips on the Magnificent Mile that announce to a winter-worn city that spring in all its splendor, has finally arrived. Yet much like a Chicago spring, the blooms last only a few short weeks… Read More >
Gardens and Walkways in the University of Chicago’s Main Quad
Last week we received the great news that our work at the University of Chicago will be given a Design Excellence Award by the Society of College and University Planners (SCUP) at their national conference this year. The award commends several projects we completed within the University’s Main quad that… Read More >
Family Courtyard on the Lake
This week, Architectural Record profiled a pair of family residences in Michigan’s Harbor Country for which we designed the landscape. Not surprisingly, the feature highlights photographs of the architecture, designed by Margaret McCurry, more than the landscape design, so I thought I’d show a few images of the landscape element… Read More >
World Food Prize Hall of Laureates Garden Blooms
It’s Spring in Des Moines, Iowa. Last autumn, Nick Fobes posted a bit on what it took to complete the World Food Prize garden. Last weekend, we sent a photographer back to capture what it looks like in a new season. photo Jack Coyier The… Read More >
Urban Garden Design for a Historic Home
We’re very pleased that the Illinois Chapter of the ASLA will give an honor award next month to the redesigned garden at a historic urban property in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. As a five-parcel lot, this property could easily have become over-programmed with dozens of vogue landscape amenities like a… Read More >
Engaging Plants in the Garden
Camp Rosemary is a garden designed in the 1920s by Rose Standish Nichols. On a tour of the garden this summer, I took time to reflect on the formal and evocative qualities of several types of plants. Two opposing elements; the vertical and the planar, are used in this… Read More >
Holiday Reading List: Great Books on Landscape Architecture and Design
Stumped on a gift for someone interested in landscape architecture, design, or garden design? Here are some of our faves, for a wide variety of skill levels and interests, ranging from monographs on the hottest landscape architects practicing today to a simple guide for organic composting. Let’s hear it for… Read More >
Thresholds in the Garden Landscape: Garden Steps
Building on the theme from our earlier post on thresholds and gates, I decided to dig into the archives again for some images of garden steps. While the main function of a stair is to move you from one level to the next, the transition can create a myriad… Read More >
Entering the Garden Landscape: Garden Gates
I frequently hear the words ‘mystery’ and ‘sense of discovery’ used here as defining qualities that are important in a garden landscape, and creating an intriguing threshold is one way to heighten that experience. A threshold – any place in a garden when you move from one area… Read More >