The 1950’s, Eero Saarinen designed, laboratory building for a major corporation is a 3-story arcing form overlooking a panoramic sweep of lawn and woods. Within the arc behind the building is a continuous, linear garden, Japanese in character, recalling the original design by Hideo Sasaki, a sweep of white gravel on which floated emerald islands of ground cover and trees. Over the years its visual elegance was lost to mechanical additions, below-grade expansions, and most recently to an above-grade steam line.

To meet the owner’s desire to redevelop the garden, Towers|Golde designed a ‘dry stream’ of pebbles and boulders, a serpentine meander flowing through the courtyards for the whole length of the building, over the mechanical spaces and in front of the steam line. It is a concept that keeps the Japanese theme and the spirit of the original design. A walk and lawn allow strolling, shrubs and perennials screen the steam line from on-grade view, and trees behind give shade, all placed to reflect the arc of the building and sinuous form of the implied stream.