Chica-Go GREEN

Last Wednesday was a very exciting day for Leentje's Chica-Go and colleague/friend Ine Van der Stock: our very first Green Roof Tour. Belgian/American Eco diva (but also Environmental Economist mind you ...) Pamela Peeters, who's been hosting Sustainability Week in New York and Belgium for the second year in a row, was looking for other US satellites. Guess what?
Chicago is the first one, and we were the chosen ones to be organising this special day.

It took quite some prep work and administrative follow-up, and we were depending on the somewhat fickle weather of the past week, but we can easily say the Green Roof Tour was a huge success! Not only did we have enthusiastic guests, we had the most amazing speakers, so special thanks go out to Mr. Michael Berkshire, Green Projects Administrator at the City of Chicago, and Mr Edward Uhlir, Executive Director of the Millennium Park Foundation.
They both gave us an exclusive behind the scenes look at two of greenest spaces of this amazing city. Gentlemen: we had a wonderful, fun and instructive morning!

Before our Italian lunch at Filini (located in the Aqua Building), we visited the rooftop garden at this fascinating building designed by Jeanne Gang. The first 18 floors of Aqua belong to the Radisson Blu Aqua hotel, the higher floors are residential. Keith Koreng, chief engineer of the hotel talked to us about yet another interesting green part of Chicago.

Since this tour was such a success and we had to disappoint a lot of people who were on the waiting list, or of course working on a Wednesday morning, we promise you we will definitely do this again. Leentje's Chica-Go is in full preparation of a Green Tour that will take place at least a couple of times per month, so stay tuned for more!






















Photos: courtesy of Michael Slowack