Landscape Information
Covering one-third of an acre in a commercial park east of Cleveland, this healing garden designed by landscape architect Virginia Burt and MKSK in 2004 adjoins the east building of cancer support center, The Gathering Place (TGP). Originally a vacant lot, Burt transformed the space into a contemplative, verdant retreat for cancer patients and their families.
The garden is accessed via a paved terrace at the rear of the East building or from the adjacent parking lot via two separate labyrinth-inspired gates. At the garden’s western gate, the Walk of Friends, evergreen shrubs and a wisteria-covered steel arcade and fence adorned with donors’ names enclose a paved walkway leading to a gate made of concentric circles. Visitors emerge from the arcade into an intimate garden space anchored by a rectangular lawn with a pavilion to its east and a paved, tree-lined terrace with moveable tables and chairs to its west. A densely vegetated curvilinear paved walkway surrounds the lawn, passing through various garden rooms furnished with boulders, statuary, reclaimed stonework, water features, and benches. Designed to stimulate the senses, aromatic, edible, and uniquely textured plant species are found throughout while deciduous, coniferous, and broadleaf evergreen trees and shrubs provide shade and screening. Sloping upward at its southern edge, the site’s varied topography is negotiated by stacked-limestone walls and a naturalistic waterfall descending from a knoll named the Sacred Mount in the southeast corner. The garden was named for Norma Siegler, who, with her husband Ernie, was one of the founding donors of TGP.
