Gentle Breeze is a pink tree with three swings that inserts an image of the rural into downtown Boise’s dense urban fabric. Surrounded by numerous high-rise buildings, Gentle Breeze connects visitors to nature—its 748 individual leaves move in response to the wind from the river and hills surrounding the city, collectively creating a soft, billowing movement and a visual indicator of the natural forces that flow in.

This project was a part of the construction of Cherie Buckner-Webb Park in downtown Boise. The goal was to integrate an installation into the park’s landscape and create a central gathering point. The installation includes an 8-meter-tall pink tree made of fiberglass, steel, and aluminum, atop a grassy berm with a pathway that spirals up to the tree.

The tree contains three swinging benches, each wide enough for multiple seating configurations with friends and family and has an elegant internal mechanism that slows the swing down from swinging too fast or too far, providing a pleasurable swinging experience in the city that looks out onto the surrounding hills. The striking image of the tree on a hill can be seen from several vantage points throughout the park.

Taking its name from the winds that flow into the City of Boise from the mountains and river valley that surround it, Gentle Breeze presents an idyllic image of a tree on a hill with three swings hanging from its branches that is reminiscent of a quiet pastoral life and juxtapose that with the dense urban fabric of Boise’s multi-story cityscape.

Gentle Breeze symbolizes what many residents consider the most important aspect of Boise, Idaho: a city experience surrounded by the untouched natural world. This tree with swings on a hill placed amongst skyscrapers provides a surreal and much-needed public space to sit and swing. While on the swing, the visitors’ gaze is directed toward the rivers and mountains surrounding the city. It is a direct connection to the landscape that surrounds the urban environment, an aspect that many who live there never want to lose in this rapidly developing city.

Category:InstallationYear:2023Designers:Matthew Mazzotta, Canton, New York, USA