Shortly before he died in 1998, Alfred Caldwell returned to the Lily Pool, his masterpiece of Prairie School landscape architecture nestled in Chicago's Lincoln Park. Some 60 years had passed since he first created this sylvan haven, and time had not been kind to the site. Weed trees and shrubs choked sunlight from the clearing, stonework was broken, and the lagoon was murky and filled with debris. This was the place for which Caldwell had once cashed in his own life insurance policy to pay for needed perennials. Now, no flowers grew. "It's a dead world," Caldwell said, upon first sight. Dan Purciarello, a Chicago Park District landscape architect who accompanied the nonagenarian Caldwell to the Lily Pool, vividly recalls these words. As project manager for the rehabilitation of the Caldwell Lily Pool, Purciarello, along with an unprecedented assemblage of community groups, is trying to bring this dead world to life. With interested parties ranging from bird-watchers, preservation advocates, and local governments, to common citizens, this is not a run-of-the-mill resurrection.

Alfred Caldwell (1903-1998), designed the Lily Pool in the late 1930s as a refuge from the city. With his signature prairie style, acquired through mentorships from Jens Jensen and Frank Lloyd Wright, Caldwell redeveloped an old Victorian pond to a 11/2-acre naturalistic sanctuary.

"The Lily Pool was one of the most complete projects that Caldwell worked on for the Chicago Park District," says Julia Sniderman Bachrach, park historian and longtime preservation advocate. During the WPA years, although many projects were under way in the Chicago parks, few allowed Caldwell full rein in artistic expression. Bachrach believes the Lily Pool is unique, despite the ravages of time. "It is a very intact example of Caldwell's work," she explains. "Because of the [smaller] scale, Caldwell was able to articulate all the landscape elements that were important to him."

The bones of Caldwell's original design have held together over the years. His plan included a lagoon, made to look like a prairie river cut through limestone bedrock. Inviting stonework paths circled the lagoon, and a council ring was sited on a hill, providing views to the Lily Pool below and glimpses of Lake Michigan to the east. The strong inward orientation of the site encourages personal reflection and relaxation, despite the hectic pace of its urban surroundings.

Caldwell's characteristically detailed drawing called for groupings of crab apple, sumac, serviceberry, and hawthorns underplanted with native shrub roses, viburnum, and literally tens of thousands of woodland perennials. "He knew plants upside down and backwards," says Dennis Domer, author of the biography Alfred Caldwell (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997). Having studied with both Jensen and Chicago botanist H. S. Peppoon, Caldwell was not only a master stonemason but a plantsman as well.

When the Lily Pool first opened in the 1930s, the public responded enthusiastically to the new space. So enthusiastically, in fact, that the effect of human traffic caused significant erosion and damage to the plantings. Compounding the problem, the Lily Pool had been designated a bird sanctuary in the 1950s and became a spot for the adjacent Lincoln Park Zoo to breed and feed migratory birds. Renamed "The Rookery," the site was host to birds who came from far and wide on their lakeshore migrations and turned Caldwell's quiet sanctuary into an avian O'Hare.

The Chicago Park District attempted a restoration in the 1960s, but with the intent to retain the space as a bird nesting ground. Inappropriate stone was added to check the erosion, and the eastern footpath that circled the lagoon was removed. Desperately needed maintenance was limited, at best, throughout the next decades.

"Even in the state it was in, people would come upon it and be amazed that it was there," says Carol Parden, president of the Friends of Lincoln Park. "So many of us remember taking walks through the Lily Pool as young children. This was such a special spot." Friends of Lincoln Park (FOLP), a grassroots advocacy group, has spearheaded the fight to return the Lily Pool to its former beauty and purpose. In 1997, the FOLP began an effort with the Chicago Park District to develop a concept plan for the Lily Pool. The FOLP and the Chicago Park District will share the estimated $2.3- to $2.4-million-dollar cost of the rehabilitation.

Getting input from all of the constituents who felt they had a claim to the Lily Pool was critical to the success of the plan. Grants were obtained from the USDA Forest Service, The Chicago Community Trust, and the Graham Foundation for the concept plan. Working with Wolff Clements and Associates, a Chicago-based landscape architecture firm, the team produced educational videos, obtained historical expertise, and conducted a series of focus groups.

Birders, ADA advocates, historic preservation proponents, nearby residents, and general park users were all invited to the focus groups. Part of the sessions were educational, with participants shown before-and-after photos of the Lily Pool. Individuals were then asked for their ideas about redevelopment.

What could have been open warfare when the concept plan was unveiled turned into "the closest you could possibly come, at a public meeting, to a lovefest," according to Carol Parden. Ted Wolff, of Wolff Clements and Associates, says this was largely because the research had been done, and they had the facts. "Instead of having these interest groups fighting with each other, we were able to identify areas where people agreed," Wolff says.

Key points of agreement included a commitment to Caldwell's original design, access for persons with disabilities, removal of 1960s limestone, additional plantings of various heights and forms, and continued maintenance after the rehabilitation. The concept plan therefore specified significant restoration of the stonework on paths, ledges, waterfall, and the council ring; reconstruction of two prairie-style pavilions; reopening of the eastern path; and extensive replanting.

