Temple Beth Shalom

In collaboration with Andersson Wise Architects, Co’Design is developing a landscape master plan for Temple Beth Shalom. The existing landscape is a beautiful fragment of the Edwards Plateau region. Dominated by large groupings of Live Oak trees, Cedar Elms and a mixture of understory species, the landscape has a “wild” quality within a predominantly suburban setting. The proposed landscape concept takes advantage of the unique character of the site by maintaining and augmenting the existing Live Oak stands at the site edges and highlighting the large specimen trees in the interior. On a symbolic level, the design creates a dichotomy of landscape types contrasting the interior sacred courtyard space with profane space at the perimeter of the site. Like the Temple of Jerusalem, garden spaces within the walled interior of the Temple are holy spaces--places of refuge, retreat and regeneration. By contrast the landscape outside of the walls is more reflective of wild and untamed nature and symbolic of human struggle in a sinful world.