{"id":739512,"date":"2026-04-19T22:11:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/739512\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T22:11:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:11:29","slug":"restoration-starts-on-pergola-at-north-lawndales-historic-sears-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/739512\/","title":{"rendered":"Restoration starts on pergola at North Lawndale\u2019s historic Sears garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

A faded Mediterranean Revival-styled pergola that is the main feature of a North Lawndale garden, created 120 years ago by Sears, Roebuck & Co., is now being restored.<\/p>\n

Work began Friday on the 100-foot long pergola at 3330 W. Arthington St. The structure is the centerpiece of the nearly 2-acre garden built in 1907 as a rest spot for employees at what was then Sears\u2019 sprawling campus headquarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going to be amazed by the work,\u201d said the Rev. Reshorna Fitzpatrick, chairperson of Friends of Sears Sunken Garden\u2019s board. \u201cThe work is going to happen pretty fast, and it\u2019s actually going to be pretty beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $1 million restoration is being funded by a grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.<\/p>\n

The project is the first step in a larger effort to revive the entire garden<\/a>, an idea launched by the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council\u2019s Greening, Open Space, Water, Soil and Sustainability committee in 2021.<\/p>\n

The completed project promises to bring new life and attention to one of the city\u2019s best small public green spaces.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

One of the pergola\u2019s fluted columns gets the attention of a construction worker.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also part of what has been a turnabout for this portion of North Lawndale since Sears left its campus for the Sears Tower a half-century ago.<\/p>\n

Most of the landmark Sears buildings are now being reused, although its big administration building at 3333 W. Arthington St.<\/a> sits vacant.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sears no longer owns its Downtown tower, having decamped the skyscraper in the 1990s for a big new corporate campus in Hoffman Estates \u2014 that was demolished in 2024 for a data center.<\/p>\n

The Sears Sunken Garden pergola is an off-white open-air structure composed of 20 classically-designed concrete columns set below a red clay tile roof.<\/p>\n

An interior footpath runs through the length of the pergola. There are wood porticos with Doric columns at each end of the structure.<\/p>\n

The restoration starts with workers taking paint samples from the structure as a prelude to hunting down historically correct colors, followed by concrete patching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will take a few days. Then, it\u2019s a few months of heavy lifting\u201d that includes replacing the pergola\u2019s roof tiles and wood trusses, while repairing its concrete columns, said the project\u2019s principal in charge, architect Andrea Terry of Arda Design.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the weakest links are places where the birds and the raccoons have made little holes so there\u2019s water getting in,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need it to be sturdy and have staying power, but to still retain the architecture and the features that were meant to be. So it will have less holes in it. It will look cleaner and brighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berglund Construction and Terra Engineering are also working on the project.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A worker on a lift inspects the trellis and west portico of the pergola.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick said the Friends of Sears Sunken Garden group is looking to raise at least another $4.5 million to remake the green space surrounding the pergola.<\/p>\n

A plan by renowned Dutch designer Piet Oudolf<\/a> \u2014 a creator of Millennium Park\u2019s Lurie Garden \u2014 and Chicago landscape architect Chris Gent would give the garden new plantings, accessible paths and a reflecting pool.<\/p>\n

The garden would be less Victorian than the one created by Sears\u2019 campus architects Nimmons & Fellows more than a century ago for company employees to eat lunch, catch a few warm breezes or listen to live music.<\/p>\n

The revived garden would be \u201ccontemporary, naturalistic \u2014 less decorative than in the past,\u201d Oudolf told me in 2023.<\/p>\n

Weather permitting, the pergola work should be completed this summer, Fitzpatrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must have been so peaceful,\u201d she said of the garden\u2019s early years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come and you sit down and enjoy the beautiful sun and this beautiful space,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cHow refreshing that must have been. We want to create that same experience for the families, people in the city and the people who come to tour the space.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A faded Mediterranean Revival-styled pergola that is the main feature of a North Lawndale garden, created 120 years…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":739513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-739512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116433668758013379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}