Acclaimed garden designer Piet Oudolf to speak about upcoming Belle Isle project

Belle Isle will become even more beautiful in the coming years, as a new garden is in the works by an internationally-acclaimed Dutch designer. Piet Oudolf—whose projects include No. 5 Culture Chanel in Paris; The High Line in New York; Lurie Garden, Millennium Park in Chicago; Serpentine Gallery in London, and the Venice Biennale—will be bringing his vision to our own island park.

The garden will be located near the Nancy Brown Peace Memorial Carillon and the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory. Oudolf chose the location on a visit earlier this year. The garden is scheduled to be planted in 2019. The community can learn more about the project at an upcoming screening and discussion with Oudolf.

The Detroit Institute of Arts (with support from The Garden Club of Michigan and Friends of Detroit Film Theatre) will host a screening of the documentary Five Seasons on January 4, with a discussion from Oudolf and filmmaker Thomas Piper. Tickets can be purchased here.

“For me, garden design isn’t just about plants, it is about emotion, atmosphere, a sense of contemplation. You try to move people with what you do. You look at this, and it goes deeper than what you see. It reminds you of something in the genes—nature, or the longing for nature,” says Oudolf.

Check out a preview of the documentary below. We’ll bring you more about the project in the new year.