The Jay Estate Gardens

Video of Thomas Woltz's Presentation

What was the evolution of the design for the Jay Estate Gardens? Award-winning landscape architect Thomas Woltz guides us through the process. Watch the full video here.

“We firmly believe that the soil we stand on, the soil we occupy, it’s full. Whenever I hear someone say ‘Oh, there’s empty space,  open space, the site is tabula rasa, there’s nothing there,’ it’s just not true. There’s always something there. Whether it’s the geologic history of the retreat of the glacial ice sheet, whether it’s the first Native American occupation of this continent,  whether it’s the colonial settlements and arrivals, the beginning of industry, the enslavement of other humans, there are stories beautiful and hideous in the land beneath our feet and it becomes our moral duty to excavate and reveal those stories as we find them… places like this site are leading the way in a new kind of preservation.”