PLACEMAKING

Creating dynamic engaging places involves more than just a building or a landscape. This is achieved by considering each project’s sum of parts and holistically viewing the context our work contributes to. How we steward that relationship through the design and building process is how we build community and construct meaningful places that honor the past, nurture the present, and plan for the future.

Wilton Reading Garden

The Wilton Reading Garden is a commissioned addition to the Wilton Public Library that compliments the library’s southern elevation featuring large picture windows that pull views of the garden indoors. The space was designed to provide educational and quiet reflective spaces while also accommodating social gathering space for small public events. Goals for this garden included ensuring a controlled and ADA accessible entrance into the garden and library from the sidewalk and neighboring senior center and installation of a low-maintenance planting palette. Native flowering prairie vegetation was utilized to minimize maintenance and control costs by eliminating the need for an irrigation system. The native planting palette also contributes to the educational component and is featured on interpretive plaques throughout the garden that share information about Iowa’s native ecology. Hexagonal pavers were specified to build organic edges of the planting beds that created dynamic public and private spaces within the garden to encourage exploration and contemplation.