Tree Topper

Monday's cloudless blue sky, paired with the abundant spring greenery at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, provided a picturesque backdrop for a drop of another kind. At 11 a.m., a construction crane raised a 2800-pound turret-shaped thatched roof and carefully dropped it onto the garden's current work-in-progress, the Children's Garden Tree House.

The Tree House, when it is finished in September, will be the first universally accessible tree house in a botanical garden anywhere in the world. A key component of the new Children's Garden, which will open over the September 24-25 weekend, the Tree House is the end note of a 600-foot gently sloping wooden ramp, which allows everyone – even those who are wheelchair bound – to enjoy the building's rustic charm.

And charming it is, even bound by the unsightly confines of construction scaffolding. The central round building is 22 feet in diameter (big enough to hold 40 children), with a pitched roof held up by numerous wooden beams that look deliberately artistic.

"Oh, it's not just pretty," said Jay Cook, the superintendent of the project for Kjellstrom & Lee Construction, which also built the garden's Conservatory. "It's completely functional."

The side turret tower, which, on the inside, is simply part of the Tree House's open space, has a tall ceiling and long windows, allowing for a wider view of the nature outside. The materials used to construct the building are "green" products, environmentally-friendly materials that are durable and safe for children’s play areas. In accordance with the safety-first approach to the entire Children's Garden, the Tree House will be free of dangerous resins that are secreted from wood products. In other words, parents won't have to worry about splinters, sticky hands or toxins.

Standing in one of the open windows, which will soon be crisscrossed with lattices to ensure safety, one can look out on immaculate views of the garden's Conservatory, the blue-green lake dotted with gliding Canadian geese or the rest of the 1.5-acre Children's Garden. The leafy tree branches poking through several of the window frames – and the view from 13 feet above ground – provide the structure with a bonafide tree house feel.

"You really feel like you're in nature" was a phrase heard repeatedly from observers on Monday.

The Tree House was designed by Forever Young Treehouses, a nonprofit organization that aims to build all-access tree houses in every state by 2008. The organization has already erected eight distinctly different tree houses, including one at Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall camp, and the Lewis Ginter Tree House will be the first in Virginia and the first in a public garden.

While the universally accessible Children's Garden and Tree House will allow for more interaction between children of all abilities, Frank Robinson, executive director of the botanical garden, sees the appeal reaching even wider.

"It's not only about kids," Robinson said. "There are adults who have dreams that we don’t even know about."

Kelly Hickok, who has who has used a wheelchair for most of her 44 years, is one such dreamer. After spending her developmental years reading magazines in the library while other schoolchildren enjoyed recess on the playground, Hickok is thrilled with the prospect of an all-access facility.

"I think it's really exciting that it's inclusive," she said. "It creates a place where all children can play together. It's wonderful when children without disabilities can interact and socialize with children of different abilities."

"I also told my boss that if she ever can't find me, she better check the tree house," Hickok added, laughing.

The Tree House was funded in part by a $5000 Quality of Life grant from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF), which awards grants to programs or projects that improve the daily lives of people living with paralysis, particularly spinal cord injuries. The grant also helped fund the sloping adventure walk and a Leafy Overlook, which provides a rest stop along the trail.

In addition to the Tree House and the winding trail, the Children's Garden will include two international villages, featuring crops and structures that would be found in West Africa, Latin America and Asian communities; a water play area; a deciduous forest; a garden that will be tended to by visiting children and many more themed areas.

An initiative of the garden's $41 million capital campaign, which ended in 2004, The Children's Garden project has been a dream-in-progress for about a decade. The garden itself will cost $5 million, which includes operating costs and upkeep, of which half has been raised.

"This garden will be so much more interactive than the previous children's garden," said Beth Monroe, public relations manager for the garden. "In the past, it was more a place they could dig in the sand. That's just the tip of the iceberg with what we're doing now.

"It's all about the senses, being able to experience everything."

The revolutionary Tree House, now bearing a brand-new thatchted roof, will be just one way to allow everyone, regardless of ability, to experience the "everything" of nature.