Category Archives: Outdoor Living
Outdoor Living Trends 2013: Design Tips & Inspiration
The ASLA asked landscape architects across the country to identify the top outdoor living trends of 2013—and published the survey results on their blog earlier this month. Outdoor living spaces, defined as entertainment areas and kitchens took their place at the top of the list. Gardens and landscaped spaces took… Read More >
Gather Around the Table – Alfresco Dining Spaces
In honor of the Thanksgiving tradition of gathering around a generous table, I thought I post some (zero calorie!) eye candy of our favorite outdoor rooms designed for alfresco dining. You can let your imagination fill the table with your favorite Thanksgiving treats! At Hoerr Schaudt we give thanks for… Read More >
Garden Landscape Details
Eye-candy time! A few of my favorite ‘detail’ shots from a variety of projects: Many of the hardscape details on this project, like this iron fence and concrete water feature, reflect the rectangular planes of the architecture. (photo Scott Shigley). Natural stone is used in a variety… 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 >
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 >
A Green Roof Threesome
We’re excited that the Illinois Chapter of the ASLA just awarded its highest honor for our design of three green roofs at one of the largest mixed-use complexes on Michigan Avenue. Green roofs in Chicago are hardly a new phenomenon. The city has been at the forefront… 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 >
Civic Landscapes: Places for People
Last week, the city of Toronto mourned the death of a prominent and beloved political figure, Jack Layton. The expression of that sorrow transformed Nathan Phillips Square, the vast, modernist, public plaza adjacent to City Hall into a civic ‘living room’ of grief. Rick Reineke of our office forwarded… Read More >
Inspired by Travel: Chinese Scholars’ Gardens
Peter Schaudt and I recently returned from a trip to China where we are in the beginning stages of a project outside of the city of Ningbo. While on our visit, we had the opportunity to spend some time visiting several of the famous Chinese Scholar’s Gardens in Suzhou,… Read More >
Tips from The Organic Gardner
With the passion for vegetable gardening at a nationwide high and the popularity of publications like Organic Gardening Magazine highlighting what can be done without pesticides, we asked Jeanne Nolan, owner of The Organic Gardener, to post thoughts about her recent experience with the organic garden designed in collaboration… Read More >
Survey: What was your favorite place to spend time on your college campus?
Not long ago, we attended an event at the Society of College and University Planners that asked this question. The results surprised people in the room and we’d like to try to replicate the question here. Don’t think too long, just close your eyes, think about that place, and… Read More >
Notes on Landscape Design: Morningstar’s Green Roof Terrace
If you’ve ever shopped in 108 N. State at the corner of Washington and State, chances are you haven’t been aware that a green roof hovers above you about 7 floors up. Chicago boasts more than 500,000 square feet of green roofs throughout the city – more than any… Read More >
Allium Obsession: The Charted Growth of a Favorite Onion
Alliums are showing up all over the city this month – those Dr. Seuss-like blooms that perch on bare stems. They’re a member of the onion genus and their graphic form makes them a dramatic spring and summer bloom. (See an earlier post for an image of them in… Read More >
Design Tips: How to Begin a Great Landscape Design
A lot of people get frustrated when they bring plants home that were beautiful at the garden center and then try to force them into the place they want them within their garden. They get disappointed because it may not be the right spot – either for its growth… Read More >
Vintage Fare: Finding Treasures at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Antiques and Garden Fair
I always look forward to the Chicago Botanic Garden’s annual Antiques and Garden Fair. Each spring vendors, aficionados and exhibitors bring thousands of unique classical and contemporary garden furnishings to crowd halls and fill tents at the Botanic Garden. In addition to the landscape designs that I collaborate on… Read More >