A design concept by The Morton Arboretum reimagining Chicago as an arboretum was named a co-winner in the Horizon Lines: Visions for Chicago 2050 competition, the arboretum shared in a press release.
World Business Chicago announced Tuesday, Sept. 15, that the arboretum’s concept “Green City Rising: People and Trees Thriving Together” was selected.
Connecting Chicago through trees
“Green City Rising” conceptualizes Chicago as a connected network of tree-centric green spaces. In the design, every neighborhood would benefit from a tree canopy by 2050.
“It is an honor for The Morton Arboretum and our community partners to be recognized by World Business Chicago as a co-winner for ‘Green City Rising,’” the arboretum’s President and CEO Jill Koski said in the release.
The design’s goal was to place trees and nature as an integral part of Chicago’s economic and community development planning, where these green spaces would support walking, gathering and daily life. The tree-focused spaces would be planned and designed by local communities.
The Morton Arboretum’s Dr. Murphy Westwood discusses Green City Rising at the Horizon Lines exhibition’s public reception. Photo courtesy: The Morton Arboretum.
“‘Green City Rising’ is so much more than planting trees. It envisions Chicago thriving through people and trees,” Koski said. “This vision is about climate resilience, jobs, better health and safer communities. But, most importantly, it’s about listening to the people living in Chicago neighborhoods so that the green spaces developed through ‘Green City Rising’ meet their needs and reflect their voices.”
Koski said the concept was especially fitting for Chicago, as the design was inspired by Daniel Burnham’s “Plan of Chicago,” which emphasized the importance of green spaces for cities to thrive.
“‘Green City Rising’ expands this legacy and responds to today’s pressing urban challenges due to climate change. Chicago’s future depends on this type of planning,” Koski said.
Arboretum’s framework for implementation
The Morton Arboretum collaborated with Blacks in Green and Urban Growers Collective to identify possible “Green City Rising” pilot projects. Both companies are longstanding partners with the arboretum. The architecture firm Vocon worked with Blacks in Green to create renderings for the proposed Community Resilience Garden in the “Green City Rising” vision.
Blacks in Green’s proposed Community Resilience Garden. Rendering by Vocon, courtesy of The Morton Arboretum.
The Morton Arboretum shared that it has an established framework to implement the goals of “Green City Rising.”
The Chicago Region Trees Initiative is one partnership with the arboretum. CRTI works with organizations to plant and care for trees in areas with reduced canopy cover, planting and distributing more than 10,000 trees across Illinois since 2022.
ArbNet is another program that works with the arboretum. ArbNet is a global accreditation network for arboreta, including dozens in the Chicago area among the 1,000 arboreta worldwide.
About Horizon Lines
The Horizon Lines competition asked participants to imagine what Chicago could look like by mid-century. The competition, an initiative of World Business Chicago, was focused on bringing to light “bold ideas” for the future of Chicago.
The arboretum’s concept was one of six finalists out of nearly 200 submissions to the Horizon Lines competition.
The other co-winner of the competition was landscape architecture firm MKSK and its “Wonderways!” vision, which reimagines Chicago’s boulevards as a climate commons network.
The competition’s six finalists will be on display at the Chicago Cultural Center through Oct. 11.
Featured image: Blacks in Green’s proposed Community Resilience Garden. Rendering by Vocon, courtesy of The Morton Arboretum.
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