Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tree Adventure featured on NBC's 'The 10! Show'

NBC 10's Tim Furlong recently visited the Morris Arboretum and takes you on a tour of Tree Adventure. Check out the video here.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tree Adventure featured in Museum Magazine

The debut of Tree Adventure at the Morris Arboretum was featured recently in Museum Magazine! Check out the feature here.

Tree Adventure featured in New York Magazine

Tree Adventure was recently mentioned in New York Magazine's Travel section about making a craft-beer run to Philadelphia. Read all about it here.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tree Adventure featured on WNEP-TV

Tree Adventure was recently featured on WNEP's Home & Backyard program. View the video below:

 

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Tree Adventure featured on WFMZ's "One Tank Trip"

WFMZ's Karin Mallett went Out on a Limb today at the Morris Arboretum to experience Tree Adventure for herself. See the video below, or click here to read the full story.



Courtesy of WFMZ-TV

Tree Adventure reviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer's Architecture Critic

Igna Saffron, Architecture Critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, recently reviewed Out on a Limb. Click here to read the article.

Friday, August 14, 2009

From Philadelphia Inquirer's WKND: A new exhibit takes visitors into the treetops at Morris Arboretum

Tree adventure is featured on the cover of the August 14, 2009 WKND section of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Click the image below to download a PDF of the article, or click here to view online.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Bette Midler goes Out on a Limb

Bette Midler stopped by the Arboretum last week to see Tree Adventure. Read the Philadelphia Inquirer's Inqlings mention here.

Pictured below are Midler (right) and Drew Becher, executive director of the New York Restoration Project.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Morris Arboretum director Paul Meyer featured on Comcast Local Edition

Paul Meyer, the F. Otto Haas Director of the Arboretum, was featured on Comcast Local Edition. Watch the video below:


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Tree Adventure featured on Action News!

Tree Adventure was featured on the 7/21/09 broadcast of 6 ABC's Action News.

To watch the video, click here.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Tree Adventure Featured on WRTI's Creatively Speaking

Tree Adventure was featured on WRTI's Creatively Speaking Saturday, July 11. Click the link below to listen to the show.

WRTI 90.1 FM - Creatively Speaking

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Morris Arboretum is a "Neat Thing"

NEAT THINGS: Morris Arboretum

Tree Adventure is featured in Philadelphia Weekly's Style blog. Check out the post here.

The Daily Pennsylvanian features Tree Adventure

Out On a Limb

By Michael Gold

Penn students might be used to navigating the concrete jungle of Philadelphia, but the University's Morris Arboretum is hoping they will transfer those skills to a forest of a different kind.At the Arboretum's new "Out on a Limb" tree canopy walk, students get a break from dodging squirrels on Locust Walk and get the opportunity to be one. (Read more...)

The Prince George's Sentinel goes Out On a Limb

Go ‘out on a limb’ at Morris Arboretum
New Tree Adventure exhibit opens

By Tripsandgetaways.com

For those wanting to experience the beauty of the Philadelphia area, you won’t want to miss Morris Arboretum and Gardens of the University of Pennsylvania.
The arboretum is an intimate, 92-acre Victorian delight that allows visitors to experience peaceful gardens with colorful flowers, changing scenery and unusual trees in a romantic, historic landscape. (Read more...)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Tree Adventure is a "to-do" for Philadelphia visitors

Tree Adventure is featured on GoPhila.com. Read the article below.

Tree Adventure at the Morris Arboretum

A trip into the trees for the young and young-at-heart

Go Out on a Limb at the Morris Arboretum’s new Tree Adventure exhibit!

This new, permanent exhibit explores the relationship between plants and people and stresses the theme that we need trees, and trees need us. (Read more...)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

From KYW Newsradio: Morris Arboretum Creates New, Tree-High Exhibit

Morris Arboretum Creates New, Tree-High Exhibit

By Karin Phillips

A new exhibit at the Morris Arboretum brings visitors closer to their environment by bringing them off the ground and into the air.

