Regenstein Center Grand Opening
INFO 847-989-7313, chicagobotanic.org
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Shall I fess up a bias? My family has these instructions: on the night I croak they’re to smuggle my corpse through the garden’s entrance, over its bowered bridge, and past the statue of Linnaeus to a spot beside a certain linden, where they’re to dig a deep, narrow hole, pay whatever bribes necessary if discovered, and dump me in. If I don’t reveal my whereabouts by killing the tree, I’ll have my place in paradise. This 385-acre living canvas, situated on land owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve on the county’s northern border (a long haul for all but North Shore residents), is the only world-class museum added to the Chicago area since the early 20th century. Its 23 gardens, carved over the last 38 years from the swampy clay of the Skokie Lagoon, have matured into a series of stunning dream landscapes.
Over the last five years money from the capital campaign’s been spent on problems like shoreline erosion and the garden’s only curse (now that the goose droppings are mostly gone), noise pollution from the Edens expressway. A brick wall and berm, built along 1.25 miles of the west boundary, was completed a year ago at a cost of $13 million, paid by county and state agencies. The garden’s literature suggests the wall has reduced highway noise by more than 50 percent, but executive director Kris Jarantoski says the sound levels haven’t been measured since construction was completed. The whir of traffic still accompanies visitors from the moment they set foot in the parking lot, and at the bulb garden or on the prairie there’s a surrealistic disparity between the visuals and the sound track.
