I chose to study the garden in the State of Missouri Capitol Complex located just to the west of the State of Missouri’s Governor Mansion. Formerly called the Governor’s Garden, in 2001 it was renamed the Carnahan Memorial Garden. This garden was started in the late 1930'’ as a WPA project. However, the project was put on hold due to lack of funding. Year’s later Missouri first Lady Juanita ‘Flower’ Donnelly personally took it upon herself to restore the gardens. Through her efforts and supervision, the garden came to life with a goldfish pool, terraces and walkways, and a sunken garden.
The site also includes a pergola constructed of Missouri limestone and wood. The garden itself is rather flat. Grand steps made of stone allow pedestrians to navigate up to the pergola on the east portion of the site. The pergola and stairs are key architectural features in the garden, and before entering the site, this is typically, what passersby would visually be drawn to. As part of the State of Missouri Governmental Complex Due to there is a high volume of vehicular traffic along Capitol Avenue, which runs east to west. Using plant features such as trees on the south end of the site, and 4’ to 5’ tall shrubs on the west side of the site, along Jefferson Street, the garden is visually shielded from vehicular traffic along these streets. The natural topography along the south end of the site, which helps to form the sunken garden, provides a sound buffer for those enjoying the garden. The drastic topography change on the east side of the site, containing the pergola and the stair, provides a visual shield and sound buffer from the Governor’s Mansion. The site is inviting to pedestrians being located off two major streets, while simultaneously providing tranquil, semi-private areas with visually stimulating plant-life. It was amazing to me how quiet the garden was when I walked through it. The site is often the location for weddings, fund raising events or just a fun place for school children to gather for their lunch break during school visits to the state’s capitol.
View across garden, from west looking towards pergolaSketch 2
View from north end of garden looking southeast towards pergolaSketch 3
View from soutwest side of pergola looking northeastSketch 4
View looking southwest from inside of pergolaSketch 5
View from southeast side of pergola looking northwestSketch 6
View from south end of garden at Capitol Avenue facing northeastDiagrams
This diagram shows buildings and structures that are a part of the Capitol Complex. The Carnahan Memorial Garden is most often visited by those visiting other sites in the Capitol Complex or those doing business at one of the government office buildings.
The visual connection between the garden and surrounding streets and buildings is not strong. Additionally, there are natural buffers shielding te garden from distracting noise.
The site plan simply illustrates the adjacency to public walks and streets.
Architectural features include the pergola to the east of the garden, trees along the south end, bushes along the west side, and a symetrically designed landscaped garden. The focal point of the garden is a goldfish pond.
This cross-section diagrams the topography of the site and how the sunken garden is visually shielded from the grounds of the Governor's Mansion by that topography and the pergola.
This longitudinal-section diagrams the topography on the south end of the sunken garden. It illustrates how larger trees are used to visually and audibly sheild the garden from direct visual contact and noise from traffic along Capitol Avenue.
This sketch diagrams traffic flow of vehicular traffic along Capitol Avenue and Jefferson Street. And flow of pedstrian traffic into, through and out of the garden area and pergola.
2 comments:
Angelo,
Nice work! Through your decription I feel as if I know the space. The sketches (your concerns seems to be unjustified, at least the digital abstraction worked really well)capture the atmosphere -at least as I imagine it- very well and your diagrams and narrative substancially add to it.
Let me make two comments on the quality space itself. Please let me know, if I am reading your drawings and intent correctly.
1. Your sketches depict that you experienced the park as a whole - that is to say that landscape, architecture and topography work in concert to produce the enchanting effect that the parks appears to have. The park seems to "hold together" not necessarily by the achsial symmetries, but by creating picturesques views that balance the components.
2. Part of the appeal of the park does not rest in itself, but in its surroundings, which it contrasts by creating a "vest pocket utopia" that differs from a more haphazard and less carefully callibrated environment.
If these are assumptions are true, than there might be valuable lesson about the relation between scale/extent of a project and its contextual reaction. Another potential theme might be the dialog(?)between the "picturesque" and formal symmetries, which typically don't tend to go together.
Enno,
Thanks for the comments. You're correct in about the landscape,architecture and topography working together in concert to create a "utopia". Before this week I had only been to the garden twice, both times simply walking through and it always seemed so tranquil. This week I really studied the space and was completely surprised by how one can transcend to another place when experiencing the landscape with the absense of distracting noises. And visually the pergola even obscured from view on the south end because of the tree coverage.
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