Lurie Garden is a 2.5-acre (10,000 m2) garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park in the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States.Designed by GGN (Gustafson Guthrie Nichol), Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004.The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, native prairie grasses, shrubs and trees.It is the featured nature component of the world's largest green roof.The garden cost $13.2 million and has a $10 million endowment for maintenance and upkeep.
The Garden is composed of two "plates" protected on two sides by large hedges.The dark plate depicts Chicago's history by presenting shade-loving plant material.The dark plate has a combination of trees that will provide a shade canopy for these plants when they fill in.
Its northwest corner, north of Monroe Street and the Art Institute, east of Michigan Avenue, south of Randolph Street, and west of Columbus Drive, had been Illinois Central rail yards and parking lots until 1997, when it was made available for development by the city as Millennium Park.
The Lurie garden constantly depicts the dynamics of nature, but it is most colorful from June through the autumn. It is not a botanical garden with a scientific purpose and is instead a public garden. Thus, it does not use a plant labeling system. The plant life of the garden consists entirely of perennials.
It is located across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago's new Modern Wing, and within the park it is south of Jay Pritzker Pavilion, east of the South Chase Promenade and Southwest Exelon Pavilion as well as the future site of the Nichols Bridgeway, west of the Southeast Exelon Pavilion, southwest of the BP
The Garden also pays tribute to Carl Sandburg's moniker of Chicago as the "City of Big Shoulders" with a 15-foot (4.6 m) "shoulder" hedge that protects the perennial garden and encloses the park on two sides. It keeps the garden from being trampled by crowds exiting events at the neighboring Jay Pritzker Pavilion.
The boardwalk divides the garden into two plates, one of which contains muted colors, the other bright colors, while paralleling the line of the old Illinois Central Railroad retaining wall.The dark plate represents the early landscape history of the site, while the light plate represents the landscape of the future.
The water is invigorated with jets, and visitors are allowed to sit and dangle their feet in the water. It traces the angle of a historic subterranean seawall that remains beneath the site and used to be the boundary between the marshy Lake Michigan shoreline and the city.
The entire garden slopes downward to present itself for the new Renzo Piano Modern Wing addition to the Art Institute of Chicago Building. At the foot of the canal opposite the Building the water ends in a pool.Israel's lighting accents the hedges, and pathways are lit by in-ground lighting fixtures.
The garden is a sustainable design built on lightweight geofoam under the soil.All curbing, stone stairways, stair landings, wall coping, and wall cladding in the interior of the Garden use midwestern limestone.The garden uses granite for paving and wall veneer.Where it is exposed, the granite surfaces have a flamed finish.The boardwalk and wood benches in the Garden are fabricated from FSC-certified Ipe.The garden primarily uses patinized Naval Brass (all metal plates in the Seam), patinized architectural bronze (all handrails), and powdercoated steel (the armature).
The garden features dozens of types of perennials and bulbs.The garden features both ornamental and prairie grasses. It includes evergreen and deciduous shrubs. Its trees serve as its foundation. The wide variety of plant life has lured dozens of cottontail rabbits to the Garden and the surrounding park.
The dark plate's perennials include ferns, angelicas and other broad-leaved species, with a scattering of trees sprouting out of the flower beds.These plants thrive with shade from trees.