Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation headquarters was conceived as a single volume, part building, part garden, fully interwoven with Chicago’s urban fabric. The corrugated, oxidized zinc enclosure begins as the building’s thermal envelope and emerges as a scrim-like garden wall wrapping the courtyard. This enclosure opens at the northeast corner, reaches out to the street to invite the public in. Visitors ascend two steps to find an unfolding progression of garden spaces leading to the lobby entrance. A grove of hornbeam and magnolia will mature to establish a shade canopy within the building. Moss plantings etch the ground plane that unites inside and out through the building’s curtain wall. The garden forms the backdrop for events and daily life within the Poetry Foundation’s headquarters. Visible from the street, through the scrim-like wall, building and garden are a single place, a home for poetry.