I recently went on a photo outing with my urban exploration group to the Water Garden in Raleigh. This 11-acre campus is on Glenwood Avenue across from the Chevy dealer. When it was created by landscape architect, Richard Bell in 1955 this was the outskirts of town. He modeled his concept after Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Wisconsin. Not only did Bell live and work at the Water Garden, but he nurtured up-and-coming landscape architects in that environment.
This innovative office park has 2 office buildings, a maintenance shed and lots of green space. The site has been recently sold, and our meeting organizer got permission and keys from the developer. This meant we had full access to all the buildings. The buildings had been vacated in the past year, and they were pretty empty.
The design of the buildings was very forward thinking for the time. There were lots of window for natural light, similar materials on the inside and outside, and rain spouts that water plants and filled ponds. It was great to see “green” buildings from the mid-20th Century, but sad to know that they will torn down to make way for progress.
Here is a link to my slideshow on Flickr. Since I have been taking so many more pictures with my new camera, I have been looking for other ways to show them besides posting strings of pictures in my blog. I was excited that Blogger announced a slideshow feature, but it is for your blog and runs in the side bar, not in individual posts. So that’s not what I need.
Here is some more information about the Water Garden:
News and Observer
Local Raleigh Blog
Landscape Architecture magazine
