Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends A Landscape of Remembrance and Reflection | Page 9

sweet auburn | 2020 volume i
Beginning the Landscape Design
Landscapes are tethered to the particulars of site, bearing
interesting prospects and challenging truths. The past is
bound to the present, so understanding existing conditions
is critical to finding a solution that will endure the test of
time. The Hazel Path project begins at the bottom of Myrtle
Path, makes a sharp turn where it intersects with existing
Hazel Path, passes through the Cemetery’s historic center
(where Lots 1 to 4, the first gravesites sold, are situated),
and ends at the edges of Mountain Avenue, the cemetery’s
highest spot, where Washington Tower rises 100 feet above
the main entrance. As found, Hazel Path was a stiff climb,
but the payoff was a spectacular view of Harvard University’s
spires and domes set among billowy trees, all backed by the
crisp skyline of downtown Boston. At twenty feet high, the
two Fuller obelisks of Lot 1 Hazel Path grandly framed the
view but felt intimidating. The topography was dizzying,
dropping straight down and rising sharply uphill on either
side, hindering important connections and potentially
harboring a threat of slope instability. The “woodland” already
partially existed below a soft canopy of Oak, Maple, and Elm,
intermingled at its edges with the trees of the Dell. Along
Myrtle Path, a hillside of ‘Gro-low’ Sumac, added for slope
stabilization, did little for horticultural character. The most
important discovery on-site was the remnants of an original
Hazel Path, confirmed on historic maps. Long buried and
masked by Forsythia and Juniper, the path had once been
blended into the hillside and swung out and around at a more
comfortable slope. It was a reminder that Hazel Path was once
part of the larger composition.
The felt experience of a site is crucial but ephemeral; it
speaks to a landscape’s potential. Most of Mount Auburn is
wonderfully immersed in nature but as Hazel Path rises and
overlooks the surroundings, the big sky inverts the larger
experience of the Cemetery, replacing canopy with clouds and
sun. Light, wind, temperature, sound, and color are magnified
but there is also a hushed tranquility, occasionally disrupted
by the echo of people’s nearby voices as they spiral up inside
Washington Tower to reach the panoramic views. The mind
easily wanders in this place, prompted by something the
environmental psychologists Rachel and Steven Kaplan called
“soft fascinations” that draw on the endlessly interesting
complexity of nature. Their research established the idea that
exposure to nature gives people a mental break from daily
matters; this feeling contributes to a general sense of wellbeing
that allows them to return to their lives refreshed. We
felt that this kind of relief would be especially important in
a cemetery, so the idea of holding onto and enhancing that
effect became an important driver for our design.
7