Movement and Meaning: The Landscapes of Hoerr Schaudt

Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects is an award-winning landscape architecture firm - the Midwest’s most prominent - based in Chicago, Illinois, and is known for its outstanding civic, cultural, and residential work. This is the firm’s first publication.

Horticulture and landscape design flourish in tandem at Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, one of the most dynamic firms in Chicago today.

In Movement and Meaning, this landscape architecture firm reveals how they embed plant material into their projects, embracing biological changes wrought by time. Readers will come away with an understanding of both the art and the science that goes into creating a rich experience through innovative landscape architecture techniques.

Over the past twenty years, the principals of Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects have been acknowledged innovators in landscape architecture, and the firm has won numerous awards for its urban public spaces, academic campuses, green roofs, commercial developments, cultural institutions, and recreational destinations. The firm’s long focus on innovative horticulture and particular attention to seasonality put it at the forefront of this now-popular industry-wide focus.

Movement and Meaning explores forty-five public, private, and cultural projects, revealing Hoerr Schaudt’s talent for creating meaningful, ever-evolving designs. In-depth features include projects for which the firm has gained recognition, including McGovern Centennial Gardens in Houston; Daley Plaza in Chicago; the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden; Soldier Field and North Burnham Park in Chicago; the Buckhead shopping district in Atlanta; the University of Chicago’s main quadrangle and Botany Pond; and innovative rooftop gardens for the Gary Comer Youth Center and the Morningstar Corporation in Chicago.

The firm has also completed dozens of private estate gardens throughout the Midwest, including in Chicago proper; Lake Forest, Peoria, and Winnetka, Illinois; Grand Rapids and Harbor Springs, Michigan; and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. They have also designed gardens in other climates, including Palm Springs, California; Rhode Island; and Antigua. Hoerr Schaudt’s seasonal, plant-driven designs are sure to inspire landscape architects and home gardeners alike.

Douglas Hoerr was raised on a farm in Indiana--the perfect setting for developing a fascination with the natural world. From bee-keeping to reading the topography to finding arrowheads, Hoerr immersed himself in the land. After a degree in landscape architecture from Purdue and a decade working with a design/build firm, he took an unorthodox sabbatical in England where he apprenticed with eminent plantsmen and designers including Beth Chatto and John Brookes. He founded his own studio upon moving to Chicago in 1991. He has been the recipient of numerous professional awards including, most recently, the 2016 American Society of Landscape Architects ＂Landmark Award＂ for the Michigan Avenue Streetscapes.

Peter Lindsay Schaudt (1959-2015) was born in Illinois and trained first as an architect, receiving a degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and then obtained a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard in 1984. He went on to work with Dan Kiley and was awarded a Rome Prize in 1990-1991. Upon his return to the United States he founded his own firm and merged with Hoerr in 2008.

Douglas Brenner writes frequently about design and gardens for publications such as the New York Times, House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, and Veranda. He has worked in various editorial capacities for numerous magazines including Martha Stewart Living, Garden Design, Travel & Leisure, House and Garden, and Architectural Record.