For a 150-acre estate, PWP created a landscape that engages the architecture, art, and ecological systems of the Potomac River Valley. The site was re-graded from its subdivision state with rough transitions smoothed and angular slopes removed. Two hundred existing trees—root-pruned and transplanted to new locations on site—were supplemented with 1,800 trees raised in an on-site nursery to form a landscape that reads at a grand scale. Masses of shrubs and trees, flowering meadows, connective bluestone paths, a quarter-mile dry-stacked-stone wall, and a sculpture walk create varied spaces for outdoor sculpture of different scales. Loose groupings of trees and an understory of flowering shrubs form a series of room-like galleries suited for human-scaled sculpture, while larger open spaces around the pond and within the perennial meadow accommodate sculpture of a monumental scale. An elegant entry sequence frames the larger views.
The re-use of existing trees demonstrates PWP’s concern with sustainability in both construction and maintenance. Grading, planting, and storm-water-management strategies create an integrated landscape system that requires less water and energy to maintain. For example, the restored meadows, which require little maintenance, slow and direct run-off, and a smaller lawn area drains into a pond where the roof runoff from the main building is also directed. Collected storm water is used for irrigation. The site-maintenance regime is all organic. Glenstone recently became the first museum to join the EPA’s Green Power Leadership Club by purchasing renewable energy to offset the museum’s electricity usage. The meadows and water bodies have restored habitat for a range of native animals, including a growing population of nesting Eastern bluebirds.
To learn more about Glenstone please visit: www.glenstone.org
The collection is open by appointment.
LOCATION
Potomac, Maryland
COMPLETION DATE
Phase 1, 2006
Collaborating Firms:
Phase One
Architect: Gwathmey Siegel and Kaufmann Associates Architects
Arborist: Bartlett Tree Experts
Field Ecologist and Meadow Consultant: Jeff Wolinski
Horticulturalist: Michael Jackson
Irrigation Designer: Sweeney and Associates
Master Stone Mason: Travis Callahan
Wetland and Pond Consultant: Angler Environment
Phase Two
Architect: Thomas Phifer and Partners
Agricultural and Soil Management Consultant: Matthew Rales
Arborist: Bartlett Tree Experts (Tim Zastrow)
Civil Engineer: VIKA (Maryland)
Environmental Engineer: BuroHappold Engineering
Fountain Designer: Dan Euser Waterarchitecture
Fountain Engineer: Biohabitats
General Contractor: HITT Contracting
Graphics, Signage, and Wayfinding Designer: 2 x 4
Horticulturalist: Darrel Morrison
Irrigation Designer: Sweeney and Associates
Lighting Designer: ARUP (New York)
Master Stone Mason: Phillip Dolphin
Meadow Consultant: Larry Weaner Landscape Associates
Owner’s Representative: Mark G. Anderson Consultants
Soil Scientist: Pine & Swallow Environmental
Structural Engineer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (Dmitri Jajich)
http://www.pwpla.com/projects/glenstone
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