The heritage garden is one of the newest projects of the Glendale Community Services and Parks, said Julie Shermer, a board member of Glendale Beautiful and Beautification Awards chairwoman.
“And it is something special because there was a Craftsman-style bungalow on the property, and usually they take the structures off the property completely, and what they did was preserve and restore that historic Craftsman bungalow. And planted beautiful landscaping around it.”
Layla Bettar, a city of Glendale architect with the parks department, was the project manager for the Glendale Heritage Garden. She managed the project from inception to completion, which included going to community meetings and gathering feedback that was presented to the City Council, historical commission and parks commission. She also supervised construction.
The project involved renovating the 1913 Craftsman-style bungalow and updating the landscape, she said.
Bettar worked with Melinda Taylor and Associates, who specializes in garden design and created the gardens on the rooftop of the Disney Concert Hall.
“It’s beautiful. It’s unique,” Bettar said. “It’s designed as a garden, not as a park. And it’s a Craftsman garden, which historically had an orchard garden with fruit and avocado trees.”
The Craftsman movement was connected to nature and natural materials, and that’s what consultants have created here, she said.
The garden is eco-friendly, Bettar said, and features a meandering natural path made of decomposed granite. The plants are California native and drought-tolerant.
There are natural wood benches and tables of Ipe, a hard wood that resists carving, Bettar said.
