Institutional Grounds

The surroundings of a building or complex of buildings housing medical, educational, religious/spiritual, cultural, industrial, governmental, or military organizations or communities. These sites can be public or private, residential or non- residential, with these distinctions influencing the design of the landscape. The grounds can be suburban or rural with extensive campus-type arrangements, or they can be small spaces around urban entities; they can be arranged to accommodate the architectural style of the buildings according to formal principles or designed along more Picturesque lines, leaving more of the area as natural scenery. In some cases, institutional grounds span several centuries and capture within their structures and forms the stylistic changes of multiple eras.