Revised planting plan, 2004, used for the final implementation. The original planting plan for the Lurie Garden, 2001, with Oudolf’s handwritten annotations. One of the first sketches of the meadow area. Although not described as matrix planting at the time, it was Piet’s first foray into a freer and less controlled spatial arrangement of plants. Block planting is used throughout, apart from one small area, “the meadow” - an area of intermingled planting that is more consciously naturalistic, with a higher concentration of grasses, and more intermingling of varieties. A bulb planting by Dutch designer Jacqueline van der Kloet was added a year after installation.Īround half the species used are Midwest natives. A dominant feature in early summer is the Salvia River, where four cultivars of European meadow Salvia are used to create a dramatic drift of purple-blue Piet does not like repeating himself, but this is a copy of a feature he made for his first public park, in Enköping, Sweden. The entire site is, in fact, a roof planting over a car park the depth of soil varies, so that there are constant slight changes in elevation. Considerably larger, and set at a lower level, is the more open area of the light plate. Surrounded by a high “shoulder” hedge, a broad boardwalk (symbolizing the wooden sidewalks that once lined the city’s streets) and a narrow waterway (“the seam”) divide the site into two distinct regions of planting: the “dark plate” and the “light plate.” The dark plate is an area of open woodland, richly underplanted with shade-tolerant plants symbolizing the wild landscape that existed before the arrival of white settlers.
This collaboration involved a conceptual framework being developed for the garden, not normally an aspect of Piet Oudolf’s work, and one that arguably adds nothing to the public perception of what has become an immensely popular part of the Chicago waterfront landscape, and which has also undoubtedly helped stimulate growing interest in garden-making in the region.
The Lurie Garden opened in July 2004 and is a garden area within a larger, public space - Millennium Park - created in collaboration with landscape architects Gustafson Guthrie Nichol with the support of the Ann and Robert H.
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