Miami?s Vizcaya Museum and Gardens recovers from design drift in the face of rising seas.
By Kelly Enright
Vizcaya?s Gilded Age design referenced European gardens adapted to Florida?s conditions. Image by the Historic American Landscapes Survey, National Park Service/Delineated By: R. Ceo, M. Chaidez, P. Nedev, A. Oliveira, V. Vasconez/2003.

?When the chief horticulturist Ian Simpkins began work at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami in 2007, he faced many challenges. As a public park, it had been more managed than preserved, reducing the integrity of the garden?s original design. Frequent high water had destabilized structures, causing the closure of the Marine Garden, one of several distinct gardens on the estate, and growing conditions had shifted so much that the name Rose Garden had become a misnomer. Just one year after he came on board, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the estate as one of America?s Most Endangered Historic Places. Simpkins was determined to ?reel the garden back from those decades of design drift and bring back its authenticity.? To that end, Vizcaya worked with Heritage Landscapes LLC on pre-design planning that has informed restoration work for the past decade. According to Greg De Vries, ASLA, the managing partner at Heritage Landscapes, they suggested prioritizing ?the renewal of utility infrastructure and increasing the overall resilience of the gardens to weather, wear and tear from visitors, and aging.? The challenge, ...