2020 Honor Award
General Design
Peabody Essex Museum Garden
Salem, Massachusetts
Landscape Architect:
Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Project Team:
Ennead Architects
CMS Collaborative
Thornton
Tomasetti
Pine and Swallow Enivronmental
Northern Design
Rico Associates

About the Project:
The Peabody Essex Museum Garden celebrates the spirit of curiosity and discovery of its origins and the character of its collection – dynamic works across cultures, eras, and genres.
Situated at the terminus of the gallery atrium, the garden provides a moment of calm reflection. A fundamental design goal was to create a sense of the unexpected and a moment of respite from the museum interior, emphasizing sensorial rather than cognitive experience using the sound of flowing water, movement of the plants, and variety in material textures.
Distinct garden rooms – a Native garden, an Asiatic garden, and a Hybrid Convergence garden -speak to diversity between cultures and exchange of knowledge and cross-pollination at the heart of the museum.
Images by: Dan Fionte, Bob Packert