“When we envision programs and reuse of spaces, we are designing how visitors interact with heritage, space, and time to understand the meaning of a site’s history.” “The public has yet to make the connection between preservation practice as design, but when we preserve these spaces, we also have to imagine cultural experiences for visitors to these historic sites,” says Leggs. Instead of working to frame a moment in time, design creatives are empowered to make bold choices that carefully respect the past while thoughtfully adapting the site for modern use. Leggs, Coltrane, and Woltz intend for their groundbreaking partnership-one that combines funding and advocacy from the National Trust with the cultural awareness mission of a nonprofit and the creativity of a top-tier design firm-to serve as a blueprint for the role design creatives can play in preserving Black cultural landmarks. The meditation garden celebrates the native forest ecology while providing unique spaces in which to discover moments of serenity. The path leads to a clearing with a meditation platform, where guests will learn about Alice’s commitment to mindfulness and meditation (and take a moment to meditate if they so choose), then continues to a gathering space for conversation and connection. The idea is that the visitor literally embodies the essence of the music, moving in the ratio and proportion of a jazz progression. Design is a way that we can reveal, reframe, explain, and engage people with the landscape.”įor the Coltrane home, Woltz and his team developed a landscape design concept inspired by the progressive chords from A Love Supreme, finding the ratio and proportions of the chords in the music and translating them into meditative paths that arch through the forest as a walking trail behind the home. “The memory of landscape is frequently erased or hidden…and I feel like our tool to tell the truth is design. “It's morally incumbent upon us as landscape architects to ask the land its story and then to tell that story in honest ways,” says Woltz. Nelson Byrd Woltz’s plan for the walking trail behind the Coltrane home. “We want this space to reflect both their musical contributions and their devotion to seeking fulfillment through spirituality, and we knew that had to be reflected in the landscape.”Įlevating the landscape as part of the cultural significance of the site meant an intentional design was necessary, so the Action Fund and Friends of the Coltrane Home tapped Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects to develop a plan for transforming the roughly six acres surrounding the home into a peaceful sanctuary intended for reflection inspired by the energy of the culture-shifting artists who once lived there. “When people think of John and Alice Coltrane, they not only think about the music but also about them as spiritual beings,” adds Coltrane.

“We wanted to focus not only on the home itself but both the landscape and the home as a cultural asset,” says Brent Leggs, executive director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, which awarded Friends of the Coltrane Home a grant in 2018. Courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

A rendering created by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects for the front garden.

Alice an landscape arch