Reporters had their hands full when invited to visit 60 Chinese craftsmen at the Huntington Library and Gardens in Nov. 2007. The workers spoke no English. The reporters didn’t speak Chinese. But that didn’t stop the journalists from fishing for a quote.

The skilled artisans were affiliated with the Suzhou Garden Devlopment Co., Inc. Working with them was a team of professionals led by He Fengchun, chairman of the Suzhou Institute of Landscape Architectural Design.

As the architects and craftsmen departed in Nov. 2007, they had reason to be proud. They had placed close to 850 tons of craggy limestone that had been shipped across the Pacific from China. They had installed expansive hardscape courtyards—placing each pebble and tile by hand. And they had helped build half a dozen walls and traditional structures that give the Chinese Garden its distinctive flavor—ornate structures of lacquered gingko and fir, topped with hand-fired roof tiles.

The team, which included American engineers and architects, had created something rare and unusual. The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers visited and were wowed. “Suzhou’s classical elegance translates seamlessly to the 3.5-acre site,” the newspaper said.

As the turn of the 21st century arrived, the communities east of Pasadena that sat under the San Gabriel Mountains had become popular with Chinese immigrants and boasted some of the most authentic Chinese food in the country. Add to this the rise of China as an industrial and technological power, and the decision to embrace the future with a Southern California Chinese garden was an easy one.

The Huntington Library’s first step was to recruit Jin Chen, an American born in China, from the Portland Classical Chinese Garden in Portland, Ore. Chen was perfect for the job because he had studied architecture and landscape architecture in China and the West. He took command of the preliminary planning stage in San Marino—spending months walking the site and producing sketches and design concepts that evolved into the garden’s present form.

Jin Chen is now president of JCD Global Consulting in Shanghai, but flew to California for the garden’s dedication in February. He was please to see the final result follow his original vision for the site.

Suzhou, additionally, is the home of one of China’s most popular and enduring landscape styles. Dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) Suzhou gardens were famous for their subdued beauty and highbrow cultural connections. As the Chinese adjective implies, “scholar” rocks and pavilions were thought to be conducive to thought and creativity. The gardens themselves were soothing retreats designed to relax the thinker and inspire art, poetry and ideas.

Unlike Japanese gardens, which sought to recreate nature, Suzhou and other Chinese styles were intimately connected with the human world—pavilions, bridges, walls, walkways and sculpture and at the center of them. Suzhou’s Ming gardens were the most famous of their day, and like France’s Versailles, some survive. One, the whimsically-named Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician, still stands, although its original form has been altered by restoration.

Architects from Suzhou designed and completed detailed drawings for each of the pavilions and covered walkways. They got the look precisely right, but one thing was missing. Chinese team members were unfamiliar with California’s strict seismic codes.

To fill in the gaps, Huntington planners called in architect Bob Ray Offenhauser and Jim Fry of Burbank, Calif.-based Offenhauser Associates, Inc. Adding hidden supports will help avoid the kind of structural collapse that took so many lives in China’s Sichuan earthquake on May 12, 2008.

STO is best known for lakes and water features in Las Vegas and elsewhere that feature theatrical fountains and lighting. Rather than dazzling, their mission at the Huntington was to devise a soothing lake that would quietly operate with a minimum of noise and algae.

Still, the goal was a completely natural-looking lake, so STO selected a biofiltration skimmer system that sends lake water through a network of perforated pipes that are buried under a layer of gravel. Sending the water through the gravel removes algae and particulate matter, but doesn’t clean it to Las Vegas-show-pond standards.

Laurie Sowd, the Huntington’s project manager for Liu Fang Yuan, explained the goals of the lake planning process.

“We want it to be murky enough to look natural,” she said. “But not like a swimming pool. The lake is at a low point on the grounds, so we put a lot of time into planning runoff water and sediment from flowing in during winter rains.”

Many visitors, it turned out, were American Chinese from the communities that surround the Huntington. They looked on the new creation with proud eyes, many having contributed to the first phase’s $18.3 million cost.

One visitor, Kara Lew Larew of Altadena, Calif., spoke for many when she explained the special pride she felt.

“I’m third-generation Chinese American,” she told the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper. “(Seeing the garden) is very personal to me, to reconnect with my roots.”

The fact that an international team completed the garden was important for her too.

“This was not ‘Made in China.’ It was made here in a collaborative manner,” she explained.

Laurie Sowd, the garden’s project manager, echoed those sentiments.

“The project is a fascinating combination of high-tech engineering and handmade craftsmanship,” she said. “It’s a magical combination—but we couldn’t have done it without either one.”