Citron Cachet! AIC Ptrizker Garden

Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute

I love the sharp tang of citron, or maybe I should say, chartreuse - the color of the chairs

in Chicago's Pritzker Garden.

It's the structure and evergreen forms of the landscape architecture that I'm drawn to when I visit this downtown setting.....

Lurie Garden Lyrical

Piet Oudolf plantings: September at Chicago's Lurie Garden - Millennium Park

Echinacea seedheads cosseted by grasses.

It's official: I've transitioned to the new Blogger interface and can attest to the enhanced features.

Like any change, it simply takes some getting used to, but I'd say it's definitely a step up from the old.

Late-Summer Gardens .. Chicago River Cruise

It seems I'm always looking forward to visiting my home town.

 Chicago is vibrant in its approach to arts and culture, a dream destination for anyone who appreciates historic and contemporary architecture. The brilliant river cruise I took last week was a high point! 


Visit  ... www.architecture.org to get the full details on the city's most informative architecture cruise:

 Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady Cruises 

  Leaving from the Riverside Gardens Dock – look for the blue awnings – on the lower level of the Michigan Avenue bridge at Wacker Drive.

Garden lovers must be sure to take a stroll down north Michigan Avenue toward Water Tower to see what's been planted. Lush, eye-catching displays are enlarged upon each year by temporary installations.

As the sign indicates, a new, upcoming event - Chicago Ideas Week will be held from October 10-16, to feature a host of speakers and innovative workshops taking place all around town. The event exemplifies the kind of energetic approach Chicago is known for.

A Most Beautiful Blue: Interlude at the Lurie Garden

Arrived home tired but enthused after from my annual pilgrimage to the Lurie Garden in Chicago's Millennium Park.

 My visits often coincide with the bloom of Bottle Gentian / Gentiana andrewsii 

[Photo © Alice Joyce]

Would anyone care to provide an I.D. for the tiny white sparkly blooms in the background? 

Creating an Oasis : Glorious Garden Fountains

Chicago's Millennium Park - Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa

Currently atop my short list of favored fountains.
All text and photos: Copyright © Alice Joyce

Think... Summer!

Fountains elevate the atmosphere of a garden, creating an oasis with a play of water... pleasing sounds that refresh. On a grand scale, fountains function as focal points within an expansive landscape design:

in historic settings...

or contemporary estate gardens.

Text and photos: Copyright Alice Joyce

A vineyard vignette encompassing a sequestered space for relaxation.

A contemporary terrace at a friend's home, away from the town.

Always a pleasant diversion to discover a chic garden shop while traveling,

or to be in the embrace of a formal parkland on a surprisingly sunny winter's day.

Celebrating Gardens

Aristolochia californica .. a very early blooming native vine in Alice's Garden 
Photo Copyright © Alice Joyce

The image of California pipevine befits the notion of the brilliantly green 2-year Blogiversary, celebrated with the readers of Bay Area Tendrils!

Surely one of the most interesting 'flowers' a gardener could ask for, and a host plant for swallowtail butterflies - the vine's leaves being the only food source the caterpillars consume.

Despite the region's heavy winter rains, it's plants such as this vigorous vining species that enliven my days as a gardener in the Bay Area. It's not unusual to see the plant flowering on and off throughout the seasons. This pipevine has spread widely in the garden, climbing up latticework, and scrambling under an arbor into through a border along a fence on the western boundary of the property.

The postage-stamp size garden I left behind in Chicago may be familiar to those of you who have followed the blog from its early days. A scanned 35mm slide shows a corner of a tiny gem of a space brightened by the hue of Chinese-red enamel on arbors I constructed, the wooden shutters and door to my studio. In Chicago, it always seemed we went directly from winter into summer, when a spell of intensely hot days would descend and roses would open... only to immediately wilt in the heat. But annuals grew lushly, thriving for months on end as the evenings contained the heat of the day.

Photos Copyright © Alice Joyce

The garden I created in my new home is a retreat from the daily grind: Another outdoor room, in fact, to expand the space of a tiny house. With plants that bloom year-round, the garden is filled with buzzing bees (despite the decline in bee populations), hummingbirds, and butterflies that feed on the pipevine; keeping us company while we have lunch under the umbrella.

In this 'before' shot, you'll see the new fence built to protect the space from our small town's over-the-top deer population. I'd been working for a couple months when I took the photograph, spending much of the time down on my knees, digging up broken glass and concrete rubble in order place the pavers that define the shapes of beds and borders. I eventually built up mounds for planting, having implemented the depleted and compacted hardpan with plenty of compost. I layered newspapers over the future pathways, as the El Nino rains of 1998 & '99 poured down over me.

UCSC's incredible FLORA: Banksia ericifolia 

Photo Copyright © Alice Joyce

Moving to the West Coast has been an eye-opening journey for a self-professed fanatical plant lover. It all began with my first 'major' journey about an hour and a half south to the Arboretum at the University of California at Santa Cruz! Here, collections of plants encompass members of the Proteaceae family from South Africa; the stunningly enormous cone-like flowering clusters of Banksia species from Australia; and yes, California native plants in the Elevenia Slosson Research Gardens: All provide an exciting horticultural experience.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Native Plants .. Slipper Orchid 

Photo © Alice Joyce

New York Gardens on Bay Area Tendrils

I want to thank you all for dropping by to share in my adventures.

