“Make the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it,”  - Edward Bok

Opened in 1929,  the historic Bok Tower Gardens was commissioned  by renowned humanitarian and nature enthusiast, Edward Bok.  Designer, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., was given the mission  to provide a place of beauty and refuge from the modern world as well as a sanctuary for birds and other wildlife.

Building on a previously existing Master Plan, the project added a new Garden Entry, Pollinator Garden, Children’s Garden, Wildlife garden, and Kitchen garden. A primary accessible circuit path originating from the new central gathering lawn reestablished the original garden entry sequence as envisioned by Olmsted and connects the new gardens with the historic core.

In collaboration with Nelson Byrd Woltz, Mary Wolf led the concept design of the overall project and after forming her own practice, was responsible for the planting design of the new gardens and renovation of the historic gardens. Including pine forests, bogs, wetlands and prairies, the planting design for all of the gardens is based two distinct Florida ecologies, the native Sandhill and the inland Hammock.