When His Highness the Aga Khan gave Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects the commission to design an Islamic garden for the University of Alberta’s Devonian Botanic Garden in Edmonton (Canada), His Highness insisted that the firm’s principal, Thomas Woltz, go to see the great historic Islamic and especially Mughal gardens. Thus, before beginning to plan the new garden, Woltz went to Cairo to see Azhar Park and to India to see the majestic Taj Mahal and nearby Ram Bagh on the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra. The itinerary included Fatehpur Sikri, Deeg Water Palace, Amber Fort and, in Delhi, the Red Fort, Humayun’s Tomb and the adjacent Sunder Nursery – the last two being conservation projects sponsored and undertaken by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture." In this way, the new Edmonton garden – which at that point was nothing more than a hope and a concept – was from the beginning intentionally connected to historical precedents half a world away.
Source
From An Islamic Garden in Edmonton in Heritage of the Mughal World (Philip Jodidio, editor)
Ruggles, D. Fairchild. "An Islamic Garden in Edmonton". In
Heritage of the Mughal World, edited by Philip Jodidio, 267-271. Munich: Prestel, 2015.
Prestel and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture
