The South Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (SCASLA) presented the President’s Award of Excellence to McLeod Landscape Architects for Pedrick’s Garden at its 2015 annual conference on October 16. The President’s Award, which has not been given by SCASLA in a number of years, is its highest honor, and the recipient must be selected by a unanimous vote of the awards jury.
The two-acre Pedrick’s Garden, which was completed in the fall of 2014 and serves as a new entrance to Falls Park, was designed with four major objectives: to memorialize Pedrick Lowery, a local community leader who was instrumental in the creation of Falls Park; to meet the civic needs of the City as a key piece of its expanding green infrastructure and pedestrian network; to unearth and highlight an historic WPA-era springhouse and path system that had remained beyond the public eye for decades; and to stabilize the creek bank to reduce erosion and improve water quality downstream. McLeod Landscape Architects was the landscape architect of record for Pedrick’s Garden, working off of an original plan by Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio, in conjunction with the Carolina Foothills Garden Club, Craig Gaulden Davis Architects, and the City. The design team, which included Edward Kinney, the City’s senior landscape architect, collaborated for nearly a year on design development and construction documents.
According to Kinney, the garden club originally approached the Vermont-based Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio with the idea for a garden to honor Lowery, a horticulturalist, who once served as garden club president. After a formal agreement with the City was reached, a local team was put together, including a landscape architect, architect, civil engineer, and wetland specialist. “This design team evolved the garden club’s early development drawings into a more elaborate, connective, civic-oriented park, without sacrificing the garden-like qualities of the original design,” said Kinney. “One of the garden’s more unique features is its use of the sunflower, Pedrick’s favorite plant, as a design motif.” The sunflower theme was used throughout to establish the hardscape lines, planter edges, fountain shapes, and color scheme.
Located along Vardy Creek, behind the West End Market, Pedrick’s Garden features raised flower beds, a seating lawn, a new pedestrian bridge, public artwork, improved parking, and a public fountain. The President’s Award of Excellence will be shared with the City of Greenville, Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio, Craig Gaulden Davis Architects, and the Carolina Foothills Garden Club.