Boston’s Prudential Center has been transformed in recent decades with the construction of new buildings, shopping arcades, and landscapes.

The most recent addition, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, includes a public garden built in 2008 on the roof of a 1964 parking garage.

The half-acre garden stands in deliberate contrast to the buildings around it. Its native stone walls, reused brick pavement, and lush plantings give shoppers and hotel guests a chance to step outdoors and experience a taste of the New England landscape beyond the city.

The garden’s plantings are predominantly New England natives, but include non-native plants that are characteristic of New England gardens.

The success of the plantings reflects careful attention to soils and drainage. Custom-designed soils vary in depth from nine inches in lawn areas to nearly three feet around trees.

To reduce loads on the existing structure, the soil rests on lightweight fills that include expanded shale and, in especially sensitive areas, stacked foam insulation panels.

The garden’s native trees and shrubs include Red Maple (Acer rubrum), Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea), American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis), Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus), Yellowwood (Cladrastis lutea), Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia), Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina), Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia), Sweetgum (Liquidambar styriciflua), Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica),Roseshell Azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum), Rosebay Rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum), and Sassafras (Sassafras albidum). The planting of Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) in the hotel’s Boylston Street sidewalk marks the first use of this rugged native as a street tree in downtown Boston.

By Tobias Wolf

Source: http://www.ecolandscaping.org