11th Street
CULTURAL HISTORY ZONE:
Cultural & Natural History Museum, Native
American Village, Settlers Homestead, and Plant
Explorers’ Collections
• Amplifies Heritage Gardens themes
through literal re-creation of places and
peoples for experiential learning
• Broadens cultural offerings and creates
regional cultural campus
• Strengthens University portal at 11th
Street and 22nd Avenue
• New tree and woody plant collections
showcase SDSU research in Plant
Explorers
• Hackberry collection removed; drainage
re-aligned and upgraded
THE GATHERING:
Event Pavilion, Amphitheatre, Bur Oak Highlands
• Embeds a student and community destination for
planned and spontaneous celebratory events within the
Arboretum
• Opportunity for large concerts or
festivals
FOLLY FROLIC:
Birch Allee and Reflecting Pool, Palisades,
Arborvitae Cathedral
NATURAL HISTORY ZONE:
• Features Arboretum relics and new stunning landscapes
in a playful and unexpected light
The Prairie, The Woods, Moraine Trail,
Cottonwood Creek
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22nd Avenue
• Re-creates iconic regional landscapes for immersion,
education and inspiration
• Unexpected and engaging landform art throughout
• Restored +/- 20 acre prairie and created pothole lake and
wetlands in The Prairie
• Artful stormwater management along Cottonwood Creek
with potential for research; feeds potholes
• Understory of existing tree collections at The Woods
enhanced to showcase full ecosystem from the ground up;
Treehouse Village and Fire Tire observation deck
• Re-creation of Coteau des Prairie rock
outcroppings and vernal pools at Moraine
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COTTONWOOD CREEK:
• Stormwater innovation exhibit
• Pools and riffles, artfully done
• Student study and research
• Lowland trees and associated understory
• Redirected to feed pothole exhibit
MAPLES FAMILY GARDEN:
Edible, Pollination and Cottage Gardens, Canopy Walk,
Forest Floor Explore, Conifer Circle, The Story of a Maple Tree
• Creates educational destination for interactive and spontaneous
learning and play, with a focus on the green world around us
• Supports pre- and post-teacher training and South Dakota
primary education curricula
• Target age: 0-8 years; two acres; fenced
PLANTS FOR THOUGHT:
All-American Trials, Idea Garden
• Features “What’s New” at McCrory Gardens
• Potential for student-design/build with changing theme
EDUCATION AND VISITOR CENTER:
Center, Event Garden, Rain Gardens, Auto Garden
Offices, Breakroom, Volunteer Center, Vehicle Storage, Greenhouses
• Sets the tone for visitors to experience native landscapes,
sustainable parking systems, contextual architecture, signature
sculpture
• Multi-purpose education and event space, classrooms, offices,
catering facilities
• Room for expansion for winter display and event space
(orangery?)
