The Field Museum was seeking to develop the terrace and grounds as a permanent exhibit utilizing native landscaping while helping the Museum meet its goal for LEED for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance (EBOM) certification. The Field Museum’s mission is to serve the public as educator for a greater understanding of environments and people. Exhibits such as the Abbot Hall of Conservation Restoring Earth are explicit in their goal of educating the public on the Museum’s conservation activities throughout the world, and Evolving Planet gives visitors a long-term look at our collective ecosystem and our very recent effects on the world environment. Understanding this effect in-place with exhibits provides a powerful message and experience that stays with visitors and hopefully provides them with a renewed value of our remaining natural ecosystems.
The Pizzo Group was brought in by Site Design Group, Ltd. as a subcontractor for our expertise on native plants and to help consult on the natural areas within the museum campus. Deep research was done to select plant species native to Cook County. With a restored, native ecosystem, permanent irrigation systems were minimized and even eliminated due to the reduced need for water by native fauna. After installation, Pizzo and Associates provided stewardship of select natural areas on the museum campus. The Pizzo Native Plant Nursery provided over 3,500 plugs of ornamental grasses, ~4,500 perennials, and many other species covering an additional 5,400 sqft of low meadow plantings including carex pensylvania, elymus patula, anemone canadensis, and phlox pilosa just to name a few. Approximately 50 unique species were ordered to ensure large bio diversity for the outdoor campus.
Since its inception, The Field Museum and team have focused on conversation efforts in the Chicago region and the high-biodiversity Andean foothills and Amazon forests of Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. In Chicago, researchers engage communities and youth in environmental restoration and stewardship. The natural areas of the Museum campus show the dedication and commitment to our environment. We encourage you to visit and see the natural landscaping firsthand as well as the other exhibits.
Founded in 1988, Pizzo & Associates is one of the Midwest’s largest ecological restoration firms with over 170 industry awards. We have the experience and know-how to restore natural environments.
We work with a large variety of public and private landowners on habitat restoration projects of all sizes. We help with everything from installations to ongoing management, which is needed for optimal results.
