Charlottesville’s eight-block pedestrian Mall was designed by the renowned landscape architecture firm Lawrence Halprin & Associates in 1976. The alternating bosques of willow oaks along the Mall’s central axis are central to the design, and create a meandering walk and a sequence of landscape “rooms.”

Over the last 50 years, the structure, shade, and sense of enclosure the trees provide have been directly correlated with the Mall’s increased activity and commercial success. Faced with declining canopy and vacancies adjacent to where tree removals have occurred, the city commissioned Wolf Josey to develop a plan for replacing the trees.

Wolf Josey led a comprehensive planning process that went beyond the mandate of the tree study to examine the trees individually and as an inseparable part of the historic landscape. With all inquiry rooted in a thorough reading of the historic landscape, the plan studies how maintenance practices, accessibility requirements, and current uses have impacted the integrity of Halprin’s landscape. By developing hybrid methods for studying the tree’s ecological health, experiential qualities, and social meaning, the resulting plan addresses contemporary challenges within the language and spirit of the Halprin design.