Forest Park
Lake Forest, IL

Forest Park is a historic site located on a bluff along the western edge of Lake Michigan, at the heart of the Lake Forest community. The 30-acre park parcel was set aside in the original town plan in 1857 by Almerin Hotchkiss and later developed by Ossian Cole Simonds, a founder of ASLA and a member of the Prairie School of Landscape Architecture. After over a century of use, the City of Lake Forest realized the dire need to rehabilitate and enhance Simonds’ original vision for the park, which had been significantly degraded and neglected over time. The landscape architect was hired to create a restoration plan that emphasized environmental responsibility, stewardship, and a deep understanding of the significance of the City’s cultural landscape. The result is a carefully implemented plan that takes a holistic approach to restoring the site’s varied landscape types with a diversified habitat throughout, and a new language for sustainable landscape infrastructure and 21st century needs that respects O.C. Simonds’ original vision.

Recognition
BSLA | Merit Award 2016
Lake Forest Preservation Foundation 2016

Collaborators
Robert Grese, Cultural Landscape Architect
Pine and Swallow Environmental, Soil Scientists
P. Clifford Miller, Local Landscape Architect
Galen Gates, Horticulture Consultant
Wayne Schennum, Ecologist

Photography
Christian Phillips Photography