|
The Design
We suggest the name "Almaden Gardens" for
the park at the old Almaden Winery site
because it speaks of the unique qualities that
this park offers. The park came with a
fabulous collection of existing features such
as twin gazebos, full grown plant material,
the legacy of a great designer, the agricultural
history of Santa Clara Valley, and its great
wine producing families. It has a foundation
laid by a time and lifestyle of another era, a
time that is remembered in the beauty and
elegant simplicity of gardens serving the Le
Franc family and the family of patrons of
their vineyard hospitality.
.GIF) |
History
The historic value of this site gives it the
potential to be a park that stands out from
the rest. It can become something more than
just lawn and pre-manufactured tot lots that
dominate our neighborhood parks today. We
intended, with this design, to be cognizant of
the history and truly design something that
reflects the unique qualities of this site.
There are many elements that have been
designed into this park that reflect the history of the site and the Santa Clara Valley.
The site has many elements that are historic
to the winery itself, including the historic
winery building, the gazebos, grape vines,
the Almaden "A" and hedges. The building
and gazebos have been left as they currently
exist in the master plan with the intention of
restoring them to their original condition.
Grape vines have obvious historic value so
we've retained those that exist and added
more grape vines in the design. In conjunction with the winery, we have incorporated
the Almaden "A" into the entrance of the
park and the fountain design. Hedges are a
dominant element in the Thomas Church
design that exists on the bottom half of the
park. We have incorporated hedges into the
top of the park as an element that reflects
the spirit of Thomas Church.
Thomas Church
In our mission statement for this project we
state that our design will reflect "the needs
of the neighborhood, the historic character
of the winery, and the spirit of Thomas
Church." It might be a good idea, to revisit
some of the ideas of Thomas Church:
"Church adopted a theory...which recognized
three sources of form. The first consisted of
human needs and the specific personal |
