ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS / TYPOGRAPHY / PUBLIC SPACE
Diversity Garden is a conceptual public garden designed for Greycourt State Park in Methuen, Massachusetts. The project explores how typography can shape a quiet, reflective landscape experience while expressing the cultural diversity of the Merrimack Valley. Typography is integrated throughout the landscape through engraved quotes and multilingual country names, creating a walkable experience centered on diversity, belonging, and place.
Concept Development
Early sketches explored how engraved quotes, country names, paths and seating could create a rhythm of walking, sitting, and reflection.
Typeface Studies
A selection of typefaces evaluated for legibility, character, and suitability for carved applications. Trajan Pro 3 was selected for its formal, carved qualities and modified to support multilingual elements within the system.
Typography in the Landscape
Engraved quotations around the garden + bilingual stepping stones showing country names in English and the language of origin.
Typography is integrated directly into stone, wood, and concrete throughout the garden. Engraved quotes create moments for reflection, while stepping stones identify countries of origin represented in the Merrimack Valley in both English and their native languages. The bilingual system emphasizes identity, presence, inclusion, and belonging.
Full-Scale Planning + Physical Type Testing
Site measurements and 1:1 mockups were used to test scale, spacing, legibility, and placement before translation into stone.
Garden Experience
The proposed garden is organized as a slow, walkable sequence of moments. Engraved quotes about diversity and belonging would appear throughout the landscape, inviting visitors to encounter typography through movement, pause, and reflection.