Crown Sky Garden

The Crown Sky Garden includes light, sound, water and wood elements. The highlight of its design is a translucent interactive light wall that weaves throughout the garden at different heights and changes color and brightness as people approach it. These interactive aspects allow children to define the garden. 

The carved wooden benches are crafted from trees planted prior to the Colombian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and are the gift of John Bryan. 

Creating the Crown Sky Garden was a complex, multidisciplinary process that brought together the best minds in design and patient care with children and families who had direct patient experience. 

It began with an international search for a landscape designer to lead the process. Once selected for the project, world-renowned landscape architect Mikyoung Kim worked closely with the Crown family, and Chicago civic leaders, philanthropists and volunteer project leaders Maria Smithburg and John Bryan for several years to create the extraordinary Crown Sky Garden. She also engaged the hospital’s patient care leadership, design and construction team, Kids' Advisory Board and Family Advisory Board in the process.