New York City's Battery Gardens: The Bosque designed by Piet Oudolf (Photos © Alice Joyce)

Chicago's 'Crown Fountain' by Jaume Plensa .. Millennium Park (Photos © Alice Joyce)

Chicago's Green Destinations on Bay Area Tendrils

I remain extremely proud of the city where I was born, raised, and lived for decades. It's the equal culturally and horticulturally of any city I've ever visited! I need to travel to the midwest to experience the vibrant atmosphere of Chicago at least once a year.

Barcelona's Historic Parc de la Ciutadella (Photo © Alice Joyce)

The sophistication and panache of Barcelona is unique.

It's 2011.... amazing how time is flying by. I plan to continue writing about my travels here

and on my web site: Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

...to connect with virtual green thumbs in the year ahead,

and especially those of you I'll have a chance to meet in real time!

Ciao ... à bientôt ... Hasta pronto ... Até breve ... Until next time!

Luminous and Inviting, The Lurie Garden, Chicago

Bottle Gentian .. Gentiana andrewsii 
Text  and  Photos © Alice Joyce

Late-summer in Chicago's Lurie Garden












UNDER CONSTRUCTION....

Spanning the rooftop of the Millennium Park parking garage, the lush greenery of the 

Lurie Garden appears as a surprising tour de force: An achievment that’s received worldwide attention for the transformation of a former rail yard into a classic Modernist space.

Designed by the firm of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf, & lighting designer Robert Israel, the park is a rejuvenating oasis for downtown office workers, 

tourists and travelers.

Knotweed  Persicaria a. 'Firedance'

Enclosing the 2.5-acre garden from the north and west, a massive wall of greenery dubbed the Shoulder Hedge pays homage to Carl Sandburg. Hornbeam, European Beech, Arborvitae varieties make up the hedging. Growing within steel armatures, the hedge provides a protective function, to separate the garden’s fields of perennials from the thousands of concert -goers who stream out of the Gehry-designed bandshell. 

Coneflowers abound.

Water channel, wooden walkway and a limestone wall interrupt the garden layout, dividing it into two distinct compositions: 

The light plate features a sunny, exuberant planting scheme, calling to mind a prairie. 

While the dark plate conjures up a dramatic setting, where plant selections take on muted tones. Some 130 North American natives, plant species and cultivars emerge in Oudolf’s plantings; his designs well-known for their celebration of grasses. 

Looking toward new wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, in background.

Coneflowers: blooms and seedheads meld with swathes of grasses.

Oudolf’s palette incorporates myriad shapes, together with feathery, airy, and bristly textures. The quality of movement associated with grasses is unparalleled, as is the unrivaled way the  flowerheads and translucent blades catch the light, adding layers of interest to the garden even after snow begins to fall.

Agastache

Parthenium integrifolium

Giant Hyssop

Goldenrod - S. 'Fireworks'

Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' growing with catmint.

Looking out over the Lurie Garden through the glass wall of the Sculpture Terrace 

atop the new wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, 

where the garden's rill culminates in a sedate waterfall.

A work by Scott Burton, part of an installation on the museum's sculpture terrace,

overlooking Lurie Garden & Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion ... beyond the glass wall. 

During my September visit, the blooms were fading and the grasses had taken on burnished hues, yet I found it difficult to pull myself away from the garden's embrace.

Elegant Simplicity ... Pritzker Garden, Art Institute of Chicago

Margo and Thomas Pritzker Garden - Chicago

One approaches the Pritzker Garden from the museum's Griffin Court, 

in the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago,

Facing Columbus Drive, the space is designed with an elegant simplicity, 

given a sense of shelter by the flying carpet overhead (upper left in photo),

so named by architect Renzo Piano.

Chartreuse chairs are placed about the crushed stone terrace,

the bright enameled seating producing an ambiance that conjures up images 

of European gardens.

Naturalistic plantings of grasses soften the sleek setting, 

punctuated by the spare placement of trees with peeling bark. 

White Curve

a work by Ellsworth Kelly glimmers with the changing light on the museum wall:

The sculpture's reflective surface animated by reflections of the garden's columns & trees.

Specially commissioned in collaboration with the building's architect, Renzo Piano, 

the work is the largest to-date in Kelly's oeuvre. 

Wilde ...as in Oscar! Chicago Streetscape

Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood ... on the North Side

My former stomping ground.

Wilde's

as in Oscar Wilde ... Irish Bar and Restaurant

Plantings - Anne Roberts Gardens

Streetscape ... 3130 N. Broadway

Late-September 2009

A belated postscript, mentioned in the comments here.

Visit VP's 18 Oct post on Veg Plotting: 

Out on the Streets

for street scenes from Liverpool to Brittany to downtown Toronto!

