McCormick Place Convention Center is known for hosting some of Chicago's most iconic events, such as C2E2 and the Auto Show.
But just a few floors above the convention halls sits a three-quarter acre rooftop farm.
"I think there's not one person that's ever came up here that was [not] just completely in awe about how beautiful it is and how serene it is," said Chef Michael Kingsley, Director of Culinary Innovation at McCormick Place.
He said the garden produces more than 100 varieties of heirloom fruits, vegetables, edible flowers and herbs.
"We harvest, I think, just right around 8,000 pounds of produce," he said. "Everything goes downstairs to my kitchens, and we're able to utilize it from our retail standpoint and also some mix it into our catered events as well."
The work is done by apprentices through the Windy City Harvest Urban Agriculture Apprenticeship Program in collaboration with the Botanic Garden and City Colleges of Chicago.
Carolina Garibay
Senior manager of Garden Partnerships at the Botanic Garden Iris Michael said the nine-month program provides apprentices with traditional lecture-style classes and labs before transitioning them to a paid internship.
"We have over eight sites around the south and west sides of Chicago," Michael said. "Students are placed at different sites based on their interests."
This includes McCormick Place's rooftop farm, which Michael said is the largest rooftop farm in the Midwest. It contains just under three quarters of an acre of growing space.
"It's a really great opportunity for people to understand how the largest convention center in North America may operate, as well as a nonprofit setting," she said.
Riley Finnegan-Carrion is a past program participant and is now a horticulturist at the Chicago Botanic Garden. She said McCormick Place's farm offers a unique experience for apprentices.
Carolina Garibay
"It's not like your traditional urban farm where you're growing the same 10 to 15 crops," she said. "There's over 100 different varieties, so wherever you go from McCormick Place, you should feel pretty confident and be able to grow at different areas."
Finnegan-Carrion said while she did her internship at a different site, the program equipped her with the skills she needed to succeed in her current role as a horticulturalist at the Botanic Garden.
"You really do get a little bit of everything working here, and that made me feel really confident in going for the position that I'm in currently," she said. "I think the goal for the apprenticeship program is to prepare people to go out in the workforce and either be able to start their own garden, or at least feel comfortable to go to other organizations."
McCormick Place's rooftop farm will be a featured stop at the Chicago Architecture Center's Open House Chicago in October.
