Open House

What a day!

Doesn't everyone have a Christmas tree constructed of green glass bottles?

Last Saturday, Scott and I attended the first annual Open House of the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Over 100 locations were open to the public - all types of places: historic office buildings, residences, churches, schools, even restaurants. The spots were located in different neighborhoods, all over the city. We started early, and stopped at 14 places!

Our first stop was one of our favorites - maybe, THE favorite - Christy Webber Landscape Designs, in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago. Christy designed the amazing Lurie Garden at Millenium Park. When I saw her place was on the tour, I knew we had to stop there.

This is a view from her green (of course!) roof. Note the cool art on the right, the garden and water feature below, and the city skyline on the horizon - a little hard to see, as it was cloudy at this hour (9 a.m.).
Lucky us, we got there first thing in the morning, and got to visit extensively with Christy herself. She was so warm and welcoming, and interesting.

Don't you love the art, constructed from old lawn chair frames?

Or a lawn sculpture made of old bed springs? The outdoor art was all created by Lucy Slivinski; isn't it wonderful? Her art is a perfect complement to Christy's garden designs, which are also works of art. The whole place just filled me with such creative energy - it was a wonderful space.

After such a fun first stop - we knew that it would be a great day, because it already was.