New master plan for Tohono Chul will guide garden’s growth

Just don’t call it a secret garden, not anymore.

The nonprofit botanical attraction has unveiled an ambitious master plan aimed at expanding the offerings and access for its more than 100,000 annual visitors.

“We're often called a hidden gem, and we're, like, done with being hidden,” said Hailey Cheek, Tohono Chul’s marketing and communications manager. “We just want to be a gem.”

The 15-year vision for the 49-acre park near Ina and Oracle roads would dramatically reshape the entrance to the grounds — with an indoor welcome center, a cluster of small retail spaces and an expanded restaurant — while maintaining Tohono Chul’s existing gardens, open spaces and “authenticity,” said president and CEO Jamie Maslyn Larson.

“It's really focused on improving the guest experience,” she said of the master plan. “What's really important is that Tohono Chul will have the same exact vibe, the same exact charm and the same exact scale as what everybody loves today.”

Almost 22,000 square feet of new buildings are planned, as are several new gardens, including one featuring a nature-play area where children can climb on rocks, dig in the dirt, splash in the water and build forts while their parents relax in the shade. The nearby Desert Discovery Pavilion will offer multipurpose space for classes and activities for all ages.

The master plan also would more than double the number of restrooms, shade structures, water fountains and places to get food and beverages around the property, which has seen its visitation increase by more than 75% since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The existing parking lot would be reconfigured to improve efficiency and add another 40 spaces or so. About a mile of dirt walking trails would be replaced with a permeable, all-weather surface made from recycled tires — giving it a slightly spongy feel — for improved accessibility.

'Desert bliss'

Maslyn Larson said all of the improvements are designed to be “light on the land,” with any new buildings or additions to the current ones confined to the roughly 16 acres that have already been disturbed at Tohono Chul.

In other words, no one is going to be knocking down saguaros to put in a snack bar or a gift shop. “Are you kidding me? Absolutely not,” she said.

Maslyn Larson and company shared the master plan with the Oro Valley Town Council on Wednesday and presented it to the public during an open house on Thursday that drew about 50 people to Tohono Chul.

But the unveiling Maslyn Larson was most nervous about came earlier this month, when the park’s small army of docents and other volunteers got to see the finished plan.

She said she can always count on unvarnished feedback from those folks, because they are “hardcore mission people” who regularly interact with visitors and field their complaints.

As it turned out, Maslyn Larson was worried for nothing.

“It was, I would say, the toughest audience. I was pretty intimidated, but there was so much enthusiasm,” she said. “When I presented this to our volunteer group last week, (they said) there was 100% alignment with our mission. I'm not kidding you.”

The docents seemed especially happy to see the designs for addressing one of the most common complaints about Tohono Chul: Confusion over where to enter the grounds and which way to go once inside.

The plan envisions a clear entry point through the welcome center and onto a wide path called the Promenade that will lead into the gardens with a view of the Catalina Mountains. Maslyn Larson called it Tohono Chul’s “yellow brick road.”

“We're here to make people feel what one of our docents calls ‘desert bliss.’ We want to get folks into that desert bliss as soon as possible,” she said.

Takes a Village

But not all the new amenities will require a membership or an entrance fee.

A shaded walkway called the Paseo would run along the eastern edge of the parking lot and provide admission-free access to the desert plant nursery, the Bistro restaurant and the Village, a collection of what Maslyn Larson described as “micro-sized” boutiques and galleries surrounded by gardens and shade trees.

“That will have our new gift shop.
It'll have a coffee shop. It will have a place to get a sandwich and bring it into the park. It'll have other (shops) sort of celebrating Tucson makers and artisans, right up front, before you even buy a ticket,” she said.

The plan also envisions perimeter walls along Ina Road and maybe some large, eye-catching sculptures to attract visitors and “make our edge look tended, because some people think that we're a vacant lot, which pains me,” said Maslyn Larson, a landscape architect by trade. “Just little touches that help people know, hey, there's something beyond that.”

“Like a secret garden, but not a secret garden,” Cheek added. “An unsecret garden.”

The master plan has been in the works since last October, when Tohono Chul launched an outreach effort that eventually included input from 800 visitors, members, volunteers, staff members and community partners.

“This plan was shaped by the people who know and love Tohono Chul,” Maslyn Larson said. “Their voices helped us understand what must be preserved, what can be strengthened, and how Tohono Chul can serve our community now and in the future.”

Grassroots garden

The desert botanical garden at 7366 N. Paseo del Norte was founded in 1985 by Richard and Jean Wilson, who owned the property and wanted to see it preserved instead of sold off for development.

The idea began as an extension of the Wilsons’ beloved local business, the Haunted Bookshop, which they operated near the corner of Ina and Oracle for about 20 years. Maslyn Larson said the couple used to invite their customers to walk the trails and picnic in the desert next to the bookstore until it closed in 1997.

Since 2023, the Children's Museum Oro Valley has operated out of what used to be Haunted Bookshop at Tohono Chul. Under the master plan, that building will be turned into offices for staff and volunteers, while the children’s museum moves to new facilities in the Desert Discovery Pavilion.

A lot of key details still need to be worked out.

For example, no decisions have been made about when and where construction might begin. And Tohono Chul officials don’t yet know the total price tag for all the work envisioned by the master plan or precisely how the nonprofit intends to pay for it.

“We're not going to be fundraising anytime soon, but that day will come. We will definitely be having a capital campaign,” Maslyn Larson said.

For the moment, they’re focused on one thing: sharing Tohono Chul’s new blueprint for the future with as many Tucsonans as possible.

“It’s a 10- to 15-year master plan, where we're going to have to learn more about the cost of everything and the phasing,” Maslyn Larson said. “But right now, we just want the community to see this, be really proud of it and get excited about it.”