Tree House at Pease Park
Photography: Casey Dunn, Leonid Furmansky
Project Team: Mell Lawrence & Clare van Montfrans
Project Description:
As part of the redesign of Kingsbury Commons led by Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, the Tree House offers Pease Park visitors an immersive experience of the tree canopy, creating a place for both rambunctious play and quiet reflection for people of all ages and abilities.
Accessed by a pathway tucked into the hillside, the structure emerges from the forest along the main trail through the park. On the upper level, a large net invites visitors to pause and look up at the surrounding flora and fauna. Below, stone blocks and landscaping loosely define a gathering space under the net. On the hillside, a series of ramps and a steel bridge provide a fully accessible path between the two levels.
The Tree House is open to the elements and engages all the senses - the sun provides warmth in the winter, leaves offer shade in the summer, the wind blows through. It carves out an elevated, occupiable void in the forest - as the canopy densifies over the years, the space will be defined more by the surrounding trees than the structure itself. A vertical lattice of rebar forms a reed-like enclosure, participating in the shadow play of the forest.