Engineers:

Galloway, Ltd., Terra Engineering, Ltd.

Contractors:

Christy Webber Landscapes

Other Consultants:

Dr. Joanne Westphal, Halloran and Yauch, Fountain Technologies

Category:

Public Design

Evanston’s beautiful new Levy Senior Center encloses a quadrilateral courtyard that opens to the sky and provides shelter from the winds of neighboring Chicago. The client’s goal was to design and build an innovative enabling garden that would enhance the Levy Center’s program for its primary users – senior citizens. This goal became a reality when a private philanthropic foundation contributed over $300,000 for the project.

As the prime consultant and principal designer, the landscape architect collaborated with a specialist in therapeutic garden design. This dynamic relationship resulted in a unique enabling garden that accommodates seniors’ physical and psychological needs. Some of these features include a soft-surface multi-use area for low-impact aerobics, such as tai chi and yoga; raised water features that allow individuals to reach the water from a wheelchair, walker or while standing without bending; raised bed planters that enable users to garden from a wheelchair or while standing without bending; an accessible path with benches for sitting in the sun and shade; a lawn area for performances; an herb/aroma garden with plants that can be crushed, shelled, harvested and used for cooking; an arbor; an architectural trellis; and butterfly, cutting, perennial and woodland gardens.

The Levy Senior Center Enabling Garden is one of the first and most comprehensive therapeutic gardens in the Chicago area. This serene and calming place gives seniors many opportunities to sit quietly and relax or to have multiple sensory experiences through gardening or watching performances. This project helps increase visibility of the landscape architecture because of its special purpose and innovative approach.