The Field Museum Lawn Is Getting A Lush Prairie Makeover
By Emma G. Gallegos in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 3, 2016 3:30PM
Renderings via the Field Museum (By Site Design Group)
The front lawn of the Field Museum will be getting a makeover this year. The green turf lawn will be ripped up to make room for native plants.
In the latest issue of its member magazine, the museum released renderings of the new gardens by Site Design Group. There will be tall, colorful prairie grasses, along with a pathway for walking and benches for resting. A spokeswoman for The Field Museum told Chicagoist that they don't yet have an exact date for the transformation.
It looks gorgeous, but the makeover of what is being dubbed the Rice Native Gardens (thanks to a donation by the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation) is functional, too. Carter O'Brien, the sustainability manager for the museum, writes that the native plants and permeable pavement is, well, more sustainable. The design will reduce the urban heat island effect, increase storm water retention and carbon absorption. Because it requires less fertilizer, there will be less polluted runoff into Lake Michigan. Unlike turf, these native plants require little watering.
And this being the Field Museum, there will be a research and educational component. O'Brien writes that newly-planted bur oak trees are expected to help improve the soil, and Field scientists will be monitoring the process.
Native species makeovers have been happening all over the city, including Northerly Island, the Burnham Wildlife Corridor, the Millennium Reserve and the Lurie Gardens. O'Brien says this is a throwback to what was envisioned in the 1909 Plan of Chicago.
The Field Museum was built on lake-fill that was provided by the manic rebuilding after the Great Fire. Here's how it looked in its early days:
