Detailed planning for this historic preservation project began in 1995 with the commitment of construction and maintenance funds. Though the garden had been actively maintained and managed by Wake Forest University (WFU) for almost forty years, there were a number of issues to address, many the result of past attempts to "repair and improve" the garden.   Investigative demolition of rataining walls to a depth of 3'. Core samples taken. Removal of deteriorated material. Beginning with the garden's plant materials, crabapples (Malus sp.) had been planted in the interior of each of the four quadrants (four in each) in the early 1970s - even though the original saucer magnolias (Magnolia soulangeana) remained, though in varying conditions. The garden's circulation features, namely the pathways in each of the quadrants, originally grass, were paved with slate to address intense pedestrian traffic. The original layout of the pathways was also changed at that time. Neither the color nor pattern of slate matched the original slate border. Repairs were also made to the surface of many of the retaining walls during the 1970s and again in the 1980s. None of these repairs had corrected apparent moisture problems, as evidenced by the deteriorated condition of the walls' stucco-type surfacing. Exploratory demolition was carried out on a section of the walls to determine the extent of damage and the construction techniques. The initial demolition revealed that the foundation was three feet deep with later investigations showing that the foundation ranged from two to five feet below grade. Apparently Sears had used a design more suitable for his home in Philadelphia, where the frost line is greater that the one to one-half feet specified as the appropriate foundation depth for the Winston-Salem area. Core samples were also taken and evaluated by a geologist/petrographer, who determined that the walls exhibited "the beginning stages of sulfate attack" and lacked "air-entrainment." Air-entrainment concrete was not introduced until the 1930s, many years after the construction of the walls. It is able to produce microscopic air bubbles within the hardened concrete that serve as pressure release chambers for expansion. The sulfate problem is a complex chemical process, but begins with water mixing with the original concrete or organism growth on the concrete. Together these conditions had caused the cracking and scaling on the wall surfaces. Nevertheless, the eighty-year old walls were deemed repairable. Severely deteriorated sections were to be removed while minor repairs were recommended for less damaged sections. In the 1970s, the wood portions of the teahouses and east and west garden features were rebuilt. The original Lion's Head Fountain was altered with the replacement of the rear wall and re-tiling of the pool's interior. The replacement wall differed from the arched form of the original, and the color and texture of the new tile did not match the original. During this period, the garden was not universally accessible. Visitors in wheelchairs were unable to enter the sunken garden. The garden staff found it difficult to move equipment into the lower garden using the existing steps. The vegetation in the garden had become overgrown, and no longer satisfying the spatial intent of the original design. Boxwood hedges containing historic, as well as nonhistoric, plants were several times their original size, and, together with English ivy, had overtaken most of the perennial beds. Much of the extant historic vegetation was in a deteriorated state, particularly the Japanese cedar and Japanese weeping cherries (Prunus subhirtella pendula). The original rose quadrants had been removed and, in 1972, the southernmost third of the vegetable garden was replanted as a rose garden by the Winston-Salem Rose Society. Both the vegetable and rose gardens required a high amount of maintenance, which consumed much of the garden staff's time.