Litter-Free Lawndale: Community Meeting & Clean-Up

Community Meeting

Join us for a community planning meeting for Litter-Free Lawndale on Tuesday, October 4, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Franklin Park field house, 4320 W. 15th St. We’ll celebrate successes so far, commit to clean-up events, vote on a logo, and plan future advocacy and infrastructure. Light snacks will be provided. Hope to see you there!

Clean-Up & Lunch Discussion

The following week, we will have a community clean-up as part of the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival. We will convene at 10:00 a.m. and then have a community lunch (hot dogs!) from noon-1:00, with a conversation around environmental justice. The event is co-sponsored by I Am Able and the Jewish United Fund.

To sign up, click here. For more information, contact Jonathan Kelley at jonathanmkelley@gmail.com / 312-420-2558.

Whirligig Poem Series: "The Wind: An Extreme Instance"

The Wind: An Extreme Instance

What is the wind? -a flow in many forms, 

What the bards have call'd thee 

All are their melodious evergreen songs, 

As a philocalist I see the wind in me. 

Wind, a divine secret agent of the almighty, 

Invisibly roaming over seas, soils and nature 

For tidings of the colourful world slightly, 

And the deeds, white and black of the creatures. 

Wind, a messanger, takes the messages fairly 

Of innumerable flowers' fragrances, 

Sweetness of fruits, melodies of bird-songs, tastes of poetry, 

And to the peasants love of animals' disturbances. 

Wind, a bondage of love and peace 

Amongst the diverse hearts of its creatures, 

And for a painter, wind is a moving picture 

Of far-fatch'd fields, blue skies and solitary seas. 

Wind, a wander'r rolling up the fallen leaves 

With her into the spelly paths making sound, 

A Sufi singer; the song of herself can be listen'd 

In a loud silence all around. 

Wind, a great saviour, a transparent shelter, 

Creatures, all the three, are under her absent presence, 

They find haven in heaven of the lady defender, 

The wind is wind, an extreme instance.

- Jagdish Singh Ramana

Whirligig Design: In The City & The Studio

One of our project designers, Odile Compagnon, was able to insert the whirligig designs into a digital computer program to see what our models would look like in actual places throughout the city. Here she inserted the MLK District Garden whirligig into the garden space at The Art Institute of Chicago!

Whirligig Design: Wooden Prototype Scaled Models

We laser cut all of our whirligig prototypes out of wood and were able to share one with each of the eight participating gardens! Pictured below are the scale 1/3 whirligig models for YMEN, Love Blooms Here and MLK District Garden.

YMEN Bike Box Whirligig

Love Blooms Here Plaza Whirligig

MLK District Garden Whirligig

From Concept to Construction: Whirligig Design

  Our first meetings were filled with design sketches and drawings as each garden listed out some of the visual elements they felt were important to their whirligig designs.   

            

Sears Sunken Garden Concept Drawings

 

  Chris Gent, the Sears Sunken Garden's Landscape Architect of record presented his concept drawings at an event in the Nichols Tower on August 16th 2022.