The construction of "Out On A Limb" is very subtle. It starts with a 450-foot, steel and wooden walkway, and before you know it you're 50 feet in the air, with a bird's eye view of the arboretum's forest. (Read more...)

Tree Adventure featured in The Reporter

Tree Adventure is featuerd in the Weekend Winners section of The Reporter. Read on for the article!

Weekend Winners: For the Fourth

By Brian Bingaman

Opening July 4 at the Morris Arboretum, 100 E. Northwestern Ave., Philadelphia, is the exhibit "Tree Adventure," which explores the relationship between plants and people. The centerpiece is "Out on a Limb," a 450-foot-long walkway 50 feet above the ground, giving a bird's-eye view of the forest. Other highlights include the Bird's Nest, Squirrel Scramble, and the Wissahickon Vista platform. (Read more...)

Listen to Tree Adventure on WRTI 90.1 FM

Tree Adventure will be featured this Saturday, July 11 on WRTI 90.1 FM's Creatively Speaking at 11:00 a.m. Check back for the podcast, or listen live this Saturday by clicking here.

Morris Arboretum is a "Pick" for the City Paper

Tree Adventure was featured in the July 2 edition of the Philadelphia City Paper. Read the article below.

Tree Adventure

One of Morris Arboretum's new exhibits is the treehouse you always wanted as a kid, blown up to epic proportions. Rising branchlike from the forest floor, it consists of a 450-foot walkway that climbs five stories into a canopy, eventually encircling a 250-year-old oak and culminating in a realistic, room-sized bird's nest built from harvested branches. (Read more...)

From The Philadelphia Inquirer: Morris Arboretum branches out

Tree Adventure was featured in the July 3 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Check out the article below!

Morris Arboretum branches out

New Tree Adventure takes you up in the leaves.

By Monica Peters
For The Inquirer

Children and adults can explore the relationship between plants and people at Tree Adventure, a new exhibit opening Saturday at Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. (Read more...)

Monday, June 29, 2009

Tree Adventure is a "Hot Ticket"

From Philadelphia Magazine's Hot Tickets

Things that should be on your radar in July

By Victor Fiorillo

Out On A Limb

You’ve probably seen the 92 acres of arboreal loveliness that are Morris Arboretum (and if you haven’t, shame on you!), but you’ve certainly never seen them from 50 feet up in the air. The new, permanent treetop installation Out On a Limb: A Tree Adventure debuts July 4th.

Tree Adeventure featured in Penn Current

New Tree exhibit to open at Morris Arboretum

By Penn Current Staff

New at the Morris Arboretum this summer is an exhibit called “Tree Adventure.” Opening July 4, it explores the relationship between plants and people through a central theme: We need trees, and trees need us. (Read more...)

Friday, June 26, 2009

From Montgomery News TICKET: Morris Arboretum goes 'Out on a Limb'

Morris Arboretum goes 'Out on a Limb'

By Jesse Reilly
Staff Writer

After Paul Meyer, the director of the Morris Arboretum, visited London’s Kew Gardens several years ago and experienced its canopy walk among the trees, he thought it was something his garden needed. Now, after nearly five years of planning, the arboretum’s “Out on a Limb” exhibit, completing the arboretum’s Tree Adventure, is set to open July 4. (Read more...)

Tree Adventure clips

The Morris Arboretum's Tree Adventure exhibit, opening July 4, was featured on CW Philly's Speak Up! on June 21. Director of Public Programs, Bob Gutowski, and Metcalfe Architecture & Design partner Aaron Goldblatt were on-hand to discuss the exhibit.

Watch the video by clicking the link below:

CW Philly Speak Up!

NBC 10 also stopped by to film Friday's weather report. Watch the footage below!

NBC 10 Video

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tree Adventure featured in Chestnut Hill Local

Read an excerpt from the article below. To view the full article, click here.

