| McCORMICK place landscape, CHICAGO |
 |
| DLK Architecture provided
landscape architectural services for the most recent westward
expansion of McCormick Place, which included a Conference
Center, the offices for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition
Authority, a Parking Structure (including the preservation and
incorporation of the façade of the historic Platt Luggage
Building) and a Surface Parking Lot.
The landscape design retained some of the vocabulary used at South Hall and the McCormick Plaza, including hardscape bands spaced at 30 feet and tilted at 15 degrees southwest (which referenced Chicago’s original plat) and the quilting effect in areas of brick paving. The planting plan sought a heavy reliance on native plants indigenous to the pre-settlement lakeshore as well as achieving a true "four season" effect. The landscape design for the parking structure and the surface parking lot sought to soften the visual effect of the structure’s façade and to visually buffer the parking area in accordance with the newly evolving Landscape Ordinance. The total project timeframe lasted approximately 4 ½ years from the first sketches and meetings to the final warranty punch lists, making it one of the landscape studio’s major efforts to date.
|