Penn State Palmer Museum of Art

The landscape of the new Palmer Museum of Art grounds a new home for art at the threshold between Penn State's historic campus and the University's H.O. Smith Botanic Garden and Arboretum. Sited in collaboration with Allied Works, the design weaves a network of gently arcing paths and broad terraces that direct movement and frame views through an expansive new perennial garden, connecting outward to the surrounding Nittany Valley.

A series of garden rooms emerge between the interlocking pavilions of the museum, leveraging unique spatial conditions and light exposures while visually extending the experience of the interior galleries out into the landscape. Sculptures of various scales accent and foreground the garden rooms, elevating the experience of art in nature. The use of glass 'lenses' on the building's exterior animates the facade throughout the day and creates a seamless relationship between inside and out.

Planting Design

Our planting design for the project was inspired, in part, by the impressionist artwork displayed within the museum collection. The garden's herbaceous layer is comprised of various sedge and grass species abstracted across a gradient from rough meadow to shady canyon and cultivated ground plane. Trunks of native canopy trees punctuate the composition and register a vertical datum against the undulating base layer of herbaceous perennials, while the flowering understory drifts lightly above the canvas. The ever-changing display of color and texture provides accent and ephemerality through all seasons. We worked in close collaboration with museum and arboretum leadership and horticultural staff to refine a plant palette that will endure the central Pennsylvania climate and reinforce the garden's mission. Planting installation was achieved in partnership with volunteers from the botanical garden, engaging the sense of community amongst a committed constituency.