LOTUSLAND

The Japanese Garden at Lotusland in Montecito,California, was one of the last gardens touched by the legendary opera singer Madame Ganna Walska. In 2015, a redesign was awarded to Arcadia Studio and Comstock Landscape Architecture through a competitive proposal process. The intent was to make the 2-acre pond and garden more accessible, improve visitor circulation, botanical health and detailing of the garden, reconstruct the pond and water features to run on more sustainable systems, restore and enhance the Japanese character and carry out some of the un-realized intentions of the original designers and Ganna Walska herself.

Visitors to the newly reopened garden gain closer connection to the renovated pond, plantings and built elements throughout the gardens. Additional gathering spaces were designed to accommodate larger groups while retaining a sense of intimacy with the natural setting. Water features were restored with new waterproofing, filtration systems and plumbing. New streams were designed with close adherence to original intentions,  with matching boulder work and flow patterns weaving through existing tree canopies. The water features were designed in collaboration with Outside the Lines, who served as the technical expertise for the water systems as well as the installation contractor.

In addition to water features, several new key built-elements were designed. The pond was originally a detention basin with no inlet outlet, so its edge was reconfigured to take a natural shape, allowing for implied tributaries feeding and drawing from the central pond. These inlets and outlets provide new opportunities for visitors to experience the water’s edge. Traditional bridges and a gathering space named the ‘Lotus viewing deck’, hover above the water’s surface and connect to the land by two pedestrian bridges. The deck was originally requested, but not ever designed, by Ganna Walska and her gardener Frank Fuji. It was a unique pleasure of the design team to locate, design and detail this central element of the garden.

To ensure the sustainability of the newly renovated pond, significant drainage issues needed attention. The pond’s low elevation to its surrounding has it naturally collecting runoff and sediment from a range of properties and adjacent roadways. The Civil Engineer and Landscape Architecture team collaborated to address these issues with as light an impact to the environment as possible and to ensure that all solutions looked natural in the garden or were transparent. Custom stone drains, gravel french drains surrounding the pond and a gentle re-grading of slopes away from the pond's edge all contributed to a sustainable, healthy and clean pond, without an engineered feel to the otherwise ethereal garden.

From the highest point in the garden, there is a view that is shrouded in some frames, but opens up to the tranquility of the Karesansui (dry garden) and pond at the right angle. This view had not been realized by a previous attempt at a viewing pavilion, but with careful siting and studies in scale, a new Pavilion now frames these views without imposing itself elsewhere. The Pavilion and other wood elements were detailed with input from a traditionally trained Minka woodworker, ensuring the standards of Japanese Carpentry. The Pavilion is measured in traditional tatami mat proportions and is large enough for visitor gatherings, educational workshops and small events.

One of the greatest assets and simultaneous challenges involved in renovating the garden was the scale and number of original stone features existing in the site. Early documentation included over 180 boulders ranging from ½ ton to 20 tons in weight. The original stone compositions ranged from highly intentional, with significant historic importance, to seemingly random boulders strewn about. The types of stone in the original garden included granite from the Sierra Nevada foothills, local Santa Barbara Sandstone and a variety of different stones that Ganna Walska found interesting. The design team went to great lengths to match the granite as accurately as possible, despite the original quarry’s closure. Additionally, for accessible paths, landings and gathering areas, a variety of carefully chosen flagstones and decomposed granite were used with binders and grouts tested for aesthetics and durability. Each detail was assessed and scrutinized to make sure the garden felt at once authentic to Japanese Garden design, to Ganna Walska’s original vision and to the enduring use of the garden by the visitors of all abilities who will enjoy it.

The tree canopy of the garden was another great asset and challenge to the new accessible design of the garden. A mature collection of Araucaria species, Pines, Eucalyptus, Oaks, Ginkgos, Bamboo, Cryptomerias, Sycamores, Podocarpus, and Japanese Maples made up a complex canopy and root structure within the confined site. With the intention of making the garden accessible to all visitors, the design carefully wove through existing root systems and carved our gathering spaces with intention and respect of the living systems underground.

Before beginning construction, the design team worked through an editing process to remove any failing trees that were threatening to compromise the more healthy specimens. With the new composition of various areas in the garden, new specimens were sourced from California and Oregon to find the best specimens. A variety of Japanese Maples, Black Pines and Ginkgos were selected to be planted in the garden and pruned in the Niwaki style over the coming years. New canopy trees including Podocarpus, Chionanthus, Pines, Cedars and Cypress’ were placed to compose new spaces in the garden and ensure the correct light quality for the new plantings in the long term.

The project team was closely involved in fundraising efforts with the Board of Trustees to fund the renovation, and the garden opened in June 2019.