Working With Existing Trees III

The Peace Garden, California State University - Fresno:  Working with ZGF Architects, I redesigned the Peace Garden in a simple and restrained series of gestures that redefine the site as a series of outdoor rooms, each anchored by one of the four major peace monuments.  Preservation of eighteen existing Canary Island pine trees (Pinus canariensis) was a key design feature.  The Canary Island Pines also provided shade which is a premium in the hot and dry California Central Valley; they shaded a central outdoor campus space, and surrounding buildings reducing the high cost of air conditioning. The Canary Island pines were mature and measured over 100’ in height.  The weak roots of the trees were near the surface of the ground, due to turf and sprinkler irrigation, and the soils were compacted due to pedestrian traffic and weekly mowing. 

To save the Canary Island pines and renovate the Peace Garden around them the site was hand-excavated with air spades around the roots of the trees and backfilled with structural soils for proper drainage and aeration, reinvigorating the trees’ root structures.  To draw the roots away from the surface, a below-grade irrigation system was installed. Structural soils also protected the root systems from new paved campus walkways and a fire lane was re-located away from the Canary Island pine trees to protect them from vehicular campus traffic and fire trucks.