Community Design Center Designs Award-Winning Tree Garden
The 140-acre
Planned as the jewel in the crown of Pulaski County’s1,000-acre Two Rivers Park, located six miles from downtown Little Rock, the 140-acre Garden of Trees has won a 2005 Honor Award in the Analysis and Planning category from the American Society of Landscape Architects. The ASLA award marks the seventh time in two years that UACDC has won national recognition for its design and education efforts.
A great lawn bordered by a promenade of stately oaks and a wildflower meadow wrapped by maples that flame into fall color are some of the outdoor galleries designed to help visitors see — and remember — the trees from the forest.
“We liken the trees to paintings in a museum,” said Stephen Luoni, director of UACDC, an outreach program of the UA School of Architecture. “By arranging them in outdoor galleries, we help visitors to appreciate and remember their particular characteristics.”
The award-winning garden will transform an unpromising site. Originally a penal colony farm, the parcel is carved with hedgerows and drainage ditches. New buildings and changes to topography were ruled out due to the site’s location in a riparian floodplain. The one mandate from the client, County Judge Buddy Villines, was to help people learn and remember individual species of trees.
This alleé of Shumard Oaks borders the Great Lawn and frames views west to Pinnacle Mountain.
“We had to create a space that would help people construct a memory of tree characteristics — a living educational center,” Luoni said. UACDC designers considered a number of organizational schemes, including a landscape polka-dotted with circular groves or striated by long arcades of trees. Finally, they turned to the past, developing a matrix of outdoor rooms shaped by the time-honored tools of landscape architects: alleés (pedestrian promenades), bosques (tree stands), and groves. Their design scheme departs from the natural-looking schemes of conventional reforestation programs, yet celebrates the changing dynamic in landscape.
“It’s really about place making,” Luoni said. “What I like about these outdoor rooms is that they don’t prefigure how visitors will move through the site. You could go here 100 times and have a different experience each time.”
Each room will have a distinct character that celebrates the passing seasons. The
To realize the scheme, UACDC worked closely with Patty Erwin, an Urban Forestry coordinator with the Arkansas Forestry Commission, and Laurie Fields, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the UA School of Architecture.
The fast speeds of cyclists are calmed by the placement of tree stands, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to safely share the Bosque Plaza.
“They were a huge help in choosing native trees that could withstand flooding, and in helping us understand how these trees change throughout the year,” Luoni said.
Work has already started on the
“We’re committed, and we’re going to make it happen,” said Buddy Villines, the county judge and chief executive officer for
“How many people have an opportunity to see a forest grow up?” Villines asked recently. “I won’t live to see this mature, but my children and their children will. This is a real unique opportunity for our community.”
Founded in 1995, the University of Arkansas Community Design Center has provided design and planning services to more than 30 communities across
To access sample project images, visit the UACDC Web site at http://uacdc.uark.edu/. For more information on the ASLA award, visit http://www.asla.org/.
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Contacts
Stephen Luoni, director, University of Arkansas Community Design Center, School of Architecture, (479) 575-5772, sluoni@uark.edu
Buddy Villines, county judge and chief executive officer, Pulaski County, (501) 340-8305; cojudge@co.pulaski.ar.us
Kendall Curlee, communications coordinator, School of Architecture, (479) 575-4704, kcurlee@uark.edu
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