Regenstein Learning Campus at the Chicago Botanic Garden

About

Located within the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois, the Regenstein Learning Campus is a six-acre educational landscape that expands upon the Garden’s nationally recognized facilities and programming for early childhood development. Designed to stimulate nature play and encourage development of children’s social, cognitive, and physical skills, the Learning Campus enhances the Garden’s existing child and adult education programs and creates additional opportunities for outdoor learning. Multisensory experiences include plantings that offer a variety of colors, scents, textures, and sounds as well as nature-themed play elements, such as hollowed-out logs, grass-covered mounds, and a water runnel.

Categories Place Botanic & Arboretum Children's Gardens Parks & Play Spaces Recreation Landscape Performance Series

Project Details

Description

More than 125,000 visitors explore the Regenstein Learning Campus at the Chicago Botanic Garden each year, where they enjoy the rolling hills and water features, take part in outdoor classroom activities, and interact with plants to learn about ecological systems. The Learning Campus provides both structured and unstructured areas that offer educational opportunities as well as spaces for gathering. The plant palette supports the garden's multisensory experiences by incorporating species that offer a variety of colors, scents, textures, and sounds. Play elements, including hollowed-out logs and water runnel, also support sensory development in children.

Designed to connect youth with the natural world and foster a range of skills, the 6-acre Regenstein Learning Campus significantly bolsters the Chicago Botanic Garden’s capacity to support early childhood education. As part of the Garden’s more cohesive educational offerings, the Learning Campus includes features that bring children and families together to take part in nature-based experiences.

The Regenstein Nature Play Garden design includes rain gardens and stormwater infrastructure to mitigate periodic flooding. The site’s planting design reestablishes native plant communities, including woodlands and native prairie grass. These plantings run along the perimeter of the site, creating a natural link to the surrounding Chicago Botanic Garden facilities and core grounds.

Project Goals

Facilitate connections between visitors and the environment.
Stimulate nature play to encourage development of children’s social, cognitive, and physical skills.
Enhance and support existing child and adult education programs and create opportunities for outdoor learning.
Expand Chicago Botanic Garden woody and herbaceous plant collections.
Create universally accessible play areas for people of all ages and abilities.
Accommodate up to a 100-year flood per regulation and reduce runoff volume by 10%.

Reprinted from the original LAF LPS case study,

Social Benefits

Supports engagement with the outdoors and a greater understanding of nature. 65% of 17 field trip teachers reported outdoor activities as helpful for their field trip program.
Contributed to an estimated 30% increase in participation in drop-in educational programs between 2014 and 2018. In 2018, the Nature Play Gardens attracted 53,222 participants for 1,233 formal programs including field trips, camps, nature preschool, scouts, and family programs.
Supports important developmental skills in children. When observed playing together through almost 4,000 observations, 27% of children demonstrated motor skills, 22% problem-solving, 20% risk-taking, and 15% empathy.

Reprinted from the original LAF LPS case study.

Contact info@jacobsryan.com Design Firm – Jacobs/Ryan Associates Regenstein Learning Campus

Project Team

Landscape Architect of Record: Jacobs/Ryan Associates
Landscape Architect for Conceptual Design: Mikyoung Kim Design
Landscape Subcontractor: Clauss Brothers, Inc.
Architect: Booth Hansen
Civil Engineer: Gewalt Hamilton Associates
Fountain Equipment: HydroDramatics
General Contractor: Turner Construction
Runnel Contractor: Masonry by Fernando
Irrigation Contractor: Halloran & Yauch

Total Cost

$21.8 million

Awards

LEED for Building Design and Construction (v3) Platinum, 2017
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Honor Award, 2017
Illinois ASLA Honor Award, 2017

Architectural illustration shows the layout of the Regenstein Learning Campus at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Hillside with mown grass and young trees has a swale on the right that is planted with flowers and grasses.

Large, informal garden with yellow flowers and tall grasses has a wooden lattice fence in the background.

Young children and adults are standing and seated near wooden tables with a brick building in the background and shrubs in the foreground.

Two people walk on a winding stone path that incorporates a water-filled channel. There are trees on the side of the path, with grass-covered mounds and a building in the background.

Large mulched area features logs and boulders with children playing while an adult watches.

Children run and play on a large expanse of mown grass with irregular mounds and a gentle hillside and trees in the background.

Hollow logs partially submerged in water are surrounded by trees, shrubs, and perennial plants.

Children play in and around large, hollowed-out logs set in a flat area covered with bark mulch with trees in the background.

Two children accompanied by adults wander around the curved paths of a water runnel. Another adult is in the background as are mounds of green grass.

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