Millennium Park's Exuberant Spirit

Chicago - September, 2009 - Michigan Avenue

Frank Gehry’s exuberant architecture seems to have taken the world by storm. I'll vouch for the architect's design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. 

The building proved to have superb acoustics when I heard a string quartet play there. Before attending the concert, I'd been won over by Gehry's exuberant style,

 impressed by the Concert Hall's open-air gardens, which are also open to the public.

On my must-see list of Gehry buildings? The acclaimed Guggenheim Bilbao Museum

turned Bilbao, a Spanish port city, into a must-see destination. 

In the meantime, I visit Chicago in September during the World Music Festival,

where venues for free performances include the 

Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavilion. 
Millennium Park Peristyle Monument (replica)

The music from the Pavilion carries clear as a bell over an extensive area, encompassing the parkland and the Lurie Garden.

The view on the right shows the garden,  photographed through the glass wall of the sculpture terrace atop the new wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.

(Next feature will focus on the Lurie Garden, with plantings by Piet Oudolf.)

In the distance, across Monroe Street, the newly opened,  Renzo Piano-designed wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. The straightforward, strongly rectilinear lines of the building aim to complement the

 angular modernity of the Millennium Park landscape and minimalist Lurie Garden. Fantastic views unfold from the raised walkway  connecting the Lurie Garden to the Art Institute!

Beckoning from on high, the ramp invites you to enter either ....the museum,

 or Terzo Piano, an elegant new restaurant.

A Sculptural Dialogue - Millennium Park, Chicago

Cloud Gate 

....a sculpture by Anish Kapoor,

quickly achieved the status of icon for Chicago's Millennium Park.

Summer 2009

The Park's Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture 

from China, includes:

Jia Shan Shi No. 46 by Zhan Wang

With a degree from Bejing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, the artist is known worldwide for his stainless steel 'scholars' rocks.'

A sheet of steel, hammered over the original rock, alters the form to "reflect ...the cultural transformation of changing times.

The artwork symbolizing the adaptation of Chinese cultural tradition to..." modern life.

Ancient Lake Tai rocks originate in an area near Suzhou, the Garden City of China. Elemental components in the design of Chinese Scholars' gardens, their resonant profiles emerge throughout the entrancing landscape of 

Portland Classical Chinese garden.

Representing 'yang,' the uniquely convoluted limestone rocks are a treasure;

 their solitary forms looked upon as artistic focal points.

 En masse they rise up in watery grottoes, to rim lake beds, 

or create the appearance of a mountainous terrain.

In dramatic contrast, 

Millennium Park's Contemporary Chinese Sculpture exhibition featured 

Windy City Dinosaur by Sui Jiaguo, 

a professor in the Department of Sculpture at China's Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Considered an experimental artist, his work "references...cheap, mass-produced goods" that China exports, as it questions "the source of China's economic prowess..."

Click on link below to read more about Millennium Park 

http://bayareatendrils.blogspot.com/2009/10/summers-end-millennium-park-chicago.html

Summer's End .. Millennium Park, Chicago

Millennium Park burst on the scene in 2004, albeit, a few years past the planned opening 

at the turn of the century. 

Still, it's the place to be on a summer day in Chicago. I'm proud of my home town,

a greener, more vibrant and energetic urban setting than ever.

The Crown Fountain's upright 50-foot towers deliver a welcoming splash and flow;

the multi-media water feature designed by Jaume Plensa, a Barcelona artist.

A shallow pool spans the space between the glass-block towers,

their colorful video projections featuring a panoply of faces.

1,000 Chicagoans... their changing expressions creating a riveting display.

These giant faces are full of surprises....

Blink.... smile... ... spout!

Cavort, if you like,

or take up residence on a bench while you wait for friends to arrive.

More... Chicago, in the days ahead:

The Lurie Garden with Piet Oudolf plantings

Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Pavilion

Installation of Sculptures by Chinese Artists

& new Renzo Piano designed wing of The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago Garden, The Back Story

                     Ligularia in bloom, growing by the pond in my Chicago garden.

Photo Copyright Alice Joyce

The back story: I grew up in Chicago surrounded by asphalt and concrete. Gardening entered my life only after moving to Newport street. Sean may remember opening the back door on frigid mornings so our well-trained puppy could make his way to a designated spot alongside the garage.

Newport was my home on and off while doing graduate work in sculpture in California, and then an M.F.A. in New York. The brick garage, its ancient wooden barn doors piled high with snow and ice in winter when the alley was plowed, functioned as a welding studio, and a sequestered place to work with resins.

The garden only began to take precedence when I suffered burn-out with the art world. One show a year; the constant hustle of part-time teaching positions; grant writing; securing gallery representation. 

After years of yearning to dig in the soil, or add structure to the space, each time I walked the 25 feet from the back door to the studio... Let's say I finally gave in to the impulse. A turning point that had this zealous Type A enthralled in garden work from the first sign of spring, through the mild days of fall. In fact, in mid-winter, too, if I found something to prune.

By 1998, when I moved to the Bay Area, the Chicago garden was awarded a First Place in Mayor Daley's Landscape Awards Program. 

And I had signed my first book contract for West Coast Gardenwalks.