Located in a suburban part of the city, the Dallas Arboretum serves an increasingly important role as an educational provider for the schoolchildren of the city and beyond. In furthering this mission, MKW was selected as part of a multi-disciplinary design team through a national search to design a new children’s garden. This garden is meant to immerse visitors in nature, by combining plants, emotion, fun, information and scientific content. The site features a dramatic change in topography and is well-covered with vegetation. The site design concept establishes a serpentine walkway that gently traverses the slope downhill, along which various garden learning rooms are situated. These rooms vary in size and character depending on their intended grade level. An earth-sheltered Discovery Building is tucked into the site halfway down the slope: its roof contains planted and paved areas, accessible to the wetlands at the lowest portion of the site by a “skywalk”. A continuous low-key water feature visually connects distinct areas of the site as it flows: its relatively small scale imparts the idea of water being a precious commodity in this climate. Other areas of the site are intentionally left undeveloped to provide space for children to run, hide and engage with nature on their own terms.