Beverly Bungalow Owner Wins Driehaus Award For Landscape Design

CHICAGO — A Beverly neighborhood man is the winner of the landscape design category in the 2019 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Bungalow Awards presented by the Chicago Bungalow Association.

According to the Bungalow Association, Tommie Harris wanted to take visual focus in his backyard away from a large white fence recently constructed by his neighbor. So he planted perennials and flowers all around the perimeter, and because he watered with rain water collected in rain barrels and used his secret all-natural fertilizer recipe, the plants grew up to 8 feet tall.

"The fence was a challenge for me because it gave me a white background and I'm used to seeing greenery," Harris said. "So what I did was I tried to create an illusion with the height of my plants."

As a Driehaus Award winner, Harris has been awarded a cash prize of $1,000 and a handcrafted copper plaque made by local artisan Frank Glapa of FMG Design.

Meet Tommie below in this video produced by the Bungalow Association.

This year there were a record 86 nominations in the seven categories of the Driehaus Awards.

Awards were presented to the following recipients:

• Exterior Rehabilitation Winner – Abimael “AB” Gonzalez (Austin)
• Exterior Rehabilitation Honorable Mention – Alice Long & Brian Brichacek (Belmont Cragin)
• Interior Rehabilitation Winner – Jennifer Bakija & Alex Dunham (Portage Park)
• Interior Rehabilitation Honorable Mention – Stephanie & Dave Polakowski (Portage Park)
• Interior Rehabilitation Honorable Mention – Megan & Matt Ohlsen (Portage Park)
• Interior Restoration Winner – Jarrod McCollum (Greater Grand Crossing)
• Interior Restoration Honorable Mention – Tracie Thompson (Belmont Cragin)
• Small Project Winner – Joshua Cruz (Norwood Park)
• Small Project Honorable Mention – Josh & Alicia Wiechert (West Ridge)
• Green Project Winner – Alfredo Crespo (Hermosa)
• Green Project Honorable Mention – Yvonne Perkins (Auburn Gresham)
• Landscape Design Winner – Tommie Harris (Beverly)
• Landscape Design Honorable Mention – Leland & Lyieka Smith (Greater Grand Crossing)
• Window Restoration Winner – Nancy Jane Lauren & Frank Pokorny (nominated by Vito Pascolla) (West Ridge)

Created in 2005 by the Chicago Bungalow Association with the support of The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Driehaus Bungalow Awards are an annual juried competition celebrating the creativity and efforts of homeowners.

“I have always believed that design plays an important role in improving the quality of life,” Richard H. Driehaus said. “I grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Brainerd on Chicago’s Southwest Side. These beautiful bungalows with art-glass windows were perfectly scaled to family life and contributed to a sense of place. It is an honor to play a small part in celebrating efforts to preserve and restore these homes.”

In all, the Bungalow Association said there are some 80,000 bungalows in Chicago and that number represents about one-third of the city's single-family housing stock.