Garden Travel Food and Wine

Chicago Late-Summer Tour

A visit to Chicago rarely disappoints, with so much going on year-round.

Cleome - Millennium Park Pritzker Pavilion Photo © Alice Joyce

While the neighborhoods teem with great restaurant choices and cultural activities, the downtown area is an open-air museum, landscaped to look stunning at any time. I find it especially enticing Spring through Fall, when the gardens are incredibly lush.

I’ve featured the city’s green highlights, art and landscape architecture here in the past.

“]

BP Bridge designed by Frank Gehry [Photo © Alice Joyce

I haven’t previously featured Millennium Park’s BP Bridge. Designed along with the park’s Pritzker Pavilion by architect Frank Gehry, the bridge represents a fabulous feat of engineering in a lyrically engaging form. I expect the bridge will leave its contemporary mark on Chicago, standing up handsomely over time.

Modern Landscape Architecture on Amazon

Gehry Design [Photo © Alice Joyce]

The Modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago encompasses a small-space gem in the Prtizker Garden. The design’s refined simplicity is refreshing.

AIC Pritzker Garden - Kelly's White Curve [Photo © Alice Joyce

Contemporary Landscape Design…

: AIC Pritzker Garden [Photo © Alice Joyce]

Artist Pae White created the colorful installation: Restless Rainbow … It was being taken down the day I visited. I had planned to walk along the Nichols Bridgeway from the Lurie Garden to the upper terrace of the AIC’s Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano. Although the terrace was closed off, I had still had a great view of the artwork from the bridgeway expanse.

Restless Rainbow Pae White [photo © Alice Joyce]

Barcelona artist, Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain has ever-changing displays that captivate and delight.

: Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa Photo © Alice Joyce

: Lurie Garden Photo © Alice Joyce

The Lurie Garden plantings created by Piet Oudolf complement Kathryn Gustafson’s cool and orderly landscape design. A happy habitat for wildlife, the garden continues to mature as it increases in beauty.

Cruising Chicago Architecture

Expect terrific views of Chicago’s Centennial Fountain when you take a

Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady Cruises

“]”]

Chicago: Centennial Fountain [Photo © Allice Joyce

Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. During my annual visit to Chicago – always greatly anticipated – I pondered arrays of t ours offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. An organization you can count on to provide entrée to the city’s finest cultural highlights.

Santa Fe Building Atrium Photo © Alice Joyce

Ensconced in the landmark Sante Fe building designed by Daniel Burnham, the CAF headquarters is a great place to start the day. You can take in an exhibition, peruse intriguing, beautifully designed items in the CAF shop, or scan the upcoming programs and talks that might fit into your schedule. You can also select a tour and get ticketed, be it a walking, bus, or boat tour.

Chicago’s First Lady Cruises: Photo © Alice Joyce

I’ve found the CAF river cruise to be the most enlightening, having once through my own error, taken one operated by another company. It’s an experience that opens one’s eyes to the construction history of iconic Chicago buildings and newly completed skyscrapers viewed from the river aboard Chicago’s First Lady Cruises. Passionate about the city’s architectural history, foundation volunteers share their knowledge and enthusiasm as tour guides.

Art & Photography Books

Chicago's First Lady - Riverwalk Photo: Bob Agra

Once ticketed, you’ll make your way to the Riverside Gardens Dock – look for the blue awnings – on the lower level of the Michigan Avenue bridge at Wacker Drive.

333 N Wacker Drive Building Photo © Alice Joyce

The 333 North Wacker Drive building has always made my heart skip a beat – it’s that magnificent. I have to say, seeing it from the river is unforgettable.

Chicago River/DuSable Bridge Photo © Alice Joyce

A great sense of the city’s growth and importance unfolds on the cruise. You witness a panoply of buildings, bridges and architectural styles. Quite spectacular even on a day with light rain like the one I encountered last week. As a group, we did happily soak up the sunshine that appeared by the end of the cruise.

Of course you can visit the Chicago Architecture Foundation web site before you arrive in town if you prefer to buy tickets online. You might want to add a terrific walking tour of Millennium Park, too.

Amazon.com .. Travel Guides

Anyone who revels in art, gardens, architecture or the landscape will find tours to turn a Chicago sojourn into an extra special trip. And the same applies to locals. I wonder why we so often fail to explore the riches in our own back yards.

Darioush Winery Gardens

Darioush Winery: Architects, Nozari & Nojari, Santa Monica

Landscape Design: Sabrina Tanner, Proscape Napa

Antique Tunisian olive jars nestle among richly scented roses. The assertive forms of the jars are eye-catching focal points in planting beds at the front of the main building.

The Darioush Winery gardenscape surrounds a 22,000 square foot winery building, in a setting that celebrates Persian culture in myriad references to Persepolis.

Washingtonia robusta palms are paired with Pampas Grass to adorn the Darioush Amphitheatre.

The ornate symmetry of the architecture and the estate’s myriad artistic details demonstrate a joyful celebration of owners, Darioush and Shahpar Khaledis’ Persian heritage. Welcoming cast stone seating at the entrance offers a place for visitors to take in the scenery before entering the visitor center.

Wine lovers enjoy tasting the Bordeaux-style wines. Recently the 2007 Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon featured among the QRW Best of the Best in the Annual Blind Tasting. The winery’s delectable Cabs are wines to be savored.

Below: At the lawn’s edge roses consort with daylilies, flowering plums & cannas native to Persia. Tall, narrow evergreen Thuja were planted to echo the archictectural columns.

Organic farming methods are employed in the gardens, where natural fertilizers made from sea kelp are used. Plants are selected for their ability to withstand the Napa Valley’s extreme temperature variations, with winter lows that reach 20 degrees to summer highs of 110 degrees.

Lorepetalum and roses in borders surrounding one the winery’s water gardens. Dwarf Magnolias stand sentry at the front lawn. Looking toward the vineyards, a color palette of purple and burgundy catches the eye. Across the winery’s facade, you’ll see plants arranged to complement the building’s honey-colored imported Persian Straw Travertine. Apricot, orange and cinnabar with a bit of blue here and there are prominent colors in a scheme composed of roses, succulents, lambs ears, Jerusalem sage, and Yucca specimens.

Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

Follow Me…..

Thank you .. ‘Dirt du Jour’

Contact Alice: Talks & Topics

Chicago Late-Summer Tour

Cruising Chicago Architecture

Darioush Winery Gardens

Best 100 Travel Blogs

Click on Icon To Subscribe:

Pages