This 1950’s corporate laboratory building, designed by Eero Saarinen, is a 3-story arcing form overlooking a panoramic sweep of lawn and woods. Within the arc, behind the building, is a linear courtyard garden originally designed by Hideo Sasaki with a Japanese-inspired sweep of white gravel upon which floated emerald islands of ground cover and trees. Over the years its elegance and aesthetic purity was lost to mechanical additions, below-grade expansions and, most recently, an above-grade steam line.
T|G recaptured the original design intent with a ‘dry stream’ of pebbles and boulders, a serpentine meander flowing through the courtyard for the whole length of the building This central unifying feature recalls the Japanese theme, but allows for screen plantings in front of the steam line and variable depths of surface cover over the mechanical space. A walk and lawn allow strolling and trees provide shade, all placed to reflect the arc of the building and sinuous form of the implied stream.
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