As a member of the Garden Conservancy, Yew Dell Botanical Gardens is a 60-acre historic property originally developed by horticulturalist Theodore Klein in the early 1940’s. The project site is located within a cluster of rehabilitated and new garden structures that together form a complex of public spaces for education, demonstration and events. In response to an increased demand for additional flexible venues within the gardens, the client desired a multi-use pavilion that could easily accommodate a range of functions, including plant sales, farm-to-table gatherings and weddings.

In relation to its programmatic use, the pavilion design is guided by the existing topography and the intimate scale of adjacent garden structures. Working with a modest budget, project strategies include:

·        Employing a simple kit-of-parts: monolithic concrete floor, steel columns, plywood ceiling, mesh screens and single membrane roof system.

·        Utilizing common and ordinary materials, which are employed in modular andrepetitive components for economy.

·        Taking advantage of site orientation and adjacencies to other garden structures to expand programmatic capacity.

·        Using geometry to sensitively integrate the pavilion with its immediate context (despite the large footprint of the project).

·        Siting the pavilion on the only existing level topography (originally part of a gravel service drive).

·        Integrating simple sustainable strategies: use of recyclable materials, use of perimeter fabric shades to modulate sunlight and changing weather conditions, use of only natural ventilation (supplemented with caged fans mounted to perimeter columns), managing all stormwater on-site through perimeter gravel aprons, use of light-colored TPO membrane roof.

Material Used :

1. Sherwin-Williams - Paint/Coatings

2. K-I Lumber - Plywood Ceilings& Wood Framing

3. Henry’s Concrete LLC - Concrete

4. Fitzsimmons Awnings - Roller Shades

5. Schaefer - Caged Circulation Fans

6. RAB - Lighting

7. Unlimited Erections LLC - Steel Columns

8. GAF – Roofing - Everguard TPO

9. Kintec - Wood Trusses

10. Core Design – Signage