The Jackson Laboratory
Bar Harbor, Maine
Antje Mewes Stern
Memorial Garden Coplon Associates designed and administered the construction of an eastern themed contemplative garden as part of a project to rehabilitate and expand existing research space at the Jackson Laboratory. Surrounded on four sides by three story buildings each constructed at different period of varying materials, the landscape design used simple themes of stone and plantings to unify the space and focus views to the ground plane. The design employs traditional eastern references of river, sea, forest and mountain, allowing one to both move through and contemplate the spaces. The design is organized around a dry stream originates at a mountain 'source stone', flows under stone bridges, cascades though a "waterfall" and terminates at an eddy adjacent to the raked sand 'sea'. The bamboo 'forest' surrounds the source stone and screens the eastern wall which is punctuated with large exterior ductwork. The design incorporated existing topography, requirements for 3' stone buffers adjacent to structures and severely limited opportunities for construction access.