A $1 million treehouse designed by a Fayetteville architecture firm is planned to provide an interactive educational experience for children who visit Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs.
The firm, Modus Studio, has outlined plans for the treehouse that it says will focus on the study of trees and wooded plants by placing it in an environment on the Ouachita Mountain hillside.
Becca Ohman, gardens director at Garvan Woodland Gardens, said the project adds another dimension to the botanical gardens' current offerings.
"Evans Children's Adventure Garden was imagined to be a place for children to experience nature and to test their limits and to freely walk away inspired from their visit," Ohman said. "The treehouse is an extension of that concept."
Nestled among pine and oak trees in the garden named after one of the project's donors, the structure will "float," "bending easily" between the trees, according to plans.
Part of the idea is that children will be able to better understand the parts of a tree, including the crown, or top portion, and root system.
Up to 40 visitors at a time will able to fit inside the treehouse, Ohman said, adding that school groups will be invited to the treehouse once the project is completed.
She said the structure of the treehouse will consist of steel clad in wood. The exact type of wood has not been selected, though Ohman said it will be a choice that ages well and requires little maintenance.
Josh Siebert, partner and lead designer with Modus Studio, said the design is "ever-changing" and much of the specifics have not been set at this time.
Hot Springs resident Sunny Evans and her late husband, Bob, contributed $500,000 of a previous estate gift toward the project in October, according to the University of Arkansas, which owns the property.
The remaining $500,000 would come from a variety of donors, including the Tree House Gang, a group of volunteers raising money toward the treehouse. More than $100,000 has been received so far from other donors, Ohman said.
Ohman said planners hope to get the project off the ground by late 2016, depending on how quickly they are able to raise the remaining funds necessary.
Garvan Woodland Gardens, a 210-acre entity of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, was donated to the university's Fay Jones School of Architecture in 1985.
