Wild Walk

Wild Walk is an interactive nature walk at the Wild Center, a non-profit organization and nature center committed to helping people explore and learn about the natural environment of the Adirondacks.

Built in the forest, the Wild Walk is designed as an elevated trail of bridges that creates a learning landscape; bringing visitors up into the treetops to offer a new perspective of the forest.

The project consists of a series of platforms connected by bridges that starts at grade level and gradually brings people 12 meter above grade to look out over the surrounding woodlands. The platforms are supported by Corten steel posts designed to be an abstraction of the surrounding white pine trees. Wild Walk is almost fully accessible, family oriented and includes a four-story twig tree house, swinging bridges, a spider’s web for shared play hovering 7 meter off the ground and many opportunities to sit, observe and learn about the forest below. The walk culminates in a life-sized bald eagle’s nest at the highest point that visitors can inhabit.


The Adirondacks Park Agency required that the Wild Walk blend into the forest as much as possible and that it be minimally seen from the surrounding mountain peaks. Corten steel is the prominent material because it is durable and its changing color palette blends seamlessly into the forest.  Galvanized steel was used where the use of Corten was cost prohibitive.
Given the complexity of the geometries the entire project, including all of the steel components, was modeled digitally in 3D. The digital model was given to the contractor who then prefabricated many of the components, including all of the bridges, in the shop prior to the construction season In order to disturb the site as minimally as possible a lot of attention was paid to how the prefabricated parts could be brought on- site without harming the existing landscape.

Wild Walk, Adirondacks, State of New York
Program: pedestrian path
Architects: Linearscape Architecture
Designer: Chip Reay
Landscape Designers: William W. Palmer and Barbara M. Budzinski
Structural Engineers: Robert Silman Associates,
Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Engineers: Syska Hennessy Group
Contractor: Northland Associates
Exhibit Fabricators: Cost of Wisconsin
Completion: 2015