Prairie Crossing at Twenty
August 2015: Architecture
By Nathan Aaberg, Prairie Crossing resident & Liberty Prairie Foundation staff member When you bring a friend to Prairie Crossing, they’re likely to notice two things. The first is nature in the form of open spaces and natural landscaping. The second is the architecture. From the Byron Colby Barn to the homes and condominiums, the diverse buildings here are uniquely and freshly Midwestern. This insert will profile just some of our architectural features as an appetizer for the August 30th event (“Prairie Crossing at 20: From Pioneering Design to Vibrant Community”) at which the original developers, planners, and architects will come together to talk in depth about the design of Prairie Crossing. There are at least four key things you should know overall about the built environment here. The first is the central role of Vicky Post Ranney. Vicky was uniquely able to bring to bear artistic sensitivity, attention to detail, and deep roots in architectural history to the design of this conservation community thanks to her unique background, which had immersed her in the relationship between the built environment and nature. Her grandfather, for example, was George B. Post, an architect in the Beaux-­‐Arts tradition who is best known for a variety of significant buildings on the East coast. She has also become a well-­‐known scholar on Frederick Law Olmsted, the greatest landscape architect in our nation’s history. Second, the architecture and overall planning of Prairie Crossing were heavily influenced by the New Urbanist movement, which seeks to create vibrant places for people to live with compact, walkable, mixed-­‐use communities. This approach is in reaction to the nature-­‐minimizing, automobile-­‐centric design patterns of typical suburban developments. Third, the planners and architects worked to optimize the achievement of all of the 10 Guiding Principles rather than maximizing just one or two. Finally, when undertaking the building of Prairie Crossing, George and Vicky Ranney sought out the very best architects for this kind of project. Home Is Where the Art Is shingles. It’s worth noting, too, that over the It speaks to Vicky’s aesthetic ideals that she course of Prairie Crossing’s development revised personally took many of the accomplished versions of some house models were developed. architects chosen for Prairie Crossing to look at So there can be, like the case of the Halsey, an old Lake County homes, both in nearby towns original design and a Halsey II. and on farms, before they put designs to paper. The architects were then instructed to The architecture of the homes is not the only incorporate the essential Midwestern way in which the heritage of the area was architectural language of those homes, especially honored. Much thought went into even the farmhouses, in their new designs. This has names for each house model. The Gage model, resulted in the distinctive look of the Prairie for example, is named in recognition of John Crossing single-­‐family homes despite the fact Gage, an early settler who purchased over 2,400 that nine different architects designed 30 acres of land from the federal government in different home models here. (The two home Lake County in the 1840s. This land included styles that don’t quite fit that farmhouse pattern much of the land that is Prairie Crossing today. are the Prairie School and Brooks, which architects Mark and Linda Keane modeled after In keeping with the ideal of the Guiding Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Prairie School look.) Principles, the homes here were built with Vicky and others also put great energy into the efficiency in mind in terms of waste reduction choice of colors, making sure the various colors and energy. Prairie Crossing was the first would complement each other and even thinking community-­‐wide implementation of the Building carefully about the right color choices for roof America energy-­‐saving construction program. In the early 1900s you could buy a build-ityourself kit for the American Foursquare home
yourself from the Sears and Roebuck Modern
Home Catalog.
The Foursquare is going strong in the 21st century
in Prairie Crossing.
New Life for a Dairy Barn In 1895 you could have seen dairy farmer Byron Colby building his barn near the Des Plaines River. A century later, development plans called for the barn to be demolished, but the landowner instead agreed to donate it to Prairie Crossing. It was taken apart piece by piece and then reconstructed in 1996 under the guidance of barn preservationist Rick Bott. The challenge of preserving its essential character but repurposing it as Prairie Crossing’s community center fell to architect Gunny Harboe. Harboe, nationally recognized for his skill in restoring and preserving older structures, worked closely with Vicky and others to understand the overall design and vision of Prairie Crossing so that the nature of the barn renovations and its features fit the spirit of the community. Prairie Crossing Charter School The Prairie Crossing Charter School campus, serving grades K-­‐8, has grown over time, and yet it has maintained a built environment that is fits with the rest of Prairie Crossing. Like the Byron Colby Barn, the Wright Schoolhouse is a piece of architectural history that has found its permanent home in Prairie Crossing. This building was originally built in 1857 as a one-­‐
room schoolhouse on the south side of Casey Road between Route 45 and Almond Road. It was closed as a school in 1959 and moved here as development began. It houses the Victoria Post Ranney Environmental Library. The campus also features the first constructed school building to be LEED Gold certified in Illinois – the Anna B. Comstock Building. Its sister building, the Rachel Carson, holds classrooms for 5th through 8th graders. Bill Sturm, an architect in Lake Forest known for his pioneering work in sustainable architecture, led the design of these buildings. True to its environmental charter and in keeping with the conservation character of its host community, the PCCS’s grounds hold a number of interesting features. These include food gardens, cisterns for holding rainwater, rain gardens, natural landscaping, and even some sidewalks made of recycled glass. Many of these features have been installed by students. LEARN MORE ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 30! Be sure to attend the “Prairie Crossing at 20: From Pioneering Design to Vibrant Community” event on August 30 that will include fascinating discussions about the history and design of our community. These discussions will be moderated by Blair Kamin, architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune. There will also be tours. Visit www.libertyprairie.org to learn more and RSVP. Please note that seating capacity is limited. If you desire to attend this historic event, please RSVP ASAP! Please feel free to invite others outside of Prairie Crossing as well.