The process of creating a special place takes time. Over
the past five years, Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture,
Inc., has been working to construct a viable, dynamic, and
coherent setting for the academic community at the Illinois
Institute of Technology (IIT). Their awards submission encompassed
five projects: individual components of a larger vision to
revitalize one of the most important Modern campuses in the
country.
The vision of the Illinois Institute
of Technology was developed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(1886-1969), coupled with landscape
architect Alfred Caldwell (1903-1998). Together, they crafted
a campus that “flowed like water around stones into
the open and compressed spaces created by buildings sliding
past one another.” (Phyllis Lambert, Mies in America)
The landscape of the IIT campus represents the legacy of
Alfred
Caldwell, a landscape architect, teacher, and protégé
of Jens Jensen, who collaborated with Mies for years at IIT.
Caldwell was IIT’s landscape architect when Mies’ buildings
were erected in the 1940s. Although Caldwell never fully
developed a landscape master plan for the campus, his
design concepts of horizontality and using native plants
have strongly influenced the collective thinking in the IIT
community.
Working with an institution rich in history
and precedent, the landscape architects made deliberate
decisions on how
to operate within this context. One goal was to be sensitive
to the relationships created between Mies’ and Caldwell’s
work. Although Caldwell’s planting plans are not available,
the landscape architects attempted (using arrangements of
native Midwestern plants) to create planted spaces in the
spirit of Caldwell. Doing this necessitated moments of reinterpreting
Caldwell’s intentions, and in these moments they invested
a sense of simplicity and restraint akin to Mies’ Modern
aesthetic.
For many years, neither Mies’ architecture, nor Caldwell’s
landscape had been maintained; the campus was in a state of
disrepair when the landscape architects first began working
with the campus. They found that the campus lacked cohesion
due to declining plant material and the dominance of streets
and parking lots throughout the campus. For instance, State
Street, the elevated “L” train line, and parking
lots, have long separated the two sides of the IIT campus,
effectively dividing the community in half. Peter Lindsay
Schaudt Landscape Architecture, Inc. was part of a team hired
to create a master plan to address these problems in a unified
manner. The projects in this awards submission included the
built resolution and implementation of the master plan’s
recommendations:
State Street Boulevard Size – 12
acres Completed 2000
State Street is one of the major north-south streets
connecting Chicago’s “Loop” to the South Side of Chicago;
State Street also bisects IIT into two halves. This component
of the Master Plan initiated IIT’s recommitment to its
landscape. The revitalization concept is a simple, yet radical
solution: eliminate the on-street parking from 30th to 35th
Streets and enlarge the parkway widths, allowing space for
a reinterpretation of Caldwell’s landscape around Crown
Hall and along the entire length of State Street. Widening
the parkways and planting both the parkway and median (with
over three-hundred trees) “fused” together both
sides of the campus, engendering a sense of connection that
was previously absent.
Crown Hall Field Size – 2
acres
Completed 2001
Located at the core of the campus, Crown Hall Field was designated
in the Master Plan as the central campus open space. The
landscape
architects intended to develop an honorific and welcoming
landscape, one that marks Crown Hall as the center of the
IIT campus. The design for the space focuses on a sunken,
rectangular lawn, which curves at one corner to accommodate
an existing grove of mature Honeylocusts. In keeping with
Caldwell’s preference for native Midwestern plantings,
a dense placement of shade trees and flowering trees border
and define the central open space. The density of trees and
the exaggerated effect of open and closed spaces express the
abstracted Midwestern landscape represented in the urban environment,
a concept inherent in Caldwell’s work. Topographically,
the sloped perimeter of the field creates a sense of enclosure
and provides places for lawn and limestone slab seating while
the open center of the field provides space for activity.
Federal Street Size – 2.25
acres
Completed 2002
The realignment of Federal Street facilitated the Master
Plan goal of relocating parking from State Street by providing
expanded lots along Federal Street. A crushed stone forecourt,
flanked by woodland trees and perennials, was created in
front
of the historic “pre-Miesian” Main Building. The
plantings maintained a Master Plan mandate to wrap buildings
with a textured groundplane, and not disrupt the horizontal
landscape geometry with shrubs. An existing linden allée
was thinned and a crushed stone plaza with monolithic benches
was placed underneath the lindens, providing an outdoor gathering
space for students. At both locations, spaces were generated
that offered opportunities for casual gathering.
State Street Village Size – 1
acre Completed 2003
Three identical dormitories, connected with a continuous
roof, have recently been added to the IIT campus. Each dormitory
building contains a courtyard, and each courtyard consists
of a formal bosque of white-barked birch trees to contrast
with the dark pavement of the plaza. These courtyards create
a series of “oases” on State Street. The corridors
penetrating between the buildings are designed with respect
to Alfred Caldwell’s native landscape of the historic
IIT campus. These planting and pedestrian gestures visually
connect both sides of the campus, reiterating our efforts
with State Street Boulevard.
Crown Hall Planting Restoration
In Progress
IITRI Tower Renovation
In Progress
IIT Research Park
In Progress
These projects have continued the legacy left behind by Mies
and Caldwell. The firm of Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape
Architecture, Inc. hope their work at IIT demonstrates a successful
reinterpretation of historic landscapes, and reveals a response
to historic idioms as well as contemporary needs and challenges.
Through their sensitivity to precedent and innovation in landscape
design, they continue to contribute to the rich landscape
heritage at IIT.
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