Invitation to Reimagine Lower Estate Gardens: Exploring Options
Options will be reviewed early this fall semester before a recommendation is developed for the Board of Trustees meeting in October.
After a successful community submission process, the College engaged with the Portland office of MIG, a firm that describes themselves as a “community of designers, planners, engineers, scientists and storytellers engaging, involving, and acting with people in creative problem solving.” We are lucky to be working with a team including Lewis & Clark CAS class of ’92 alum Laurie Mathews, MIG director of preservation planning and design, who specializes in historical landscape architecture. Laurie’s mix of expertise and experience with the College are an excellent fit to help us reimagine this key campus asset.
The MIG team utilized the three selected community submissions for inspiration and developed plan options that incorporated common themes heard through the community submission process. These options will be reviewed in early fall semester 2024 with the submitting teams and Executive Council for feedback before a recommendation is developed for the Buildings and Grounds Committee of the Board of Trustees.
Concurrently, the Facilities team coordinated preliminary work over the summer to prepare the Lower Estate Garden site for further reimagining. Retaining walls were rebuilt to ensure stability into the future and the outdoor pool was filled in, while maintaining the historical footprint, to prepare a blank slate for the next phase of development. This work will be completed by September 13, when the fence will be removed, and access to the area restored. We look forward to providing future updates and thank the LC community for their engagement during this process.
