Regenstein Learning Campus: A Gateway to the Natural World

Mikyoung Kim's Award-Winning Design Merges Play and Learning in a Unique Botanic Garden

The conception of the Regenstein Learning Campus emerged from a shared concern about children’s increasingly distant relationship to nature as they are further plugged into the digital world. The design immerses families and children of all ages in a variety of outdoor experiences that engenders a deeper understanding of ecological systems. Visitors encounter a variety of natural experiences and explorations as they weave through the grassy mounds, water runnels, boulders, diverse woodland plantings, and willow tunnels.

Sustainability was a key factor in the realization of this design. Local and regional materials from the Midwest were sourced for the play runnel, providing a cooling oasis during the summer months. Regionally sourced boulders offer moments of discovery throughout the landscape. Rain gardens in the Northwest corner of the garden provide additional opportunities for discovery and learning while addressing important stormwater management issues.

Reclaimed logs were carved to create moments of play for children to crawl and hide and seek. The design immerses families in a variety of outdoor experiences for inquiry-focused learning and play, engendering a deeper understanding of ecological systems and highlighting discovery in all seasons. Diversity defines the experiences within the garden as visitors weave through grassy mounds, a water-play runnel, boulders, and willow tunnels.

The Regenstein Learning Campus is located in Glencoe, Illinois, USA. The project began in 2012 and was finished in 2016. The campus links the Grunsfeld Growing Garden, an herb and culinary garden, and the Kleinman Family Cove, an aquatics learning center for families and children. Together these learning environments now read as one experience providing a rich and highly programmed learning center for the Chicago Botanic Garden; one that is as much about touching, smelling and feeling as it is about visual beauty.

The Regenstein Learning Campus was awarded Platinum in A' Landscape Planning and Garden Design Award in 2018. Platinum A' Design Award recognizes world-class, exceptional, and highly innovative designs that showcase unmatched professionalism, genius, and contribute to societal wellbeing. Awarded to the defining aesthetics of an era, they advance the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology, exhibiting transcendent excellence and making the world a better place.