Hi! This is my first (and probably last) posting on this particular forum–you’ll usually find me on the prototype side, because I’m not a modeler.
I was at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show today with my family, and the exhibit that I would nominate for “best of show” was “All Aboard, Chicago”, an O-scale garden layout done by/for the Chicago Botanic Gardens. The trains themselves were nothing spectacular, but the replicas of the buildings and other Chicago landmarks were amazing–made entorely out of natural materials, such as twigs, acorn caps (the lights at Wrigley Field), fungi (the terraces of the Marina City towers), bark, and other such materials. The large bridges (usually made with branches less than an inch in diameter) were not pure Chicago, but certainly were eye-catchers. There were 30 or so Chicago landmarks portrayed in the layout, and I had little problem identifying any of them. Of course, the main scenic elements were live plantings. The exhibit was roughly circular, probably better than twenty feet in diameter, and extending from floor level to well overhead.
The Flower Show is at Navy Pier through March 20. After that, we were told, the layout will go into storage and it will reappear at the Chicago Botanic Gardens sometime in 2006. Admission to the show is $11 per person; the viewing of a layout such as this is almost worth the price of a ticket by itself!