Tarentum -- Hy and Irma Rabkin Japanese Garden

Three plots of land were joined together to create a one-half acre Japanese garden alongside an 1892 brick schoolhouse that had been renovated and converted into a medical laboratory. Although the garden was designed in 2008 and 2009 it took six years to source materials and build. The Japanese garden includes an entrance courtyard, a hill and pond garden, and lastly a dry garden. Wooden structures were custom designed and built, boulders were sourced and placed with precision, and trees were sited and shaped and are periodically pruned. Originally designated for use by the owner's staff now the gardens are a healing landscape used by other members of the community for tai chi, meditation, and yoga. The entrance courtyard is behind a wooden fence and gate that has ipe wood handles that represent swimming koi. There is a five-and-one-half ton boulder set over a bed of large black pebbles. Three holes were drilled in the boulder for flowing water. The courtyard is framed by pruned pines with a wooden fence and gate that open to the hill and pond garden. Inside this garden there is a Japanese coin fountain where one can kneel and prepare for a tea ceremony. A pathway paved with closely fitted flat stones passes three more boulders on the way to the teahouse. The wooden teahouse overlooks koi ponds and a double waterfall that is framed by pruned pines and Japanese maples. Water drops four feet to flow under a stone bridge, into a waterlily and koi pond, and continues to flow to a biofiltration pond and wetland that has water edge plants. A narrower steppingstone path winds around the ponds and gradually uphill through groves of Amelanchier and Japanese maple. The dry garden behind a masonry wall has a wisteria-draped pergola down one long side and three island beds with azaleas and trees down the other long side. These beds are set into raked gravel. There is another steppingstone path to a bamboo grove beyond which there is a copper pipe "fountain" that splashes water onto a boulder set in a bed of large black pebbles. A concrete terrace has a table and seating, and benches are arranged around the perimeter of the dry garden. The stone benches here and in the hill and pond garden were custom made from repurposed curbstones. Japanese stone lanterns also are placed in the garden rooms. Persons associated with the garden's design: MTR Landscape Architects (lead designers, 2008-2025); Jim Lampl (garden design and construction, 2009-2015); Tadeo Arimoto (wood structures design and installation, 2009-2015).