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? 

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. 

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