In Atlanta, a 30-year-old experimental garden finds a new, and more contextual, home.
By Timothy A. Schuler 
Planted in drifts, the meadow was regraded to divert stormwater into the outcrop?s spiral pool.
Courtesy Lord Aeck Sargent.
Trees Atlanta?s new headquarters has the requisite office and program space, including an implementation yard and tree nursery, but with more than 55 tree species and the installation of an experimental landscape artwork, the endeavor was, in many ways, ?more of a landscape architecture project than an architecture project,? says Matt Cherry, ASLA. He is the director of landscape architecture and urban design at the multidisciplinary firm Lord Aeck Sargent, which designed the new building.
The project, designed with Andropogon, will reforest a significant percentage of a three-acre brownfield site left by a commercial bakery in Atlanta?s Adair Park neighborhood. The property is located 80 feet from an entrance to the BeltLine, and the landscape includes 235 new trees arranged in ecologically distinct ?forest rooms,? as well as a new connection with the BeltLine, an intentional move to draw visitors into the unfenced site. ?[Trees Atlanta] basically saw this as a public space,? Cherry says. Juxtaposed with the building?s contemporary architecture are weathered relics and other hints of the site?s industrial history, partially due to the budget. ?We ended up kind of mining the project [for material] to make it happen,? says José Almiñana, FASLA...