Lurie Garden's Summer Intern on Garden's Design

As part of the intern experience, the Lure Garden staff works with their intern(s) to devise a special project on a topic of special interest that will be beneficial to both the garden and the intern. Given my study of landscape architecture, I had a keen interest in the design evolution and development of the garden. This led me to conduct interviews of some of the key players in the garden's design and installation.

If you are not already aware, the Lurie Garden is imbued with many unique messages and symbolism that directly relate to Chicago and its history. For a brief example, the hedge that surrounds the garden is called the "Shoulder Hedge" and pay homage to Carl Sandburg's quote referring to Chicago as the "City of Big Shoulders." Additionally, over ten thousand allium bulbs are planted in the garden that reference the origin of the name of Chicago from the Native American word for "Stinking Onion."

Much of this information is available via the Lurie Garden website, www.luriegarden.org, or by attending one of the free Sunday tours that run from May through September. My goal by interviewing the designers was to find out where they got the ideas and information that eventually led to the many symbolic elements in the garden and I was surprised by some of the answers!

First, I'm going to talk about the retaining wall of the "Dark Plate" area of the garden - which is the area of planting to the east of the central boardwalk, otherwise known as "The Seam". The wall is a beautiful smooth-face golden limestone that creates an impressive transition from one area of the garden into another. It was known that the idea for the wall came from the time when the rail yards dominated the coastline and a sea wall was built to contain the eroding shores. After the Chicago fire, most of the debris was simply pushed into the lake, thereby expanding the shoreline as is today. The Lurie Garden is situated on the approximate site of the old sea wall

What I discovered during my interview with Kathryn Gustafson, a principal of GGN - the landscape architecture firm responsible for the hardscaping and layout of the garden - is that that sea wall still exists. It's buried, under layers and layers of development over the years, but it still exists. Suddenly, a seemingly unimportant retaining wall takes on a whole new significance in the overall design of the garden.

Next, I'd like to talk about the Extrusion Plaza. This is an area of the garden that is not often thought of as being part of the garden, as it resides outside of the shoulder hedge to the west and east of the footbridge to the Art Institute. It is a simple paved plaza with a few thin strips of evergreen plantings consisting of boxwood and yews. It may seem like a rather drab area until one knows its history.

As you may know all of Millennium Park is essentially a giant roof garden, housing two parking garages as well as stations for the South Shore and Metra train systems. If you were to place a plan of the arrangement of the tracks underneath Millennium Park at the location of the Extrusion Plaza, you would see a striking resemblance between the pattern of tracks and the arrangement of the beds above. This is another fantastic example of the site-specific symbolism that does a superb job of making the Lurie Garden a true Chicago treasure that could be duplicated no where else in the world.

I would also like to talk about the planting design of the garden, which is a masterpiece of the Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf. Unlike many gardens that exist on one, maybe two levels of experience, the Lurie exists on three distinct levels. Some of the plant combinations that Piet chose to use can only be truly appreciated at an up close and personal level. I call this the "intimate" level. However, that same combination, when viewed from an "intermediate" distance, can take on an entirely new appeal and add to the greater context of the garden design.

The viewing platform of the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute creates the "intermediate" perspective. To view the garden from the Institute presents Piet's design style in a whole new way. The graceful drifts and undulations he tends to incorporate into his designs become much more apparent as the smaller details of the plants are lost, and they become wide swatches of color. However, certain strong elements like the vertical spires of the Rusty Foxglove and seed heads of Echinacea still stand out from this view.

The final view, which is almost entirely unique to the Lurie Garden, is the "distant" view - that is, how the garden looks from fifty stories up when viewed from the surrounding skyscrapers. I had occasion to view the garden from this perspective during my summer, and it becomes a new experience yet again. Any fine detail is completely lost, and the garden becomes a dynamic two-dimensional painting through the seasons. Single white peonies look like pearls lying in the lush green carpet of surrounding foliage, and the undulating colors of the famous "Salvia River" blend together to become as liquid as the great lake Michigan that is its backdrop. Piet considered all these levels as he designed the garden and, in my opinion, had great success at every one.

What I've written so far is only a small, small piece of the wonderful design and layers of symbolism of the Lurie Garden and its history. The planting design is unparalleled, and the stage for such a display is one of a kind. However, design and research aside, the piece of my summer experience of which I am most proud is the people I met along the way. I would like to close this posting with an excerpt from my closing presentation this past summer.

A garden takes on the personality and humanity of those who interact with and maintain it. Without such guiding hands and unending passion, a garden would cease to become a garden and nature would reclaim her space. Those of us in this room and those who could not attend this evening are all helping to continue the successful evolution of this garden that in such a short time has become a treasured landmark beyond its founders' wildest hopes and dreams.

None of this would be possible without a clear mission and energetic, dynamic leadership. I refer of course, to the Lurie Garden staff.

During my time here this summer, I have been gifted with the unique opportunity to see this tight-knit, motivated and inspired team manage the garden and its operations. They approach everything with good humor and playfulness as well as a serious attitude born of perseverance and careful judgment. They have a sense of self and a sense of mission which combine to make them true leaders and visionaries.

I would like to take this moment to share my personal thanks with everyone here. You have truly made this summer of a lifetime. To say that I have enjoyed my time here would be a dramatic and horrendous understatement. It's easy to become lost in the moment-the many moments, I should say. I revel at how easily I would forget the broader scope and larger implications of what I was doing-simply because I was doing what I've done since forever, something where I am most happy and most content, most at peace, and most at home-gardening.

If there are any questions you might have, please feel free to contact me. I love talking about the garden, and if I don't know the answer-I'm sure I know someone who does!

About the Author:
Benjamin Futa has been gardening since the age of three. The first word he learned to spell was "iris," the German bearded variety are among his favorite plants. He is currently in his third semester at Purdue University studying landscape architecture with a minor in horticulture. In his free time he does planting design for his friends and family. Upon graduation he hopes to work in a public garden and at some point enroll in the Longwood Garden and University of Delaware graduate program in public horticulture. He recently plant PLAN-T, which he plans to expand in the coming weeks and months to be a resource and networking hub for all things "plant nerd" related. At the moment he is "scheming" to attend the American Public Garden Association annual conference in June of 2010.

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