Proposed by: Lake Forest Garden Club, Zone XI

John Bryan is a man whose life has been shaped by a passion for the arts, built spaces and the landscapes they inhabit. He led the effort to transform downtown Chicago with a remarkable urban renewal project, Millennium Park. Inspired in large part by his devotion to the arts, the park was an ambitious collaborative undertaking on the part of world-renowned artists, architects, and landscape architects. Millennium Park provides a venue for hundreds of public cultural programs and attracts four million visitors annually. The brilliant five-acre garden pays homage to the City's motto, "Urbs in Horto", City in a Garden. John also ensured that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s masterpiece of modernist domestic architecture, Farnsworth House, remains in Plano, Illinois. Thanks to his leadership, this landmark is jointly owned by The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Landmarks Illinois. Crab Tree Farm, an historic barn complex of restored Arts and Crafts era buildings, and the Bryan’s home, is the site of one of the last and largest oak savannas in the Midwest. Crab Tree continues as a working farm, now protected from future development in perpetuity. Also preserved there is a 1927 Ellen Biddle Shipman garden. John and his wife Neville were early proponents on the Garden Conservancy Open Days program and are internationally recognized for their generosity in opening their home and museum-quality collections and John Bryan is a truly unique leader. His ability to make connections between artists, donors and preservationists has brought to fruition projects that will have a lasting impact on the cultural and natural landscape that enriches us.