With the opening of the new Sybil B. Harrington Cactus and Succulent Galleries in April, the final planning stages of the Garden’s next major endeavor, the Ottosen Entry Garden, will be launched. As part of its $16 million Tending the Garden Campaign to Endow the Future, the Desert Botanical Garden will create a new entry experience to welcome visitors. Funded by a generous gift from the Ottosen Family Foundation, the new exhibit will become the grand lobby of the Desert Botanical Garden, announcing to visitors that they have arrived at a unique and exciting Southwest destination.
The current entry and exit sequences to the Garden were completed in 2001 as part of the $17 million Growing a Legacy for Generations Campaign. The Ottosen Entry Garden will celebrate and build upon the design features and structures created at that time. Goals for the new project are centered on improving the visitor experience. The primary goal is to create more drama and beauty by opening the vista to the beautiful Papago Butte and by showcasing large specimen cacti and succulents when visitors first arrive. In addition, by improving visitor circulation, increasing access to tours and the Garden Shop, and providing shaded seating options, the new design will make the arrival experience more enjoyable, rewarding, and memorable for visitors. The Ottosen Entry Garden will be the visitor’s first impression of the Desert Botanical Garden and an essential part of the overall experience.
Exhibit Elements and Themes
Planning for the Ottosen Entry Garden has been in progress for many months. Staff, volunteers, and board members have been working with the award-winning San Diego landscape architect firm Spurlock Poirier. Led by Principal Andy Spurlock, the design team established a clear goal of creating an introduction area to the Garden that highlights the sculptural quality of plants set against iconic local landscape features like the Papago Park red buttes, distant desert mountains, and the river beds and canals that cut through the Valley floor.
As visitors approach the Desert Botanical Garden they enter a world where a unique interaction with nature speaks strongly about the beauty and diversity of desert plants. A dramatic entry experience will confirm the Garden’s identity for the visitor, and spark anticipation and curiosity about the plants and displays within. The new entry garden will take advantage of location, approach, orientation, form, and color to communicate Desert Botanical Garden’s underlying messages about the exhibit and its relationship to the natural environment and to the community.
Ottosen Entry Garden will incorporate several design themes, including a Terrace Garden, Red Canal Garden, and a Basin Garden to showcase Sonoran Desert plants. There will be areas for gathering and for reflection, and a distinctive water feature that emphasizes water’s unique place in the desert landscape. Strong organizational elements will play an integral part in the spatial design of each display.
The approach to the admissions plaza from the bridge reveals the first glimpse of the interior of the Garden. The planting design will be welcoming and will subtly transition from the natural desert area to a softer, more garden-like feeling. Beyond Admissions, the first space the visitor will experience is a full sun garden with bold and dramatic plantings leading the eye to a spectacular view of the butte beyond. The plant palette employs the cooler colors of blues, grays, and purples, which coordinate with the lavender rock covering.
The Basin Garden showcases the amazing columnar cacti of the western deserts, featuring plants that capture the desert light. Species in this area include cholla, saguaros cardon, palo blanco, boojum, and organ pipe. The effect of light will be heightened by contrast with a dark brown ground covering. Visitors will move from open to fully enclosed spaces where agaves and hedgehog cacti will create flowering mosaics.
The Canal Garden is a mix of primarily Sonoran Desert plants selected for characteristics that harmonize with surrounding red stone walls. The stepped walls of this garden will let the visitor experience the planting at a variety of heights. The water feature in this garden will provide a strong architectural quality connecting the spaces.
The Terrace Garden is conceptualized as a mountain on which the planting changes as the visitor moves up the terrace. Barrel cacti and grasses at the base give way to shrubs in the middle and then to succulents and tree aloes at the top. This garden includes a canopy of trees, which gives the visitor an understanding of the different species and microclimates that exist in the desert.
