All posts related to the Gardens & Grounds
Category: Gardens & Grounds
A New Home for “Spirit of Commitment”
During Phase I of Project New Leaf, the “Lion of Cantigny” statue outside the Cantigny Visitors Center took a sky ride, hanging from a cable en route to a new location as part of the front plaza renovation. According to...
Expanded Hosta Garden Now Open
Cantigny Park’s newly designed and expanded hosta garden, a collaboration with the Northern Illinois Hosta Society, is open! A ribbon-cutting for the garden took place on July 12 and included a talk by renowned hosta expert and author Mark Zilis....
Back to the Fountain Future
The Fountain Garden behind the Visitors Center has long been a favorite spot for Cantigny guests. This will surely remain the case after Phase II renovations are completed in 2020. Renowned landscape architect Franz Lipp created the Cantigny Gardens in...
Project Update, Fall 2018
This fall we’re putting the finishing touches on the first phase of Project New Leaf, our five-year revitalization plan for Cantigny Park. It’s been a year of steady progress. Even with construction during most of 2018, Park attendance is up...
Meet the Oaks
Cantigny Park’s Oak Colonnade, a key part of Project New Leaf, is complete. The new pedestrian walkways and civic scale allée of oak trees at the front of the park will serve as a dramatic and unifying landscape element for...
Elevating the Guest Experience
A year ago, naming the highest point on Cantigny’s 500 acres might have been a puzzler. Now there is no question: It’s Butterfly Hill, the newly created overlook at the south end of the Oak Colonnade. At approximately 800 feet...
Coming Soon: More Parking!
Good news: Cantigny is about to have a lot more parking capacity. The south lot, to your right as you enter the park from Winfield Road, will soon offer 350 additional spaces. This represents a 30% increase in total parking...
Project Update, Summer 2018
We are in the “home stretch” of Project New Leaf’s Phase One, with completion scheduled for this fall. Your patience is appreciated as we improve the park for you and for future generations of Cantigny visitors. It’s always good news...
Standing Guard, Without a Scratch
For nearly a decade, the bronze Lion of Cantigny has kept watch outside the Visitors Center. The WWI “doughboy” soldier by sculptor Stephen Spears was dedicated on Veterans Day, November 11, 2008. During construction of the Arrival Plaza, a key...
Canoes or Battleships?
Parks visitors may notice that the new flower beds in the soon-to-be-completed Oak Colonnade have a distinctive shape. The beds are generally known as “canoes” among Cantigny staff members, especially those in Horticulture. To others, once planted, they resemble battleships....