Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden

Award

2019 Merit Award

Site

Des Moines, IA

Category

Design

Landscape Architects

Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects

Project Details

In 2008, the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden sought to reinvent itself as a premier cultural institution that would explore, explain, and celebrate plants and horticulture. With this mission as their guide, the organization set out to update its facilities by building a new garden that would showcase the site’s natural landscape making the science of researching, cultivating, and engaging with plants a public experience. 

Hoerr Schaudt’s design vision for the garden introduced a series of outdoor rooms that bring together the existing geodesic dome, the natural river edge, and the Des Moines skyline to create a destination highlighting the horticultural arts. An elegant sequence of spaces unfolds via a network of pathways, a new pond, and a cascading water feature. The chosen plants and artwork interject these spaces with bold shapes, colors, and textures creating a garden can be open year-round, with blooms and programming happening in all seasons. 

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