To honor donors for their investment into the local community, the Chicago Park District commissioned an engaging donor exhibition for the newly renovated Maggie Daley Park, in downtown Chicago, IL. The design team was inspired to create a playful and engaging installation to reflect the essence of leisure the park provides.

The background features a warm wood abstraction of the park's undulating topography. Layered over–are bold, geometric letters, forged from translucent acrylic, representing Chicago's grounded spirit and brisk winters.

Donor names and other signage utilize a blocky utilitarian typeface as an extension of landscape architectural details which mixes an urban-sport aesthetic with the roughness of nature.

Maggie Daley Park

To honor donors for their investment into the local community, the Chicago Park District commissioned an engaging donor exhibition for the newly renovated Maggie Daley Park, in downtown Chicago.

The design team was inspired to create a playful and engaging installation to reflect the essence of leisure the park provides. Abstracted topography paints the backdrop for donor names, pulling the landscape of the park into a space within the prominent public fieldhouse. Donor names utilize a blocky utilitarian typeface as an extension of landscape architectural details which mixes an urban-sport aesthetic with the roughness of nature.

Materials mimic the seasonal changes of the city and their effect on the programmatic elements within the park. White frosted letters simulate the ice of the park skating rink and juxtapose the layered birch plywood backdrop, which pays homage to the robust vegetation of the open lawn areas used heavily in the warmer months.

The donor recognition installation becomes an extension of Maggie Daley Park itself, engaging the visitor experience within an interior space. In the same way, the exterior signage uses the same visual elements that tie back to the fieldhouse.