• Entry drive immerses visitors into the prairie landscape of the
Arboretum
• Parking for 100 cars and bus drop-off
• Creates “back of house” efficient layout and location for staff and volunteers
• Parking for 45 spaces
• Plant sale display
• Outdoor materials storage
• Fenced and screened
20th Avenue
HORTICULTURE MAINTENANCE CENTER:
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STRAWBALE HOME AND GARDEN:
Strawbale House, Wildlife Garden, Kitchen Garden
GARDEN TRADITIONS:
• Exhibits sustainable site and building design at home-owner’s scale
Perennial, Rose and Herb Gardens
• Features well-loved garden collections and designs of the past
• Wonderful colorful introduction to McCrory Gardens
• Minor improvements to Perennial and Herb Gardens
• Rose Garden replaces Prairie Medicinal and Pharmaceutical
Gardens, which moves to Native American Garden
CONTEMPLATIVE GARDENS:
Rotary Garden, Mickelson Grove, Rosenfield Garden, Labyrinth
• Enhances and adds memorial spaces that heal and replenish the spirit
• Supplemental enclosure planting at Rotary Garden
CELEBRATION GARDENS:
HERITAGE GARDENS:
Native American, Settlers, Hansen Discovery Gardens
Great Lawn, Celebration Pavilion, and The
Woodlands
• Celebrates relationships between region’s people and plants
• Children’s Maze and Cottage relocated to Maples Family Garden
• Centennial Garden expanded and relocated to The Prairie
• Hansen Garden re-designed
• Re-configures existing Presidential and Floral Display Gardens
and Great Lawn to enhance event space and consolidate
display beds
• Celebration Pavilion added to provide comfort facilities
THE GARDEN’S EDGE:
Linear Roadside Gardens
GARDENS OF THE ARTS AND SENSES:
• Announces McCrory Gardens at key community portal at 6th
Street and 22nd Avenue
• Bold drifts of woody and herbaceous collections designed for
the view from a car
• Viewsheds carefully crafted to protect visitor experience
• Existing parking at 20th Avenue for event overflow;
controlled access for pedestrians
Sculpture Garden, Sensory Garden, Rock Garden & Waterfall, Event Pavilion
• Enhances existing garden favorites with sculpture collection and waterfall
• Comfort facilities and earned income potential at Pavilion
• Waterfall as “headwaters” for intermittent stream corridor
• Sensory Garden renovated
• Rock Garden landform expanded to screen traffic and noise
6th Street
SYMBOLS LEGEND:
Illustrative Master Plan
McCrory Gardens &
South Dakota State Arboretum
Prairie Grass
Existing Evergreen
Trees to Remain
Ornamental Display
Beds
Proposed Deciduous
Tree
Sculpture or Focal
Point
Proposed Evergreen
Tree
Water Feature
Main Path
Secondary Path
Future Bike Corridor
Viewshed
Prepared: January 18, 2011
South Dakota State University
Brookings SD
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40
80
Scale 1´´ = 80´-0”
160
North
Terra Design Studios, LLC
2110 Sarah Street Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: (412) 481-3171
Existing Deciduous
Trees to Remain
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Service
Security Fence
Aesthetic Barrier Fence
McCrory Gardens
South Dakota State University
2110 Sarah Street • Pittsburgh, PA 15203
(412) 481-3171
www.terradesignstudios.us
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his two-acre destination garden serves to
answer the need to welcome and engage
families at McCrory Gardens so that children can
r e - connect with their green roots. Maples Family
Garden inspires parents, teachers, and community
leaders to create simple, naturalized environments
in a child’s home, school and neighborhood park so
that he or she can be immersed daily in the neverending wonders of the outdoors.
McCrory Gardens Master Plan
Cottonwood
Creek
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4
8
E
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B
The Garden provides relevant pre- and post-teacher training
opportunities to encourage teachers to venture beyond the
four walls of a classroom.
22nd Ave.
C
20th Ave.
The Garden targets a young audience, pre-school through
third grade, encouraging them to explore a delightful menu of
contextual outdoor garden and ecosystem exhibits with their
parents, grandparents, caregivers and friends. As children grow
with the Garden, its location adjacent to Cottonwood Creek
and the South Dakota State Arboretum allows older youth to
graduate and explore the “real” world of plants beyond the
Maples Family Garden gate.
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South Dakota educational goals are met through field trips
to Maples Family Garden specifically and McCrory Gardens
generally.
C
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11
A
Maples Family Garden adds a missing jewel to the growing
necklace of quality family cultural destinations in the Brookings
and Sioux Falls region.
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6th Street
Map Key:
F
Maples Family Garden is located beneath the shade of a grove
of maple trees. Interactive exhibits are themed to tell the
story of the trees and the critters that are connected to them.
Contextual architecture and literature complete the message.
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G
Visitors appreciate the Garden’s proximity to parking at the McCrory Gardens
Education and Visitor Center. Within the Maples Family Garden fence, they
are also happy to learn that refreshments, family-style restrooms, and ample
seating in the shade are offered. The Garden is fenced to re-assure caregivers
that their young charges stay within view.
