The Oak Park Conservatory
The Oak Park Conservatory is truly a Chicagoland hidden gem. I drove by this conservatory for years on highway I-290. It always looked so interesting to me and was on my bucket list for years. I cannot believe how unique this place truly is.
The Oak Park Conservatory has three showcase rooms: The Mediterranean Room, Tropical Room and the Desert. The rooms are pretty quaint and I was blown away by the level of detail put into every space. I ended up spending the most amount of time in the Desert room just because they had so many small pots of different species — including living stones! And there was just so much texture mixed with contrast to photograph here.
If you are planning a visit here, it is free to the public and parking is available in the surrounding neighborhood. The iconic Garfield Park Conservatory is also just 5 miles away from here, it is very doable to visit both locations on the same day.
All photographs were captured with the Canon EOS-R and the 24mm, 50mm and 60mm lenses.