Arboretum’s exhibit takes families out on a limb

“People need trees,” Bob Gutowski was telling me as we surveyed the vast, verdant canopy above the Wissahickon Vista. “Why do they need trees?” I asked, inviting the treetop philosopher to think aloud.“Do you breathe?” he asked. I took a quick breath, then I smirked at Gutowski and answered, “Yeah … yeah.” “Well, guess what?” he said, chuckling between thoughts, “you breathe what the trees produce.” Read more...

Monday, May 11, 2009

Construction Update #2

The Metcalfe Architecture & Design teams leads a group out to the canopy walk as construction of Out on a Limb continues.


At its highest point, the canopy walk soars close to 50 feet above the ground.


Alan Metcalfe pictured at the entrance of the Out on a Limb canopy walk.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Construction Update #1

The platform through the tree canopy will be 4 stories high. It takes a very large crane and some brave construction workers to get it all in place.






The workers started laying the wood platform down on top of the steel structure. The final Canopy Walk will look completely natural and fit into the surroundings of the Arboretum.





Building "The Bird's Nest" while still on the ground. It will eventually take its place up in the trees, as a central part of the Out On A Limb exhibit.


Monday, February 2, 2009

Tree Adventure Under Construction

This summer, when visitors see the exhilarating new Tree Adventure exhibit at the Morris Arboretum, they might not be thinking about what went on behind the scenes and below the surface in the construction of Out on a Limb, a dramatic 275-foot walkway that will soar more than 40 feet above the ground. This project, designed by Metcalfe Architecture & Design, will incorporate the highest level of tree protection and care, which of course, fits perfectly into the central message of the exhibit- We need trees, and trees need us – thus introducing visitors to the critical role trees play in our environment.

Despite bracing winter temperatures, construction of Out on a Limb - a Tree Adventure began in early January with Morris Arboretum arborists supervising the project. The exhibit is designed to showcase trees and educate visitors about our symbiotic relationship with them. To reflect this goal, the maximum preservation of trees and their rooting environment is paramount. Every design and construction decision must balance the excitement factor of building a canopy walkway high into the trees with construction techniques that create the least disturbance to the local environment. And it goes without saying that the structure must also achieve maximum stability and safety.

To accomplish this, considerable pre-planning was gone into studying the root systems of the trees in the exhibit site plan prior to construction. Arboretum staff, in conjunction with Metcalfe architects, structural engineers and construction staff have surveyed and exposed the roots to determine exactly where points of entry should be placed to minimize the footprint of the foundation. Careful examination has informed exactly how the tree canopy structure will be build among the trees.

Out on a Limb – a Tree Adventure exhibit’s impact is intended to ‘tiptoe’ through the trees using smaller points of entry called micro-piles instead of larger points which would affect a greater portion of the root surface. To further protect the roots, layers of mulch with stabilizing fabric have been installed to cushion the roots.

To safeguard the tree trunks, a protective casing of wood slats has been placed around the tree at base level and six feet upward. This technique is replicated 30 feet up to shield the tree canopy from potential damage by the construction cranes.

As an added element of challenge in creating the smallest footprint for Out on a Limb – a Tree Adventure, the exhibit is built on a ridge that begins the Wissahickon Gorge, on hard bedrock, so that all of the construction must be engineered to accommodate the site’s geology.

When the Tree Adventure exhibit is complete in early summer, visitors will have the opportunity to experience the critical role trees play in our environment. They will gain an informed perspective on how trees develop, grow, and contribute to the biosphere, which will foster a keener understanding of the relationship between people and trees. Most importantly, Tree Adventure will nurture a sense of stewardship toward trees in our communities, many of which are stressful environments where trees depend heavily on people to sustain them. And to accomplish this goal the Morris Arboretum is leading by example and has employed all of the best conservation practices in the construction of Out on a Limb – a Tree Adventure exhibit.