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7.
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K
Plants for
Thought
0´
60´
Scale 1´´ = 60´
Map Key:
A.
B.
C.
D.
What’s for Dinner?
The Heartwood
Canopy Walk
Mist-eriousTreasure Trail
E.
F.
G.
H.
The Forest Floor
The Wilds
Conifer Circle
The Cottage
I. Swirling Samaras, Saplings, Syrup & Such
J. Pollen-makers & Pollen-movers
K. “Now Playing”
Native American Garden
Settlers’ Garden
Hansen Garden of Exploration
Plants for Thought
Straw Bale Home & Garden
Contemplative Gardens
Cottonwood Creek
0´
150´
Scale 1´´ = 150´
8. Education and Visitor Center
9. Traditional Gardens
10. Celebration Gardens
11. Gardens of the Arts & Senses
12. Maples Family Garden
13. Horticulture Maintenance Ctr.
Family Garden Moments:
A. What’s for Dinner?
This is the first stop at Maples Family Garden. Visitors explore
bean teepees and edible vine tunnels, taste edible flowers
and other crops harvested that day, and feed whimsical
livestock sculpture their favorite plants. Kids play a matching
game to link real plants with their grocery store version. Tiny
colorful insect sculptures are hidden throughout to teach the
important role insects play in growing our food. Through play,
visitors learn that all food comes from plants.
B. The Heartwood
At the core of the Garden, this multi-purpose funky shelter
is constructed of repurposed lumber and other salvaged
and recycled materials. It houses a multi-purpose room for
classes and events, family-style restrooms, concession area and
staff offices. An outdoor amphitheatre, picnic grove, group
orientation deck and kid’s message board surrounds The
Heartwood.
C. Canopy Walk
What better way to introduce children to a tree than to
immerse them in the treetops? This unique perspective for
both children and adults enables everyone to get up close
and personal with the tree flowers, buds, leaves and bark. The
center exhibit, Home Sweet Home, encourages children to
search for the critters that live in the canopy. A swing bridge
carries visitors from the hardwoods to the conifer edge.
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The Heritage Gardens
McCrory Gardens
South Dakota State University
Native American Garden
Settlers’ Garden
Hansen Garden of Exploration
Master Plan
McCrory Gardens
1. Native American
Garden
2. Settlers’ Garden
3. Hansen Garden of
Exploration
4. Plants for Thought
5. Straw Bale Home
& Garden
6. Contemplative Gardens
7. Cottonwood Creek
8. Education and Visitor
Center
9. Traditional Gardens
10. Celebration Gardens
11. Gardens of the Arts
& Senses
12. Maples Family Garden
and amazing story that begins with the life adventures
of a great American plant scientist, N.E. Hansen.
Through a carefully choreographed series of spatial
experiences, visitors learn about Hansen’s hair-raising
feats as he traveled the globe during war and famine,
circa 1910-1940, to bring back plants that would
enhance agricultural practices on the Great Northern
Plains.
Visitors approach the Garden of Exploration along the
Hansen Welcome Walk, scored in the cadence of
railway tracks, a nod to his journey on the
Trans-Siberian Railroad. Etched quotations in the walls
and structures of the Hansen Gallery illustrate his
spunk and devotion during his explorations.
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The Hansen Garden of Exploration tells a complex
The Heritage Gardens
4
We tell the story of the Heritage
Gardens as a poem rather than a
textbook. Built in this manner, the
Heritage Gardens fit seamlessly into the
fabric of the surrounding McCrory
Gardens and entice visitors to whet
their appetite for a greater depth of
understanding.
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6
A Hall of Fame features the “flora stars of the show.”
Adjacent planted courtyards and teaching areas continue
to reveal the tale of South Dakota State University’s
on-going contribution to the world’s knowledge of
agricultural plants. The Garden of Exploration ends
with a special changing display of new aspects of the
plant research of SDSU.
