Celebrating a Frank Lloyd Wright Landscape

by Heather Prince

Monona Terrace Community and Convention

Center graces the edge of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin with its elegant Frank Lloyd Wright design of repeating arches and circles. First designed by Wright in 1938, he re-worked the design several times before signing off on final plans in 1959. After many years of debate, the center opened its doors in 1997, becoming a cultural touchstone as it links the waters of the lake to the Capitol Building. It typically hosts about 500 to 600 public and private events per year.

Incorporated into the facility are extensive rooftop gardens, planting beds at ground level, and a floating terrace tucked along the windowed façade. Tony Gomez-Phillips, the Facility and Landscape Maintenance Horticulturalist, presented at iLandscape on how he has worked toward redesigning and updating the planting areas with the goal of increasing ecology and sustainability. A LEED Platinum building, one of the ways points were achieved was by thoughtfully adapting the more than 6,800 square feet of garden beds towards a naturalistic approach.

The Wright Way

Working at a historic building with high visitor use and a mandate to host the community, Gomez-Phillips was inspired to come up with a personal motto. “I try to stick to ‘Do Right by Wright’ as I design areas and choose plants. I confess to talking to him in my head,” chuckled Gomez-Phillips.

Seven years ago, when Gomez-Phillips was hired, the garden beds were planted in a mix of traditional perennials, trees, shrubs, and thousands upon thousands of annual flowers. As he approached redeveloping these spaces, GomezPhillips researched other Wright-designed structures and the landscapes that accompanied them. He found Derek Fell had developed valuable insights to Wright’s garden aesthetics including prioritizing native plants, using plants for their texture and form more than flower color, keeping naturalistic forms in trees and shrubs, and cultivating vistas in the landscape, especially those with water.

One of the significant challenges of working with a Wright building is his tendency to prioritize art over practical building maintenance logistics. “Monona Terrace was