15 years up in the trees and "Out on a Limb"

Suspended 50 feet above the forest floor is Morris Arboretum’s tree canopy walk.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary this summer, “Out on a Limb” continues to invite visitors to stop, listen, learn, and see the environment with fresh eyes.

A landmark project for us, Out on a Limb offers a compelling exploration of our urban forest, deftly melding architecture and exhibit design.?

The urban forest is the real exhibit.

Out on a Limb is both a structure and a vast exhibit. Although it uses interpretive panels, the real exhibit consists of the surrounding trees, animals, sky, and the ground below.

Beginning at grade on the top of a hill, visitors emerge from a trellis of oversized oak hoops to meander through the urban forest, gently rising to five stories above the ground. The walkway passes through a pavilion reminiscent of a Japanese teahouse, perched upon 20-foot stilts.

A human-scaled bird's nest dangles from giant metal chopsticks as a suspension bridge and huge netted hammocks beckon visitors onward.

When we play with something, we learn to value it.

Out on a Limb examines characteristics of play, including?familiarity and novelty,?risk,?open-endedness,?social?engagement, and?time.

These principles inspired and informed our design, all with the purpose of encouraging families to play together.

As architects and designers we are often so focused on putting what we know into the spaces we design that we are sometimes surprised to discover how much they can teach us.?

The tree canopy walk project challenged our office to move beyond the learned and the expected. 15 years later, the lessons we learned have remained as inspiring, humbling, and unpredictable as the forest itself.

Take a (virtual) walk through the canopy with Alan Metcalfe: