HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS
Garvan Woodland Gardens is a 210 acre botanical garden set on shores of Lake Hamilton in historic Hot Springs, Arkansas. On the edge of the National Park, the garden was originally gifted to the University of Arkansas in 1985 by Verna C. Garvan to highlight the unique flora found in the Ouachita Mountains, while also serving as a place of learning and cultural enhancement. Terrain Work’s design for a new entry sequence to Garvan Woodland Gardens creates a series of interconnected gardens that serve as a place of arrival, gathering, and recreation for visitors. The proposed entry gardens will expand the Garvan's world class botanical collection featuring a native Pine and Bluestem garden, a Woodland Botanical walk, and a Seep Garden. A wood promenade connects visitors from the parking lot through these new gardens to other botanical collections and architectural features within Garvan. The form and structure of the promenade is borne out of the symbiotic fungal networked ecological relationships that are at work in the forest. These relationships allow trees to communicate with one another and share resources among divergent species. The design for Garvan Woodland Gardens makes these invisible connections visible and curates a legible entry sequence that reinforces the garden’s unique identity as both a woodland and botanical garden.