The orthogonal grids of bearing trees used by 19th-century Illinois’s surveyors inspired Oakland-based Walter Hood—a professor, MacArthur Fellow, and founder of Hood Design Studio—to create New Witness Trees, a symmetrical grid of sixteen bald cypress trees broken into irregular quadrants by a chain link fence. Visitors can record sentiments on pieces of reflective foil and tie them to the tree branches. Designed to record events of the biennial and those that have shaped the era, the project calls attention to the pandemic, racial reckoning, police brutality and climate crisis. Photo 3 of 10 in How One Community-Minded Designer Is Tapping the Potential of Chicago’s Vacant Lots

How One Community-Minded Designer Is Tapping the Potential of Chicago’s Vacant Lots

3 of 10

The orthogonal grids of bearing trees used by Illinois’s surveyors inspired Oakland-based Walter Hood—a professor, MacArthur Fellow, and founder of Hood Design Studio—to create New Witness Trees, a symmetrical grid of sixteen bald cypress trees broken into irregular quadrants by a chain link fence. Visitors can record sentiments on pieces of reflective foil and tie them to the tree branches. Designed to record events of the biennial and those that have shaped the era, the project calls attention to the pandemic, racial reckoning, police brutality, and climate crisis.