Settlers’
Garden
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The Next Generation
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10
22nd Avenue
1
9
20th Avenue
This garden trio tells the story of the
relationship between plants and the
people of the Northern Great Plains. It
is a snapshot of three peoples at three
points in time; the American tribes at
around 1840; the settlers who staked
claims, grew cash crops and home
gardens around 1890; and modern-day
scientists such as N.E. Hansen, whose
work as a pioneering plantsman
demonstrates how plant varieties have
been found, chosen, or developed to
support our way of life in a challenging
climate.
Beautifully-arranged plantings of forage crops, grasses,
fruit trees, vine fruits, vegetables and ornamental shrubs
immerse visitors into a spectacular display of the body
of Hansen’s life and work. A backdrop of native grapes,
plums, cherries, and apples surround the exhibit; these
were introduced to Hansen by the Native American
gardeners, and he used them as foundation stock in his
research.
Hansen Welcome
Walk
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Hansen Hall of Fame
Today’s Hopefuls
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Hansen Gallery
6th Street
Hansen Garden of Exploration
The Heritage Gardens
McCrory Gardens
South Dakota State University
Native American Garden
Settlers’ Garden
Hansen Garden of Exploration
Master Plan
McCrory Gardens
1. Native American
Garden
2. Settlers’ Garden
3. Hansen Garden of
Exploration
4. Plants for Thought
5. Straw Bale Home
& Garden
6. Contemplative Gardens
7. Cottonwood Creek
8. Education and Visitor
Center
9. Traditional Gardens
10. Celebration Gardens
11. Gardens of the Arts
& Senses
12. Maples Family Garden
As soon as visitors exit through the Herb Garden, they
are met with a riot of color and exquisite horticulture.
This is the first garden room in the Native American
Garden: the Garden of Life. A rich tapestry on the
ground plane, symbolizing life and celebration, displays
native plants and their cultivars that were used in
courtship, to heal during childbirth, and for celebratory
tribal rituals. Sensory plants embrace the terrace here,
presented to the visitor atop a curving stone seat wall
crafted of indigenous boulders. A dark reflecting pool,
fed by a shallow basin carved in an overhanging rock,
symbolizes life.
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12
The Heritage Gardens
4
We tell the story of the Heritage
Gardens as a poem rather than a
textbook. Built in this manner, the
Heritage Gardens fit seamlessly into the
fabric of the surrounding McCrory
Gardens and entice visitors to whet
their appetite for a greater depth of
understanding.
8
The Grower’s Garden is the next display garden along
the path. Here, visitors are introduced to the heritage
agricultural plants of the plains, arrayed to honor the
land’s contours and to capture precious rainwater. A
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sculptural shade arbor is at this Garden’s core. Tools or
utensils that a child would have used in the harvesting or
preparation of these foods are displayed in an artful way.
Native American people not only grew their food, but
depended heavily on that which they could gather from
the surrounding grasslands and trees. The Garden of
Gathering is densely planted with small nut trees and
large hardwoods. Its understory is rich with berry plants
and those valued for their tubers. Visitors exit the edge
plantings and emerge into the sun and warmth of the
prairie, where gathering for food, medicine and ritual also
took place. An interactive sculpture or replica of a
Native American dwelling anchors this garden.
Gathering implements and transport vessels, perhaps
those used by a young adult, are displayed here.
The last zone in the Native American Garden is located
beneath the welcome shade of the weeping willow grove.
This is the Garden of Return. Some Native American
people embedded willows splinters beneath their skin to
mourn the dead. Other plants used for rituals of sorrow,
grieving and rebirth are featured here as well.
Grower’s
Garden
22th Avenue
1
9
20th Avenue
This garden trio tells the story of the
relationship between plants and the
people of the Northern Great Plains. It
is a snapshot of three peoples at three
points in time; the American tribes at
around 1840; the settlers who staked
claims, grew cash crops and home
gardens around 1890; and modern-day
scientists such as N.E. Hansen, whose
work as a pioneering plantsman
demonstrates how plant varieties have
been found, chosen, or developed to
support our way of life in a challenging
climate.
