Garfield Park Conservatory

Located west of the Loop you'll find a a massive glass building rising from the park. This is the Garfield Park Conservatory. This 4.5 acre space was built in 1908 by Jens Jensen a world renowned Danish-American landscape architect.  

The oasis in the middle of the city is free and open to the public 365 days a year! This makes it the perfect place to go any time of year and especially in the winter as a nice warm escape when it hits below zero numbers in Chicago. There are nine main rooms in the conservatory itself, ranging from the Desert House to the Fern Room. 

My favorite room during our visit was the Fern Room. It was luscious, gorgeous and so nice an warm! There were beautiful water features that made you feel like you were somewhere amazing.

By far the Fern Room was the largest room in the Garfield Park Conservatory. You could get lost in this huge almost other worldly room. I loved all of the different water features with the fish and little waterfalls. According to the Garfield Park Conservatory's website it was created like this to give visitors a chance to see what life would have been like in Illinois millions of years ago. I'm not sure about anyone else but I could definitely use some of this warm, luscious weather in January and February.

In several places throughout the conservatory you'll find man made art pieces. My favorites are the yellow flowers above and the pumpkin. They actually change around the shapes for different holidays, I saw on their Instagram that they had a turkey this past Thanksgiving.

I also really enjoyed the Desert House. Since I haven't been to the southwest yet this was as close as I've come to the desert. My favorite plants were the succulents. We visited earlier in the fall so it was still possible for us to head outside and enjoy the end of the season for the outside gardens.

Throughout the year the Conservatory holds a number of awesome events for everyone of every age. From lectures to even yoga! Can you imagine relaxing during yoga and enjoying spring in the dead of winter? It sounds heavenly right now. Many of their programs are free as well so it's perfect if you're on a budget. 

This is a definite add to everyone's Chicago bucket list!

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