The tree house exhibitors represent a wide cross section of arts and crafts from Philadelphia and nearby communities. Students and professionals from the fields of architecture, carpentry, landscape design, and landscape architecture worked alongside potters, metalworkers, artists and furniture makers. Some tree houses were designed and built by one person, while others were created by teams of professionals or impromptu partnerships of neighbors and friends.

The tree houses themselves are equally diverse. Animal whimsies, works of interactive art, designs inspired by the botany of trees, and creations that explore the meaning of home—each one offers a new view of Nature. Tyler’s Tree Home builds a sculptural metal house for a tree and the animals that live there. Cords hanging through the roof of the Bell House invite visitors to make the bells chime. A pink elephant tiptoes along a cork tree branch in Scared Silly. Elevated boardwalks in The Birch House take visitors on a journey through a tree’s life cycle. Outlook recalls a gigantic leaf held up to the sun with its elliptical platform forming a network of veins against a translucent floor, while Arboreal Adventum explores the inside of a tree with a trunk-like tunnel that leads to a timber-framed playground among the trees.

The tree house locations were chosen to take advantage of scenic settings throughout the Arboretum’s woodlands and meadows. The Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades students’ message of “building a better world” can be clearly heard in a peaceful grove of hemlocks and white pines where their tree house trilogy Williamson Serves illustrates the students’ experiences rebuilding homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Tyler’s pond is the natural setting for Thoreau’s Cabin, a to-scale replica of the 19^th-century writer’s cabin at Walden Pond. The clay Hobbit House seems to have magically appeared under the layered tree canopy along the Native Woodland Walk. Tyler’s Meadow Maze is the backdrop for several tree houses, where winding paths journey through a vast sea of billowing grasses and wildflowers rimmed with towering trees. From stately tulip trees and majestic oaks to humble stumps and meadow clearings, each tree house found its home in this centuries-old sanctuary for trees.

The tree house designers represent a wide cross section of arts and crafts from Philadelphia and nearby communities. Students and professionals from the fields of architecture, carpentry, landscape design, and landscape architecture will be working alongside potters, metalworkers, artists and furniture makers. Some tree houses are designed and built by one person, while others are created by teams of professionals or impromptu partnerships of neighbors and friends.

Five monthly special events explore the historic, artistic, literary, and vital nature of trees with demonstrations, tours, displays, and entertainment. All programs take place noon – 4 pm. Tree Huggers Market Days on July 20 and September 28 offer trees, tree artwork, and green products for sale.  In addition to the changing activities, every event offers make-and-take crafts and tours of the Arboretum founders’ historic home and fascinating library where they studied the natural world.