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Art Institute of Chicago commissioned Olin Partnership
to redesign the museum's north garden, The Stanley McCormick
Court. The new design accomplishes four goals:
1. Provide a setting for a newly acquired Calder sculpture.
2. Improve views into the court from Michigan Avenue.
3. Enlarge the central grass area.
4. Create a sunny, open space to contrast with the shady,
tree filled South Court.
The courtyard lawn has aways been a favorite place to
stop and sit. To foster this tradition, the central
lawn panel was enlarged and raised slightly above the
surrounding walk, edged with a granite curb. The Calder
sculpture was placed on the center line of the classical
loggia on the north side of the museum's Robert Allerton
Building. To break the symmetry, a rectangular bed of
periwinkle was planted east of the building center line
within the lawn panel. Three parallel bands, one planted
with ornamental grasses, the second with Siberian irises,
and the third with daylilies, run along the eastern
edge of the periwinkle bed. These planted bands are
meant to evoke the marshy shoreline of a natural prairie
river.
A double row of native honey locust trees provide
a delicate veil between the court and the facade of
the museum's Ferguson Wing. Seasonal planting beds designed
to frame the central composition, were arranged along
the outside edge of the walk surrounding the lawn on
the north and east. New trees and seating were also
installed. |
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