Garden of the Seasons is located on a main pathway at the central quad next to the new college library. A granite bench along the pathway serves as a boundary to the garden. The Garden of the Seasons engages students with sound, light, vision, touch, smell and mood. It is a semi-sheltered quiet place to enjoy the air and light of Vermont, socialize, meet a friend, read, and view the landscape of the quad in all seasons. At the threshold a warm season water wall transforms to a winter ice wall. The Winter Ice Wall highlights the multi season aspect of the garden. Depending on temperature, slowly forming and deforming vertical ice structures grow and melt on a pattern of steel and aluminum lattice. The Summer Water Screen incorporates the sound of water in the warm months, dampening ambient sound in the garden and inviting a relaxed mood.

The garden entry opens to a flat semi-circular small plaza of pre-cast pavers and a curving granite bench with views to distant mountains. A sunken garden "chamber" set at different elevations functions as a gravitational natural storm water runoff treatment system embedded as a constructed filter under the plantings. All the plantings of the garden were selected from a list of indigenous ground covers, flowering plants, shrubs, and vines. Many of the plants have winterberries and summer blooms that provide habitat for birds and butterflies.

Artist / Designer: Michael Singer
Project Management: David Loomis
Fabrication and Installation: David Loomis, Jim Winters, Paul Eliot, and Eric Slayton
Design and Drafting: John Guminak
Landscape Architect: Carol Johnson and Associates

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