Park District Wins Gold Medal For Garden Shipped To Ireland
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Park District has won an international gardening competition, for its work on a project that has been shipped to Ireland.
The district won a gold medal at Bloom 2016, a garden show in Dublin, for its entry titled "Bridge the Gap."
Chicago Park District Deputy Director Matthew Barrett designed "Bridge the Gap," which is intended to connect Irish and American cultures.
"We designed the garden with two bridges; and one bridge represents Ireland, and the other bridge represents the United States and Chicago. So the bridges come together across the center of the garden, but they never connect," he explained in a YouTube video.
The viewer's shadow fills that space between the two bridges, making the viewer the object that connects them.
"As you're looking through, the silhouette of the person viewing from the other side is actually the object that connects the two bridges; to prove a point that people make the connection, and have made connections for centuries," Barrett said.
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Gary Graham, who manages the Bloom garden show in Ireland, used to work at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.
The Chicago Park District said months of planning went into the project.
It's unclear how much it cost to send the bridge and the Park District team to Ireland for the competition.
