East meets west
Asian garden planned for Grapevine
Leone, the developer of the planned 50-acre Dream Gardens in Grapevine, left for China in May of this year to meet with the Suzhou Institute of Landscape Architectural Design Co. Ltd., the Chinese design firm that had designed the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif. He was armed with drawings of his ideas as well as a video of himself and others constructing the small model of what he hoped his 50-acre vision would include: Bonsai trees, boulders, running water, all representing an inspired Asian garden. But when he met with officials of the Chinese firm, his plans changed.
“I really went with no other intention than looking and considering, but when they saw what we were working on, they immediately made a decision. They went over my head and made a decision,” Leone said. “They went to the government and all of a sudden, the Chinese government wanted to do a formal letter to help with the gardens.”
Though Leone’s firm, Grapevine-based The Leone Group, is the formal developer of the massive project, he says there is a “spirit of partnership” with China.
“I just felt that they really understood what we were trying to do here,” he said. “We’re trying to do something good; something that will be here hundreds of years from now and something that will show the kind of beauty there is everywhere around us.”
The entire Dream Gardens project will encompass 50 acres, with the 30-acre Chinese garden component becoming the largest traditional Chinese gardens outside of China and the only one combining both northern and southern architecture features, Leone said. The Dream Gardens also will include a Chinese traditional theater stage, a Chinese cultural center, an amphitheater, a torii gate, a wedding garden, Suzhou gardens, a waterfall, artisan shops and restaurants.
The Dream Gardens is tucked inside The Springs at Grapevine, which, including the 50-acre Dream Gardens, will offer 80 acres of gardens, two hotels, a Japanese inn, a river walk and entertainment venues.
Leone said he plans to use much of the surrounding nature into the design. The 50,000-square-foot International Cultural Center, for instance will be built into a hill feature on the property, he said. And a 25,000-square-foot Asian spa will be set atop an 80-foot, man-made mountain with various water falls spouting down the sides.
The Springs at Grapevine, however, is part of an even larger planned project under the moniker The World Villages of Grapevine, a $1.6 billion, 3-million-square-foot mixed-use development including not only the Springs at Grapevine, but also a one-of-a-kind indoor ski park alongside residential, hotel, retail and restaurant space.
His grand design
Leone grew up an ‘Air Force kid’ moving from continent to continent before graduating from Burleson High School and beginning his career in design in Texas. He has no formal training in design, but he credits his dad’s love of art for his design career.
“My dad was a real art buff. He drug us through every museum he could find so it was a sort of forced education,” Leone said. “We were stationed in Japan for three years and I got tired of having to go to these gardens over and over, but now I guess those visions are really paying off.”
Leone began drawing plans for a botanical garden space in 1999. His first concept was a private development that would feature not only botanic, but cultural and educational pieces. He had his sights on property in Coppell, but when city planners in Grapevine caught wind of his designs, the city was quick to court Leone.
“The city of Grapevine saw it and invited me here,” he said. “I basically started with an idea and basic framework and it’s just been adding and adding.”
Through the years, Leone has done design jobs across the states. While building a water gardens along the Concho River in San Angelo, Texas, several years ago, Leone discovered what he calls a treasure: hundreds of huge boulders dotting the bluffs on the edge of town.
“They are part of nature and I knew they could be used in something,” he said. “I just wasn’t sure what.”
Years later, Leone will use those boulders as part of the project’s man-made mountain, bringing them to Grapevine in ‘spec’ loads, with specific orders for sizes and shapes needed to cut down on waste.
But they aren’t the only boulders to be shipped in for the project. Leone said Scholar Stones – Chinese national treasures – also will be imported from China.
Suzhou is known worldwide for its gardens. The classical gardens in Suzhou were added to the list of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Sites in 1997 and 2000.
The Dream Gardens is a joint project between officials from Suzhou, the Society for Environmental and Cultural Awareness – a Grapevine-based non-profit group – and the International Cultural Center. The project is scheduled to open in 2013.
Larry G. Brown, president of Grapevine-based Forward Group International and part of the SECA group, said The Springs at Grapevine has some financial backing now, mostly private investors, with some corporate funding – including backing from the Chinese government via the institute’s donated design work – for the nonprofit portion of the project.
Construction of The Springs will be handled by TLG3, the construction arm of The Leone Group.
Looking ahead
The next steps for the development include wrapping up procurement of additional Bonsai trees as well as finishing design and civil engineering. Grapevine-based Goodwin and Marshall Inc. has been commissioned to do the civil engineering for the Dream Gardens project. In March, Leone said Suzhou will begin construction pieces for its Chinese garden portion.
