Relocating the gardens will be a massive undertaking, with crews planning to relocate granite pagodas and stone sculptures and transplant some plants.
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The city of Olympia will close and relocate its Japanese Garden, which has been home to the Justice Center for 35 years.
Yatsushiro Japanese Garden will be closed on June 1st.
Last year, the city sold the Justice Center property to the Squashein Island Tribe. The building is old and dilapidated, and the city says it would need to spend tens of millions of dollars to renovate, relocate or rebuild a new justice center.
The tribe agreed to pay $8.2 million to purchase the 10.7-acre campus and plans to build a hotel on the site.
Relocating a Japanese garden to a new location will be a daunting task. Crews will remove and store granite pagodas and stone sculptures, many of which were gifts from Olympia’s sister city, Kato, Japan.
Olympia Parks, Arts and Recreation staff are determining which plants are suitable for transplanting. The koi will be donated to the Thurston County Correctional Facility, which has a koi pond.
“We’re going to move as many plants as we can,” said Laura Keehan, director of park planning and maintenance for the city of Olympia. “We’re pruning the plants and trees and there will be a nice continuation between this garden and this space and any new sites.”
All park elements must be removed by the end of the year.
The city has not yet selected a site for the new garden. It expects to apply for landscape design status later this year and then select the site and design elements through public participation.
The city allocated $350,000 from the sale of the Justice Center site to fund garden planning, design and preservation efforts.
According to the city, the new gardens are expected to open within 1.5 years.
Olympia’s Japanese Garden was originally built to commemorate its relationship with its sister city in Japan (then Yatsushiro City). Kato City was established in 2005 when Yatsushiro City merged with neighboring cities.
