Lurie Garden: Landscape

Continued from the post on Lurie Garden.. click here..
Lurie Garden is a beautifully landscaped garden..
This post is more about the shape of the garden,
which can be broken into:
- Light Plate
- Dark Plate
- Seam
- Shoulder Hedges

 Light Plate

Light Plate..
West portion of the garden.. It is the perennial planting area. The careful orchestration of color progression and bloom time, allows the Light Plate to serve as a calender that marks the time of the year and changing seasons..

Dark Plate

Dark Plate..
East portion of the garden.. The Dark Plate serves as a dramatic framing foreground to the smooth, bright Light Plate on the other side.. It has flowering trees and plants that thrive in the shades of the flowering trees..

 Seam

Seam..
The interior of the Lurie Garden is composed of two plates..
Light Plate - West portion of the garden..
Dark Plate - East portion of the garden..
The two plates are divided by a wooden boardwalk called the Seam, which is suspended over water. This recalls Chicago's first step to building itself out of its marshy origins by raising wooden boardwalks over the muddy streets and sidewalks.
The Seam's boardwalk is made from Ipe wood., which is harvested from naturally sustainable South American forests.

Shoulder Hedges

Shoulder Hedges..
The garden is protected by, what is known as the Shoulder Hedge - a reference to the "City of Big Shoulders".. The Shoulder Hedge encloses the garden from two sides [west and north] and protects the perennials garden within..The shoulder hedge is defined and structured by tall metal framework. The plants of the Shoulder Hedge are both deciduous and evergreens. The deciduous plants provide color and texture in different seasons, whereas evergreens or coniferous plants remain robust and green all year.