Architecture & Nature #4: Lobby Plant Wall
The final post in our NatureAndArchitecture series explores nature as an organizing principle at the scale of a single wall.
The lush plant wall in the Lower Lobby at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art anchors a reimagined arrival space designed around clarity, comfort, and accessibility. Designed in close collaboration with Botanic Plant Co, the green wall is the museum's first installation of permanent indoor greenery. Its location was carefully selected: a sheltered nook that receives direct sunlight even one floor below the main lobby, creating the conditions for a living wall to thrive in an otherwise high-traffic environment. Custom millwork benches invite visitors to sit beneath the plants, fully immersed in the greenery, in a quiet moment set apart from the activity of the rest of the lower lobby. A small intervention with a significant effect on how visitors feel the moment they arrive.
Architecture & Nature #3: Museum Courtyard
At the scale of a museum campus, the relationship between art and nature is reflexive — there is art in the courtyard itself, and nature woven into the art within.
The reopened Foundations of American Art Gallery and redesigned Courtyard at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art bring art, architecture, and the Ozark landscape into dialogue as part of the museum's expanded vision. The courtyard extends the museum into nature through a curated landscape of native plantings, framed views, and meandering paths, designed for both discovery and reflection, and allowing nature to become an active part of the guest experience.
Architecture & Nature #2: Arvest at Ledger
Arvest at Ledger represents an opportunity to show what a workplace can be when biophilia shapes every decision from the start. Wellness and nature were built into the foundation of the design as the organizing principle behind how people move, work, and gather throughout the day.
Beyond an aesthetic choice, biophilic design is a workplace performance strategy. Spaces that integrate nature reduce stress, improve focus, and support the kind of sustained creativity that makes organizations more productive.
Architecture & Nature #1: Trailhead Welcome Center
In cities where nature is embedded in the culture, people expect the built environment to become an extension of the landscape. The Trailhead Welcome Center, created in collaboration with Rojkind Arquitectos, was designed with that understanding at its core, not as a facility that sits on the site, but as one that actively connects people to it.
The roof lifts at its corners to create light-filled gathering spaces below, while cyclists and pedestrians move across it to reach the trails. A single architectural gesture that makes the building a genuine part of the outdoor experience, blending adventure with hospitality.