The first phase of the work, begun in the fall of 2000, was more a process of subtraction than addition. More than 400 weed trees such as mulberry, box elder, and buckthorn were removed, according to Shawn Kingzette of Hendricksen, The Care of Trees. The Hendricksen group had inventoried the site and, using old photos and Caldwell's notes, identified historically significant specimens. When old trees had to be removed because of disease, the decision was not made lightly, nor were the trees unceremoniously dumped. A big old cottonwood, for example, diseased beyond repair, was recycled as a climbing tree for the bear habitat in the Lincoln Park Zoo.

In deference to the bird advocates, all work was scheduled so as not to conflict with prime migration seasons. The lagoon was dredged with utmost care not to disturb the wildlife, a key concern of some constituents. A family of turtles, for example, was gently carried to a neighboring pond.

In the spring of 2001, work began on the stonework and replanting. Although the original craftsmanship of the stone was superb, inevitable wear and tear had done damage. Clauss Brothers, a venerable landscaping firm whose construction business predates the original Lily Pool, handled the stonework and general construction. Matching the unique weathered edge stone was a particular challenge, according to Jim Stevenson of Clauss Brothers.

"All the stone paths had to be removed and reset," says Stevenson. "There were about 1,600 rocks removed offsite and a couple hundred wall stones removed and replaced." Stone that was inappropriate to the design was reused elsewhere in the park district. Despite the required repair work, Stevenson marvels at the original stone craftmanship. "It was excellent! I don't know how they did it," he says. Without modern machinery, with some stones near the pavilion five feet by twelve feet, building the original Lily Pool was both a masterpiece of design and hard work.

Until recently, however, not everyone was able to enjoy the Lily Pool. Like many pre-ADA landscapes, less than one-tenth of the site was accessible to wheelchairs in the original plan. Now, almost all of it will be. An interesting compromise was involved in reopening the eastern footpath, which is a key access point for visitors in wheelchairs. Bird advocates were concerned that the increase in foot traffic would disturb nesting in that area. To settle this issue, more land was acquired on the perimeter to provide additional refuge for the birds.

Birders will also be happy with the new mix of plantings. Now that the invasive trees have been removed, sunlight pours into the clearing, just as Caldwell intended. Understory plantings laden with berries for the birds will thrive again. To prevent an "instant landscape" look, specimens of varying maturity were purchased. "We have a nice, extensive palette of native plants," says Purciarello. Unintentionally echoing Daniel Burnham, Chicago's great city planner of the 1900s, Purciarello says, "This is no small plan."

In a rehabilitation work of this magnitude, surprises are inevitable. But Wolff describes them more as questions of policy or principle. Historic pictures, for example, showed that both prairie-style pavilions near the lagoon had roofs. Research later showed that the original design called for one open roof as opposed to the flat cover that is on it now, but that Caldwell himself added the roof later. To roof or not to roof was a rough call, more from preservation purity than from a construction standpoint.

Decisions like these are made as part of weekly planning sessions that are held with the team of landscape professionals, the Friends of Lincoln Park, and the Chicago Park District. One of the biggest challenges facing the group now is the issue of future maintenance. No one wants the Lily Pool to succumb to its earlier fate. Yet, the very attractiveness of the Lily Pool can be its own undoing. "The stone looks like Adventureland to kids," observes Wolff.

Purciarello agrees. "We have to establish some decorum here. We don't want to make this an unfriendly place, but it's a different experience from the zoo." Indeed, since Caldwell's time, additions to the zoo have located exhibits like the polar bears immediately next to the Lily Pool. Busloads of school children were previously allowed to romp straight from the zoo to the tranquil space of the Lily Pool with no buffer zone.

While the details are still being worked out, one idea is to have the Friends of Lincoln Park establish a conservancy and contribute to the upkeep of the Lily Pool. It's hoped that by limiting the hours and having docents available to explain the significance of the Lily Pool, the problems of the past won't be repeated.

Last month, a small dedication ceremony was held to mark the end of the major rehabilitation work. The Lily Pool will be closed during the winter, but in the spring of 2002, a grand opening will be held. Fittingly, spring wildflowers, like those Caldwell bought with his own money, will burst forth, a dead world no more. LA

Cathy Jean Maloney is a garden historian and senior editor of Chicagoland Gardening magazine.

PROJECT CREDITS
Program manager, owner: Chicago Park District.
Cofunder, public advisory group: Friends of Lincoln Park, Chicago.
Landscape architect: Wolff Clements and Associates, Ltd., Chicago.
Architect: Eifler & Associates, Chicago.
Environmental consultants: Applied Ecological Services, Inc., West Dundee, Illinois.
Mechanical and electrical engineer: Weber Consultants, Ltd., Chicago.
Civil engineer: Infrastructure Engineering, Inc., Chicago.
Tree consultants: Hendricksen, The Care of Trees, Chicago.
General contractor: Clauss Brothers, Inc., Streamwood, Illinois.