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F Each corner of the walled gardens is filled with a bed of perennials anchored by a statue that represents one of the four arts. or decades, veteran newsman Bill Kurtis and his produc- ing partner Donna LaPietra have been the city's most venerated couple. And for good reason: The award-win- ning news pros-turned-filmmakers donate their skills and resources—as well as their gracious emcee abilities—to vir- tually every civic and social cause in the city. Yet despite their public profiles, on many weekend nights they can be found enjoying quiet hours at their country estate, Mettawa Manor, where a favorite activity is to climb to a rooftop widow's walk and survey the 68 acres they've spent the last 22 years restoring and conserving. From that perch, "on the Fourth of July, we can see at least a dozen lavish private fireworks displays," says LaPietra. "But none is as spectacular as the flickering glow of the tens of thousands of fireflies on our prairie." Once over- run with invasive species, the broad swath of undulating indigenous grasses Former Mayor Richard M. Daley asked LaPietra to be involved in the park at its inception in 1997 thanks to an impassioned dialogue the two had been carrying on since he was elected in 1989, which was just before the couple bought Mettawa Manor. LaPietra had been concerned about Grant Park's squandered potential since she moved to Chicago as a spirited young news producer in the mid-'70s, and she let anyone who would listen know it. "I couldn't figure out why this remarkable swath of land on a magnificent lake was in such horrible condition," she says. "It became my cause long before I knew what a cause was." Daley recalls the couple's environmental bent as far more serious than a passing cause célèbre. "They were both so concerned about the environ- ment and quality of life in the city, but their agenda always focused on what was good for the city. Bill took more of a worldview, but Donna was very hands-on. So I put her on our first landscaping committee in 1990, and she's so passionate and thorough that by the time the Millennium Park project came up, she knew literally everything there was to know about the land and what it needed," he says. So why land? "Bill had covered the environment for years, and through learning about rain forests in faraway places we became aware that we had our own environment to take care of back here. We were concerned with the blacktopping of America," LaPietra says. "Our urge to be stewards of a large piece of land hit hard when we were moving back to Chicago after a stint in New York," says Kurtis. He was anchor of CBS Morning News from 1982–85. "We had bought a house in New Rochelle with an acre and a half of land, and loved it," says LaPietra. Back home in Chicago, "we put plants everywhere possible in our home, which already had no garage so we could have a backyard. Then we finally started looking for something larger." Their only caveat was that it had to be close to town, which was actually no small feat given the kind of acreage they wanted. Three years later they found Mettawa Manor, a mere 45 minutes from the city (just west of Lake Forest), and made a deal to buy the estate on Kurtis's 50th birthday. "Bill said, 'Where?' when we heard where it was, and he knew absolutely everything about Chicago at the time," chuckles LaPietra. In fact, the village is one of the rare com- munities in the country dedicated to preserving open lands and low-density residential development, and has a mere 550 or so residents. and native wildflowers was especially hard-won. "It was so infested that we had to go in and cut, and it took us two years of backbreaking work to clear. So today we have a yearly regimen of burning to rejuvenate the soil and keep the invasives out," explains Kurtis. The couple is understandably proud of their idyllic home, but their devo- tion to the prairie reveals their true agenda. Though Mettawa Manor sports an enchanting and architecturally significant Tudor Revival house—which is ground zero for parties, performances, garden tours, and more as an exten- sion of the couple's support for numerous philanthropic causes—what's really important to the couple is the earth itself. "We were looking for land, and it came with the house," explains LaPietra. That love for land also makes perfect sense given the fact that LaPietra has just stepped up to head what is arguably Chicago's most compelling land- renewal project in its history—Millennium Park. She is now chairman of its board of directors, a role she assumed from retired civic leader John Bryan; he is taking on her previous assignment as president of the park. 108 michiganavemag.com T hey were only the second owners of the house, which had been built in 1927 as a wedding gift to Elizabeth Morse from her father when she married William Covington. But its rambling grounds, once over 100 acres, had been sold off over the years and after Elizabeth's death, the family decided to sell the nine acres on which the main house sat. It was fine at the time. "Our plans were vague, and we knew that was just enough land for us to work with," says LaPietra. The original grounds had been laid out in a traditional English style, with gardens designed to be out- door rooms surrounding the house. But only an expansive sunken lawn behind the house, right off a stone terrace that ran its length, was left of the once-impressive plan, and it was in bad shape. So was the rest of the land, which hadn't been touched in years and was overrun with buckthorn. Itching to put their own fingerprints on the garden, the couple got out their tools. Top of the list was a chainsaw from the local garden center, bought to eradicate the buckthorn that had crept right up to the terrace. "We started with a pruning saw, but soon realized we'd be dead before we made a dent in