Jensen Model

The Jensen Model was designed by Frederick Phillips, who designed nine house models, selected by over 100 homeowners at Prairie Crossing, as well as the horse stable at the farm.

Rick Phillips is founder and principal of Frederick Phillips and Associates in Mettawa, Illinois, where his current projects include Deerpath Farm, a 200-acre residential conservation development, and various site-built and manufactured houses in the U.S. and abroad. He also teaches advanced design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, on green and economical manufactured housing solutions for urban renovation.

This house model is named after Jens Jensen (1860-1951), the Danish-born landscape architect who brought the native landscape of the Midwest into prominence. While working for the Chicago West Parks in the 1880s, he took his young family on weekends to the ends of the rail lines to collect perennial wildflowers, which were not available in nurseries at the time.

He considered Columbus Park to be his greatest expression of the prairie landscape. He also designed Garfield Park, the Lincoln Memorial Garden in Springfield, and many estates for wealthy North Shore landowners.  He worked for many years with architect Dwight Perkins and others to create the Cook County Forest Preserve District, which was established in 1913.

Source: Robert E. Grese, Jens Jensen, Maker of Parks and Gardens, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992