Project Description
Project Name: San Agustin Mission Gardens
Member Firm: Coastal SAGE Landscape Architecture
Member Name: Joy Lyndes, Owner & Principal Landscape Architect
This Community Garden is a re-creation of the historic Mission Garden of the San Agustin Mission, dating from the 18th century and the settlement of Tucson, AZ. Initially envisioned as a portion of the Tucson Origins Heritage Park, a 25-acre cultural campus and community park. When funding was limited through the City and County, the Mission Gardens component moved forward to construction through the Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace, a community based non-profit established to implement the garden. Joy Lyndes, now Coastal SAGE Landscape Architecture Principal, lead the garden design. The garden consists of recreated historic wall and grounds, a mission-era garden, a native American garden, community gathering spaces and will soon have a community education buildings. Interpretive elements include trinchera fields used by the ancient Hohokam Indians, acequia ditches used by native Americans and European settlers flood irrigated basins, Kino Heritage Fruit Trees found through works by Jesús Manuel García Yánez at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum and heritage seeds from Native Seed Search. The design team of Joy Lyndes, David Yubeta and Mary Muszynski traveled to Magdalena de Kino, Mexico to meet with orchard-keepers and visit the mission gardens of Sonora to learn traditional historic planting, irrigation, pruning and care standards that were used in the creation of the garden. The Tucson Origins Heritage Park is located over portions of two landfills and the remainder of the site is considered a sensitive archaeological area. Through the design process, there were extensive workshops and public meetings involving the public at large as well as the project Advisory Team.
Project name: San Agustin Mission Gardens Re-creation
Location: Tucson Origins Heritage Park, Tucson, AZ
Owner: Pima County & the City of Tucson
architectural designer: BWS Architects
landscape architect: SAGE Landscape Architecture and Environmental
