DETAILS
Westmoor Park is a 168-acre educational and recreational setting where visitors are encouraged to experience the natural world about them with the guidance of interpretive personnel. The park includes four separate areas, one of which is an Administration and Reception area with facilities for drop-off, group orientation, and parking. The Natural Science and Ecology area contains diverse habitats for floral and faunal species in standing and running water, floodplain and upland areas, and includes photography blinds, nesting areas, fisheries, vegetative communities, and interpretive stations located along a system of trails and bridged walkways. The Demonstration Farm incorporates functions designed to allow public participation in farming activities, while the horticulture area emphasizes native New England species in a variety of exterior garden displays, with a large hexagonal glass-domed greenhouse serving as an exhibition space.
NY Times
Thomas Balsley was selected by the New York Times as the only landscape architect in a cast of world-renowned architects to participate in the NY Times Capsule Design Competition. Mr. Balsley’s submission was selected as a finalist, exhibited, and published in the NY Times Magazine’s final series on the Millennium.
National Ecological Center
The threat of global warming prompted the government of Korea to develop the country’s first national center of ecological research. After selecting a site, the government conducted an international design competition, in which the team of Samoo Architects and Thomas Balsley Associates won first prize. This 189-acre park will combine public and private researc...
Cornerstone Garden Festival Selected Entry
The deep forest is nature’s supreme garden, sacred ground filled with the sights and sounds of life. Our native forests have been the sites of a 200-year-old clearing party whose hangover is still being felt. Very few of us have witnessed these sites to sense the magnitude of their destruction or their rebirth as represented by masses of seedlings, in a strugg...
Indianapolis City and County Building Plaza
SWA/Balsley, in collaboration with Ratio Architects, submitted this competition entry for the redesign of the Indianapolis City/County Building Plaza. We shared the competition committee’s vision of a world-class, 21st- century civic public space with the right ingredients to stand amongst the world’s best public spaces. The design concept builds upon the foun...