Amazing Spaces, Places & Escapes: Re-imagining Treehouses
It’s easy to forget how spoiled we are by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, with its 1, 200 acres of manicured gardens, woods, and prairies, and 12.5 miles of walkable trails and paths. USA Today gave us all a collective nudge this spring by naming our arb the best botanical garden in the country.
If the prospect of thousands of tulips or the lovely Peony Walk or the Gala Garden Party June 22 doesn’t lure you to Chaska, how about tree houses? The arb’s summer-long exhibit, Amazing Spaces, Places and Escapes: Re-imagining Treehouses, opens May 27. Designed by local artists, architects, builders, and hobbyists, the structures will be installed throughout the Three-Mile Drive.
These 12 flights of fancy won’t be straight up childhood tree houses. Expect whimsy, imaginative interpretations, pieces that are upside down, under the ground, and wildly experiential, says the arb. For example, one is Arthur J.E. Wren, a gigantic birdhouse created by Simon Sutherland that was part of the Art Shanty project. You can see a wood-burning stove where Mr. Wren makes his tea, a thatched ceiling, and his yellow décor. It’s likely to bring a smile—that’s the point of this magical exhibit, running through Oct. 1.