Completed April 2013

The Como Park Zoo and Conservatory Master Plan identified the need for an outdoor bonsai exhibit and a transitional landscape connecting to the acclaimed Japanese Garden. The Division of Parks and Recreation and the Como Zoo and Conservatory Society recognized an opportunity to include an indoor Bonsai Gallery contiguous with these outdoor spaces. In response to the Conservatory’s requested an approach that focuses on the exhibits (seen here) and accommodates special events, Close Landscape Architecture, the 106 Group, and Lunning Wende proposed a building that merges with the landscape and complements the existing Conservatory buildings, I designed the exhibit panels.

Honor Award – Preservation Minnesota 2002

While at Lunning Wende Associates, we were selected by the City of Saint Paul, Division of Parks and Recreation to develop a program, restoration plan and exhibit design for the restoration and re-use of the Como Park Streetcar Station.  The use program calls for an office space and meeting room/exhibition space. The building’s interior was ‘stripped to its bones’ to return a sense of the openness last seen in its original use.

We also designed the exhibit space.  A terrazzo floor map of the city, with parks, trolley lines, and landmarks highlight the exhibit space and leads visitors on an adventure through Saint Paul in 1909. Exhibit panels adorn the walls, giving a broad view of the streetcar history in Saint Paul when the streetcar rolled though Como Park.