Beatrix Farrand Garden at the Oriental Institute

With some deadlines under my belt, I am hoping to catch up on some topics here. These images show a renovated garden at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute (of Indiana Jones fame). It's original designer was the great Beatrix Farrand (1866-1959), one of the first female landscape architects in the US. As Edith Wharton's niece, she had some large doors open to her, but she more than made-up for her connections with her talent. At 16, decades before I had any professional interest in landscape, my mother took me to Washington where we spent an extraordinarily memorable afternoon at BF's Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown. I still recall us speaking to a man in the garden sitting on a bench in an open lawn area at the base of a slope: the garden enchanted us for a lifetime. [My other memory of that trip was the Phillips Collection, both the modern collection and the building that houses the museum.]
Back to Farrand in Chicago. Apparently, this garden was reconstructed partially from aerial photos. The rate at which gardens disintegrate is remarkable! I believe Care of Trees (the arbor company that maintains the campus trees) has assisted well with these old crab apples.



And I love this detail of the brick edge that was just emerging from snow melt.

Unfortunately, due to its lack of measuring up to standards for accessibility, this garden is private. I hope the University will continue to maintain such a historical & cultural treasure.

I saw this garden due to the good graces of Penelope Rothfield, the same day I gave an informal talk to a bunch of undergraduates at the dorm where she and her husband are the resident masters. Having graduated from college there over three decades ago, it wasn't only the changes in the landscape that I noted. Well, I may not feel as dated as Indian Jones, but...