All Who Wander Are Not Lost: Chicago Millenium Park

In early August, Scott and I road tripped to Chicago for a wedding. After the wedding, we ventured into downtown to spend an afternoon exploring. Millenium Park was by far the most memorable part of the experience.

The 24.5 acre park was transformed from railroad tracks and surface parking lot in 1998. The venue now includes an outdoor music venue, fountains, multiple sculptures and artworks, and the Lurie Garden. The 5 acre garden feature with flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees was completed in 2004. According to the "design narrative" of the project, the garden represents Chicago's motto, "Urb in Horto" or City in a Garden referring to the transformation from flat and marshy land to a "bold and powerful city". Although there are several significant features, the most striking aspect of the garden for me was the contrast between the open space full of flowers and grasses against the city skyline.

Despite the beauty of the flowers, I couldn't help wonder what the space would look like with some vegetables planted in the garden too. Imagine five acres of food in the middle of a major city! How would this change the park and garden? Would people still appreciate the beauty of the space? How many people would a space like that feed? Of course after all of these questions (and returning to Virginia) I learned there is a vegetable farm in downtown Chicago! Growing Power, a non-profit urban agriculture project, has three gardens throughout Chicago - one in Grant Park adjacent to Millenium Park. DANG! I can't believe I missed the opportunity to see it! (Although I'm not sure I could have actually gone over there due to Lollapalooza music festival happening at the same time).

Urban agriculture is definitely gaining more attention as people begin to understand the value and importance of gardens/farms in all areas. Urban residents seem to especially benefit from the educational opportunities and socially equalizing nature of gardens. Gardens (and food in general) can be a tremendous community building tool that brings together different ages, races, and socioeconomic classes. I'd really like to explore these opportunities and some of the associated challenges in more detail......

But right now I must return to more reading - oh, grad school. Interestingly enough I'm reading about green infrastructure planning, though, which brings this conversation full circle.