Press Release

A LANDMARK VISITOR CENTRE FOR SAVILL GARDEN

25 May 2004

The Crown Estate is about to embark upon the construction of a new architectural landmark for its entrance to the Savill Garden, which is situated on the edge of Windsor Great Park. The Savill Garden is recognised as one of the finest public gardens in the UK today. With its associated facilities it hosts nearly 200,000 visitors annually.

The major attraction of the new 2,000 square metre building will be the dramatic curved timber roof structure, which once completed, will be the largest gridshell roof constructed in the UK. For the first time all the Garden’s visitor facilities will be brought together under one roof in one exciting space.

Commenting on the new project, Ian Grant, Chairman of The Crown Estate said: “From the outset the new building has been designed to blend in with its surroundings and will provide visitors with an enhanced visitor experience that also integrates with the garden landscape.

“It will be a very environmentally friendly building with a number of unusual, modern construction techniques used in its build. A specially mounted visitor viewing area is being created within the Garden for everyone to watch the project progress over the coming months. We are planning to have the building completed by the autumn of 2005.”

The impressive roof, measuring nearly 100 metres in length, comprises a four-layer, doubly-curved, inter-locking lath timber gridshell construction, complete with three domes. It will be formed using larch that will be shaped and jointed by specialist carpenters working to a unique computer-generated design. Lengths of English oak will then be used to clad the outer roof.

On the entrance side of the structure the service areas will be sensitively concealed by a green Sedum roof. The garden side will have an external terrace area, slightly elevated in relation to the garden and fully enclosed with a curved glazed wall to open up spectacular views across the landscape.

A number of other environmentally friendly construction techniques will be used in this project.

About The Savill Garden

The Savill Garden, covering 14 hectares, was developed, with Royal approval, from 1932 within a clear and well designed framework. With its sibling garden, The Valley Gardens (also situated in Windsor Great Park), it is widely regarded as the apogee of woodland gardening, a style of planting conceived in the British Isles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Within this framework successive generations of horticulturists have developed an enormously diverse collection of temperate plants, many derived from international plant collecting expeditions. In addition to the spring flowering plants in the woodlands the Garden also boasts huge herbaceous borders, extensive rose gardens, a contemporary Mediterranean garden and the recently completed Golden Jubilee Garden, created by the award-winning designer Barbara Hunt with plantings devised by Lyn Randall, Head of the Savill Garden.

In combination with the Valley Gardens, the Savill Garden is also the custodian of eight National Collections® under the aegis of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. Within the National Collections® scheme rare plants are maintained for the future as a safeguard against their loss.

One of the overall strategic objectives is to maintain and develop the Garden in terms of not only its internationally important plant collections, but through continued care and maintenance of the indigenous woodland trees within the Garden. In this way The Crown Estate can meet its obligations under The Crown Estate Act to conserve the special character of Windsor Great Park. Finally, garden managers ensure that their duty of care to visitors is met by creating a safe and accessible environment for all. Accessibility has been a key consideration in the development of both the visitor centre and its attendant landscape.