On the QT | The Official Newsletter of GWA November-December 2017 | Page 3

— Chicago, continued from page 1
Top: One of Chicago’s 31 beaches among its 26 miles of lakefront parks invites visitors. Above: The Lurie
Garden, with naturalistic plantings designed by Piet Oudolf in a mix of native and non-native plants, is part
of Millennium Park. Below right: Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park is a favorite gathering spot for its
evening light shows.
FIRST IN FOREST PRESERVES
Industrial millionaires and social activists
pushed for a great park system, with parks laid
out by Frederick Law Olmsted and Daniel Burn-
ham. Even as it sprawled out into the surround-
ing prairie in the early 1900s, Chicago became
the first American city to set aside a green
necklace of forest preserves. Their architect, Jens
Jensen, who also designed the city’s boulevard
system, was one of the early pioneering champi-
ons of native plants.
Chicago continues to create gardens,
including Millennium Park and the new Maggie
Daley Park among glittering skyscrapers, green
roofs and community gardens in the neighbor-
hoods, and more than a mile of new downtown
riverwalk where you can sit in green spaces and
watch kayakers on what was once a scummy
industrial canal.
C A
COME EARLY, STAY LATE
Plan to come a day or two early and visit
world-class museums, such as the Art Institute
of Chicago or the Field Museum, take in a Cubs
game, see a play or visit gardens a short walk
or cab ride away. We’ll tell you more about plans
for the conference in upcoming issues of On the
QT. For right now, I’d like to tell you a bit about
my city.
Chicago’s defining glory is its lakefront. Of
the city’s 28 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, 26
miles are public parkland with 31 beaches. How
many cities keep nearly all their most valuable
real estate free and open to the public?
Still, it’s hardly pristine shoreline. The original
dunes and marshes are long gone, and the parks
we see today are atop landfill. But then nearly
everything about Chicago, a great industrial city
that burst into being in the middle of a swamp, is
an engineering feat of one kind or another.
In the 1830s, when Chicago was a crude,
fur-trading outpost with a couple of hundred
inhabitants, they adopted the motto “Urbs in
Horto,” meaning “City in a Garden.”
Within a hundred years, the ragged hamlet
grew into a factory-powered colossus of more
than 3 million people. Still, throughout its history
and through many fights and setbacks, Chicago
has strived to live up to its motto.
Partnering with the IGC Show will help us
keep the conference relatively affordable for
GWA members, while retaining our own educa-
tion sessions and trade show. However, it means
major changes from the schedule and arrange-
ments we’re used to. For example, this confer-
ence will run from Monday through Thursday,
not the customary Friday through Monday.
Come see my city. Mark your calendar now
for Monday, August 13, through Thursday,
August 16, 2018, and watch On the QT for more
details on this very special 70th anniversary
Conference and Expo.
Beth Botts is chair of the local organizing
committee for #GWA2018.
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