The Drawing Room (Garden of Perception), 2005
Claire Trevor School Of The Arts, University Of California, Irvine, CA

Landscape Design: Pamela Burton and Company
Photography: Bruce Botnick

I wanted this project to reflect the character and personality of the School of the Arts. As I thought about what an arts campus is fundamentally about, I began to imagine this place as a garden of perception, whose main center, The Drawing Room, is a water table, with the water percolating up from a simple line drawing. A second outdoor space is the screening room, a grassy stepped outdoor theater with projection capabilities on the walled building it faces.

The installation encompasses numerous elements that help shape and frame one’s perceptual experience of this place, utilizing all five senses— sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste. At the entrance to the plaza three stairwells are painted with the primary pigment colors red, blue, and yellow, and are lit at night to act as beacons guiding one into the area. On the three pathways leading into the plaza the primary light colors blue, green, and red are used to illuminate the path into the garden. Where the paths intersect, the light mixes to form the secondary colors. For sound, microphones and speakers record voices on a series of connected outdoor whispering benches. For taste and smell, the pathways leading into the plaza are lined with fragrant plants like jasmine, thyme, and rosemary, as well as orange and lemon trees.