Functions

Current Function

Today Spirit Gardens is named, The Botanical Gardens and currently functions mainly as a destination spot for weddings and banquets. It currently hosts a part of public events such as Celebration in the Oaks every year during the Christmas season, which brings in a major source of revenue for City Park due to its’ tourist and family oriented appeal for the City of New Orleans. The garden contains over 2,000 varieties of plants from all over the world, and also have the nation’s largest collection of mature live oaks. The site contains the Conservatory of the Two Sisters, several theme gardens containing aquatics, ornamental trees and shrubs, perennials, and the new New Orleans Historic Train Garden. The Garden also holds the Pavilion of the Two Sisters, the Garden Study Center, and the Lath House.

Proposed Function

I propose to turn this property into a non-profit spiritual healing retreat for victims of Cancer. Spirit Gardens will be a retreat that does not focus on the medical treatments for Cancer victims, but rather focuses attention on healing the heart and soul through other means, such as cooking, yoga, painting, but mostly through spending time around dogs and horses using Animal Assisted Therapy. This will be a place for them to come “home” to and stay for amounts of time based on patient to patient and will be a relaxing place to get away from everyday struggles and issues. The property is located in the middle of New Orleans, however taken aback from the urbanized feel due to its’ surrounding gardens, ponds and green space. This would be a great additive for the city of New Orleans because it would not only help their image of being a crime infested community to a safe retreat destination spot, but also house a still much needed dog kenneling facility for dogs without homes. Though the facility will only hold a relatively small amount of dogs, these dogs will be used for a special purpose in which they will be either individually paired up with patients staying in Spirit Gardens to assist in their healing processes and/or be adopted out to the public on specified adoption days. Spirit Gardens also wants to create such bonds with the dogs to the patients and families in the hopes of the dogs be taken home with them if they have the means and their health to do so, in other words; both saving one another.