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The National Peace Garden Competition
Haines Point, Washington D.C. 1989
With Linda Lindroth, John Blood and Elizabeth Danze

Honorable Mention

Invited Participants in Second Competition 1992

 

 

   
THE MEADOW
The visitor approaches the PEACE GARDEN through a MEADOW of tall grasses. A bubbling water SOURCE flows in a channel into the woods.
THE GROVE OF TREES
The visitor will walk into a GROVE of Yaupon Holly trees providing a low CANOPY overhead. Fragrant flowers produce fruits which attract birds and wildlife. The visitor hears the rustle of the leaves and the crunch of gravel underfoot as they approache the CLEARING. Here one can sit and read William Chapman White’s quotation about the woods which has been engraved on a stone.
THE PLANE OF WATER
The visitor comes to the edge of the woods which becomes the EDGE of the water. The plane of water is elevated above the ground. A thin film of water flows over all of its edges. The distant edge is invisible making it visually connect with the surrounding waters, the HORIZON, and INFINITY.
THE PATH
The visitor steps out of the GROVE of trees onto the PATH leading to the SPIRAL VESSEL. The path breaks away from the plane of water and descends to the level of the spiral vessel. The PLANE OF WATER flows over cast glass walls on either side of the path which allow LIGHT to pass through and REFLECT off of the wall of water.
THE SPIRAL VESSEL
The path continues as a SPIRAL ramp into the vessel. The space of the vessel is defined by a circular edge of falling water. Along the edge of the path, a thin stream of water spirals towards the center. The visitor may continue traveling along the spiral ramp radially toward the center, down steps which also serve as seating. Following the spiral, the visitor becomes aware of other people inhabiting the floating vessel.
EARTH’S PORTRAIT
As you come to the end of the spiral ramp in the vessel, you are confronted with an alabaster and cast glass MONOLITH on which is presented the PORTRAIT OF THE EARTH and the quotation by Nobel Laureate Archibald MacLeishthat appeared in the New York Times on Christmas Day, 1968. As you walk down the path, this image of the Earth RISES above the rim of the vessel.
The portrait is presented as a transparency mounted on translucent material imbues the image with additional LUMINOSITY.*
In December, 1968, we saw for the first time what our planet looked like from deep space. The First Earthrise, photographed by Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman, showed the earth whole - its political and ideological boundaries erased. This first Earthrise taken over twenty years ago, is at once startling and commonplace. It remains a powerful portrait of the Earth at PEACE.
*For the 1992 Phase of the National Peace Garden Design Review, we changed this to a live video transmission.