Groundbreaking for Island Garden In Long Key Natural Area on August 10, 2006


9/10/2006 8:45:19 AM


BROWARD COUNTY, FL – Broward County Commission’s Cultural Division welcomes back Seattle-based, public artist Lorna Jordan in a groundbreaking ceremony, for a project with deep roots in Long Key Natural Area’s ecological and environmental history. The ceremony will be held on August 10, 2006, 10:00 am at the Long Key Natural Area, 3501 S.W. 130th Avenue in Davie.

Island Garden, the artwork selected for Long Key Natural Area, is yet another spoke in the wheel that is the thirty-year vision, Theater of Regeneration. The 2000 Broward County Safe Parks and Land Preservation Bond Referendum yielded an award-winning design concept by public artist Lorna Jordan that promises to link Broward County Parks. Long Key Natural Area is one of two projects selected for implementation in a two-year plan; Central Broward Regional Park is the other.

Public artist Lorna Jordan designed a broad range of elements in the Long Key Natural Area site, such as pavilions, bridges, gathering spaces, towers, pathways, art elements around the site, gardens and water features. Approximately 120 ft. long by 88 ft. wide, Island Garden’s visual interpretation is reminiscent of patterns in nature such as spirals, branches and partitions. Pathways contain mosaic that reference sedimentary layers of sand dunes, coral, shells, fish, and skeletons that have created the aquifer’s layers of limestone, sand and sandstone. Pools and planters contribute to a fertile environment that reveals the interaction between water and plants in defining geology. Benches and trellis systems give visitors a place to contemplate and to experience shade and the coolness of water.

‘Island Garden’ Site Plan

Environmental artist Jordan and her design team were chosen from a highly competitive group of 50 artists’ teams to create a Master Plan for parks and natural areas in Broward County. Jordan is concerned with the artistic expression of contemporary places. With a particular focus on watersheds, she explores the relationships between our natural infrastructure of creeks, rivers, wetlands, ponds and estuaries and our urban infrastructure.

Jordan received a B.A. from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and has led teams for several award-winning projects of similar budget and scope, including the design team for Waterworks Gardens in Renton, Washington, which was honored with a Place Design Award from Places Journal and the Environmental Design Research Association. Most recently, the Broward County Safe Parks and Land Preservation Bond Program’s Public Art Master Plan, Theater of Regeneration was honored with an EDRA/Places 2004 planning award.

For further information contact Grace Kewl-Durfey, public art and design project manager at 954-357-7869 or e-mail: gkewl@broward.org.


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