 |
 |
 |
Lily Pool Project - Overview
WHAT IS THE LILY POOL?
The one and a half-acre Lily Pool is a landscape of national historic importance. It was designed by Alfred Caldwell, who served as a landscape architect for the Chicago Park District during the 1930s. During his lifetime, Caldwell made important contributions to the Prairie School of architecture and design, a movement led by Frank Lloyd Wright. Caldwell collaborated on significant projects with luminaries such as Jens Jensen, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Mies van der Rohe. Caldwell wrote in 1942, '[The Lily Pool] was planned as a hidden garden of the people of Megalopous." More than half a century later, there are few other public spots in Chicago that offer the same sense of natural respite from the harshness of city life. The Lily Pool is located south of Fullerton Drive and north of the elephant house in Lincoln Park Zoo.
Because of the Zoo's proximity to the Lily Pool, the Zoo began to manage the site for breeding birds in the 1950s and changed the Lily Pool's name to the 'Rookery'. In May 2000 the site was renamed the "Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool" to respect the past and reflect the future.
DECLINE OF LAND AND WATER
Though the scenic glade still possesses the power to surprise and delight visitors, the decline of the landscape is painfully apparent. Naked tree roots rope their way across desolate stretches of bare dirt. The pond has grown stagnant, and its green surface is tangled with fallen trees. Graffiti and rot mar the handsome wooden pavilion. Since Caldwell's days, rock was laid on grassy, planted areas to counteract erosion. Weedy trees like white poplar and European buckthorn have invaded and grown to maturity, shading out and killing the undergrowth Caldwell envisioned. Songbirds that stop at the Lily Pool to recuperate during their arduous migration find little to eat, for native trees and shrubs with berries have long since died.
REHABILITATION FOR THE FUTURE
In 1997, the Lincoln Park Conservancy began an effort in cooperation with the Chicago Park District to create a concept plan for repairing and reviving the Lily Pool. The plan remains faithful to Caldwell's original ideas while accommodating modem concerns. Now with the support of public agencies and private citizens, there's an opportunity for this plan to be implemented, and repairs and improvements to be completed.
Lincoln Park Conservancy ~ 2000 N. Racine, Chicago, IL 60614 ~ 773.883.7275