Onondaga Botanical Center | Baxter Hankin

​This project is based on the idea of a maze, with a main path cutting through the maze. People will wander through the maze of willows and lab gardens, finding their own niches and their own circulations among the lower paths, moving underneath the larger path and through buildings in several instances. The maze is comprised of various components to create many types of spaces and experiences. Filleted polygons throughout the site are filled with willows, lab gardens, and grass. These shapes have varying heights, which bring the ground up and down in order to block and reveal new views. In order to offer another experience, the main path raises up gradually towards a twenty foot tall peak in the center, offering a view above the willows and down into the greenhouse. Anyone in this project can experience nature both around them and below them.

The buildings hug the main path and the road, as to offer easy access. The more public programs are mainly concentrated near the road, while the private programs are buried a bit further into the site. The public programs are in dialogue with each other, such as with plaza between the activity shelter and the building containing a cafe and classroom. The private programs are part of the same system, so they are connected beneath the raised portion of the main path.

Materials are an important aspect of this project. In order to connect to the context of the natural setting, wood and hand crafted bricks are featured both in the buildings and in the paths. Different materials are used to highlight the different paths of pedestrian and automotive circulation through the site.