California Nursery Company: Museum & Archives, 2008
Size: 5,000 s.f. Building and Site Master Planning
Location: Niles, California
This pro bono work was provided to the California Nursery Company Legacy Council, an organization dedicated to preserving the heritage of the Nursery (1884 to 1972). The once magnificent 500 acre nursery met its demise in 1972 through a sequence of aggressive land acquisitions. During this period, countless company documents were taken, and even more were willfully destroyed. Only a small portion of the growing grounds remains, as an historic park owned by the city. Despite numerous requests to occupy the historic nursery offices and convert them into a legacy museum, the city continues to keep the building unoccupied due to building code issues.
To resolve this dilemma, this design of a new facility is located on the private property of the original owners of the nursery, the Roeding family. Built at the edge of the historic growing grounds, the facility includes museum, lecture, office and archive spaces.
