View another sacred space location: Washington, DC Metro • American Psychological Association • ARC of Prince George's County, The • Crispus Attucks Development Corporation • Frederick Douglass Gardens, Inc. • Green Spaces for DC-9/11 Memorial Groves • National Park Foundation-Georgetown Waterfront Park • Providence Hospital • St. Luke's Episcopal Church • St. Philip the Evangelist Episcopal Church-Anacostia Community Park • St. Anthony’s of Padua Catholic Church-Falls Church • University of Maryland, College Park • Washington Parks & People-Marvin Gaye Park • Whitman Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia Baltimore Metro • Amazing Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church • American Visionary Art Museum • Baltimore Clayworks • Bon Secours Spiritual Center • Children’s Peace Center, Inc., The • Franklin Square Hospital Center • Friends of Patterson Park • Govans Presbyterian Church • Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center • Kids on the Hill, Inc. • League for People with Disabilities, Inc., The • Marian House • Metropolitan Transition Center • Mount Washington Preservation Trust, Inc.-Mt. Washington Arboretum • Newborn Holistic Ministries, Inc. • Seton Hill Neighborhood Association, Inc. • Northeast Interfaith Peace Garden • St. James Episcopal Church of Irvington • St. Paul’s School • Stadium Place-Thanksgiving Place Labyrinth • UMBC-Joseph Beuys Project • UMMS-Kernan Hospital • Western Correctional Institution Annapolis • Annapolis Maritime Museum • Anne Arundel Medical Center • ARC of Anne Arundel County, The • Arundel Community Development Services, Inc.-Wiley H. Bates Memorial Courtyard • Baltimore Washington Medical Center • Chesapeake Bay Foundation • Annapolis Waterworks Park • Leon Wolfe Park • Maritime Republic of Eastport- Jeremy’s Way Street End Park • Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts Other • Central Park Conservancy-New York City, NY • University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Washington Parks & People-Meridian Hill Gathering Place

Type/Features

Community Park

Address

Washington Parks & People: Josephine Butler Parks Center
2437 - 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20009
http://www.washingtonparks.net/

Contact

Steve Coleman
info@washingtonparks.net

Meridian Hill, an ancient Native American spiritual ground and site of America’s first national park for the performing arts, has been dramatically reclaimed from crime and violence by its Washington, DC community.  The Josephine Butler Parks Center sits on top of Meridian Hill and is Washington’s ‘greenhouse’ for celebrating and advancing once forgotten green spaces all over the capital and beyond.   Paradoxically, little about the Parks Center’s landscape suggests the sacredness and multicultural welcome that its land atop Meridian Hill has extended for millenia.  Though thousands of visitors to the Parks Center learn the award-winning green space revitalization principles of Washington Parks & People, they lack sufficient opportunities on site to see, feel, and be part of this powerful reconnection with the land and all life.

Now Parks & People is transforming its headquarters into a model sacred open space that can unite and inspire all people and at the same time provide a visitor center and story-gathering place for Meridian Hill.  This lasting healing and learning space is designed to demonstrate the tremendous power of the land to help meet the most urgent needs of communities.  The new site will have multiple gathering and learning places, peaceful healing and learning gardens, model natural stormwater diversion, native habitat, public art, and a contemplative space.

Through this revitalization, the Parks Center will serve not only as an inspirational and sacred space for communities and visitors but also as a resource center and living museum for parks, greening movement leaders and supporters from around the world.

Designer

Ian Tyndall, Washington Parks & People