GENERAL DESIGN AWARD OF HONOR Ben Gurion International Airport, Lod, Israel Shlomo Aronson Architects, Jerusalem, Israel

	"Of the place . . . reconceives pedestrian environment of the airport . . . takes regional landscape types and expresses them beautifully." — 2005 Professional Awards Jury Comments

Israel has one main international airport, the gate for most international air travelers. Designing this entrance to Israel is also designing the gate to the Holy Land, a place of great meaning for three major religions. This presented the opportunity to create a language of style which is typical of this region without using themes or symbols which might be off-putting to anyone. We wanted this landscape garden to feel welcoming for all people coming into Israel, whether they are coming as citizens, pilgrims, tourists, or business people.

The landscape area of the airport is divided into a large site of 65 acres which includes the interchange and approach roads, and the courtyard-like central garden (5 acres), bounded on one end by the main entrance way and on opposing sides by the two large parking structures.

Shlomo Aronson Architects' overall approach to the airport landscape design was to relate strongly to the agricultural landscape of the surroundings: the traditional citrus groves and agricultural fields. This was done by planting new citrus groves on a massive scale (4,500 grapefruit and orange trees). The trees are planted, as in a commercial orange grove, in rows on a grid without groundcover, and plowed once a year. Hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of soil were moved to sculpt the gentle slopes between adjacent roads and ramps, creating continuous ground surfaces in spite of the complex topography of the road system. It was imperative to create a low maintenance landscape for such a large planting as well as low water consumption for most of the area. The citrus groves are let to surrounding farmers who maintain the groves in exchange for the fruit. Drought-resistant bushes were used on slopes which were too steep to be planted with citrus groves.

The central garden is an abstraction of the natural region with its particular topography and its man-made agricultural development, graphically presented to the view of the passers-by. The design is a clear summary of the physical characteristics of the iconographic landscape from the coastal plain around Tel Aviv up to the mountains of Jerusalem. Just as in the real landscape, the garden begins with the sea, followed by palm and citrus groves, past agricultural fields, and up to the olive groves and cypresses of the Judean Hills. As the newcomer leaves the airport, he might well travel immediately through the real landscape as it is represented in the airport garden.

The central garden area was tilted down toward the terminal, divided in terraces rising to the back to a total height of 5 meters, and cut sharply at the edges to emphasize the abstract quality of this discrete landscape piece. The various landscape units representing the ascent from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem are presented in a formal and minimalist way as monochrome abstractions of the plant material or ground conditions typical of each landscape zone. As the garden is viewed from different directions and eye levels, the passer-by collects picture-book-like images of the abstracted landscape.

Water was used in a traditional Mediterranean way, running in narrow channels with short falls. Local limestone was used both in the paving and the walls, using different dressing types for specific effects. At the base of the central garden, stainless steel was used to evoke the feeling of waves hitting the beach.

For ages the ascent to Jerusalem has been a treasured way. By incorporating this experience into the garden it is hoped that the traveler will have a deepened feeling for this place wherever he may go.

The Forestry Commission will provide early-stage management assistance with thinning, white-tail deer and other nuisance species control, nutrient, and irrigation programs. In addition to construction of all ground surfaces (Summer 2005), Pulaski County and the City of Little Rock public works staffs will partner to plant and maintain the formal allées with mature trees (Fall 2005 and Spring 2006). The Garden of Trees will be an important social anchor and rest stop along the county’s 31-mile bicycle trail, and a catalyst for the extension of its arboreal patterns throughout the river valley recreation corridor.

The Pulaski County administration is assembling an independent 501(c)3, or non-profit, organization—Friends of the Garden of Trees—to sponsor and administer the Garden once the first phase of planting and construction is completed. Such organizations allow visionary projects developed within local government administrations to persist beyond a founding personality regardless of future governing administrations. Discussions are under way with the State’s flagship University to establish a horticultural development and learning lab, sharing project stewardship with Friends of the Garden of Trees. Donors are currently being solicited for funding of various Garden Rooms and trails.