Cultivating the Garden

Collaborating with members of the Peace Garden Project, including Bay Area designer Christopher Ratcliff, Catalano continued to develop his design for the National Peace Garden at a more human scale. Functional and aesthetic refinements determined spatiality, scale, and materiality.

The mounded form of the land allowed views of the garden and the rivers while hiding the busy path along the sea wall. In addition to seating areas shaped like the four-petaled flowers of olive trees located between the "branches" of the design, benches along the promenades created resting areas under groupings of shade trees. 16-inch granite curbes inscribed with quotes about peace would define the edges of pathways and seating areas.

The Peace Gate (see next panel) made of metal latticework, would serve as the entry point and main gathering area of the garden. Catalano went through many iterations of the gate, finally settling on a pattern that mimicked the four petals of an olive tree flower.