Boylston, MA
Tower Hill Botanic Garden is home to the Worcester County Horticultural Society (WCHS), the third oldest continuously operating horticultural society in the country. The design team lead garden staff, members, and community stakeholders through a series of workshops to develop a vision to shape Tower Hill into a distinctly local, world-class contemporary public garden.
The design team and WCHS identified five goals to guide the Master Plan:
1. Establish Identity
2. Create Connectivity
3. Enhance Sustainability
4. Balance Economic Growth
5. Increase Audience Diversity
Through an iterative process, the team developed concept plans emphasizing themes based on characteristics of the site: Botanic Beauty, Agrarian Gardens, Cultivated Wild, and Sustainability. Features from each concept plan informed the final design. Proposed features include expanded event spaces, seasonal display gardens, gardens highlighting the Farm-to-Table movement and permaculture, and a cascading rill garden. Structures include a new restaurant, visitor center, library, and glass houses. A trail system and tram service, pollinator garden, pinetum, children’s Ramble, and sculpture garden will be integrated into the site’s wilder periphery. The Master Plan will be implemented over the next 30 years in six phases, each of a similar cost and with a specific objective to focus donor investment.
Collaborators
designLAB Architects
ConsultEcon
New England Environmental
Roll Barresi & Associates Inc
Ryan Associates
Waterman Design Associates
Recognition
Boston Society of Landscape Architects | Honor Award 2018