If you hurry on down to The Reach, the new addition to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, you'll probably have time to catch the Ginkgo Show. The new pavilions facing the Potomac River include performance spaces and practice areas, permanent and temporary art installations, and views over the landscape to the Potomac River.
The Reach was designed by architect Steven Holl and landscape architect Edmund Hollander. Holl's vision was to create a living memorial to JFK that would connect to and complement the original building designed by architect Edward Durell Stone.
There's a ginkgo grove of 35 trees in honor of the 35th president, and Hollander notes they have a unique characteristic: the leaves in autumn turn a beautiful golden yellow and drop to the ground all at once. He calls it "an arboreal performance ... you end up with a forest of yellow foliage and carpet of yellow leaves all at the same time."
The buildings and the landscape are fully integrated, and Hollander says The Reach is intended to "invite everyone into the arts." Working with the concept of seasonality, he says the landscape "starts to become yet another performing art." In spring, the magnolias and redbuds and cherries come into flower; in summer, the meadows, with ornamental grasses, perennials and lots of pollinators become the major attraction; in fall, the gingko trees are a vibrant yellow, red maples turn a brilliant hue, sweetgums put on a show of red, orange, yellow and purple, and the grasses are in full bloom. Finally, in winter, the grasses maintain their form and the structure of the trees is evident against the outer walls of the pavilions.
You also can't miss the living wall-- a carpet of more than 20 sedum cultivars that curve and rise up the wall of the building. It was an engineering and irrigation nightmare, but Hollander says it's "acclimating well."
When you're finished visiting the main parts of The Reach, you can take a pedestrian bridge over Rock Creek Parkway to the bike path that runs along the Potomac River to Georgetown and maybe just think about the landscape tapestry that's truly another form of art.
Comments