O
ne of the reasons that Native American peoples
were able to survive, and even thrive, in the harsh climate
of the Great Northwest Plains stems from a clear
understanding of the role plants played in their lives.
The Native American Garden narrates the abridged story
of the emotional, physical and spiritual bond between
plants and people from birth to death.
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Gatherer’s
Garden
Garden
of Life
6th Street
Garden
of Return
Rosenfield
Garden
Herb
Garden
Native American Garden
The Heritage Gardens
McCrory Gardens
South Dakota State University
Native American Garden
Settlers’ Garden
Hansen Garden of Exploration
Master Plan
McCrory Gardens
1. Native American
Garden
2. Settlers’ Garden
3. Hansen Garden of
Exploration
4. Plants for Thought
5. Straw Bale Home
& Garden
6. Contemplative Gardens
7. Cottonwood Creek
8. Education and Visitor
Center
E
arly folk who came to the Dakotas to farm
discovered that the seeds they brought with them from
the moderate climate of the east did not thrive in the
scorching summers and frequent droughts of the
Great Northern Plains. As they struggled to bring in a
cash crop, settlers often relied on kitchen gardens to
provide reliable and nourishing food that could be
stored through the winter. Time and resources
permitting, settlers raised plants for household and
medicinal use. Some brought cuttings of prized roses
and shrubs to bring a ‘touch of home’ to a raw place.
9. Traditional Gardens
10. Celebration Gardens
11. Gardens of the Arts
& Senses
12. Maples Family Garden
7
12
4
We tell the story of the Heritage
Gardens as a poem rather than a
textbook. Built in this manner, the
Heritage Gardens fit seamlessly into the
fabric of the surrounding McCrory
Gardens and entice visitors to whet
their appetite for a greater depth of
understanding.
8
In contrast to the way in which crops were grown in
the Native American Garden, settler’s aligned crops
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6
9
10
2
10
22th Avenue
1
9
20th Avenue
Visitors stroll through a remnant prairie and enter the
Settlers’ Garden beneath the magnificent canopy of a
weeping willow. The Orchard, alive with the
welcoming buzz of honey bees, springs from a drift of
native wildflowers. Visitors come upon the Kitchen
Garden and Vineyard, and they explore the heritage
plants which are thriving there. Only a portion of the
walls, roof, and fireplace of the dwelling remain,
offering shade and respite from the wind and weather.
Here, at the Hearth, visitors enjoy tasting the day’s
harvest or perhaps even attend a heritage cooking
demonstration. Visitors rest beneath the dappled
shade of the grapevine arbor, or step down into the
coolness of the adjacent Root Cellar.
Period
gardening and culinary tools are creatively displayed
through the garden as sculpture and interpretive cues.
There are many ways that plants helped settlers
survive. This garden celebrates the gathering of seed,
growing, storing, and tasting of cultivated edible
plants which were prevalent in the late 19th century. It
features plants that fed the settlers in a literal sense.
Plants grown for beauty and fragrance, which were
lovingly brought west from home, are also important
to the story, for they nourished the heart and soul.
The Heritage Gardens
This garden trio tells the story of the
relationship between plants and the
people of the Northern Great Plains. It
is a snapshot of three peoples at three
points in time; the American tribes at
around 1840; the settlers who staked
claims, grew cash crops and home
gardens around 1890; and modern-day
scientists such as N.E. Hansen, whose
work as a pioneering plantsman
demonstrates how plant varieties have
been found, chosen, or developed to
support our way of life in a challenging
climate.
and homes to the compass grid. They also planted
windbreaks to protect dwellings from persistent
northwesterly winds.
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The Hearth
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Kitchen
Garden
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11
6th Street
Root
Cellar
Preserves
Patch
Orchard
Hansen
Garden of
Exploration
Vineyard
Sensory
Garden
Settlers’ Garden