Nasher Haemisegger Sculpture Garden
Nasher Haemisegger Family Sculpture Garden
Durham, NC
The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Sculpture Garden (anticipated completion 2024) is a dramatic and generous new landscape within the heart of the historic Duke University campus—the “University in the Forest.” The Sculpture Garden recontextualizes the existing museum into a holistically transformed and welcoming site for people and the arts.
By using views to the exterior and multiple building entrances as orienting devices, providing 270-degree access around the museum, incorporating universal access and choices throughout the spectacular piedmont forest, and applying a unifying approach to landform, the design creates an immersive experience adding up to more than its nine-acre size.
The landscape design provides specific rooms for art, but also durable spaces for open-ended events, speculative future installations, and performance. This variety provides the curatorial team with designated outdoor spaces in which to grow the permanent collection; a heightened landscape in which to engage artists for special commissions; and robust plazas, lawns, infrastructure and woodlands unifying the site.
Working closely with the team at the Nasher, Unknown Studio has developed landscape settings for specially commissioned pieces including Vessel by Radcliffe Bailey (2017), Mama Ray by Wangechi Mutu (2021), and the opening performance piece Composition 21 by Naama Tsabar (2019) on the main plaza.
Project timeline: 2019 -
Client: Duke University
Scope: Full Design Services
Project Type: Campus | Park | Urban | Culture | Garden
Size: 9 Acres
Partners: McAdams Civil Engineering, Newcomb & Boyd LLP, LHC Structural Engineering
