LALH Wins Arthur Ross Award

In January, a call from the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America almost melted away the three-foot-high snowbank outside the LALH office: Henrika Taylor, ICA&CA’s managing director, announced that LALH had won the organization’s 2009 Arthur Ross Award for Excellence in the Classical Tradition, in the category of history/publishing.

The New York City-based national nonprofit organization, which is dedicated to advancing the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism and their allied arts, bestows the Ross Award annually to people and organizations in five categories. (The others are architecture, artisanship, landscape architecture, and patronage.)

“LALH has renewed an awareness and appreciation of great American landscape architects and designers with its archives, publications, and exhibitions,” said Paul Gunther, the institute’s president. “Its work preserves a legacy of achievement as a contemporary educational resource at a time of growing interest in the environment and cultural geography. These are legacies that inspire stewardship and preservation of historically significant landscapes that may otherwise have been lost. The organization shares many of ICA&CA goals such as education, publishing, and stewardship through its multi-disciplinary approach.”

To read about the other Ross Award winners, visit www.classicist.org.

A Genius for Place Lands J. B. Jackson Prize, AAUP Selection

The Foundation for Landscape Studies has awarded a 2009 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prizes to A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era by Robin Karson (University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH, 2007). The prize, named in honor of one of the founding figures of American landscape studies, honors distinguished books in the English language.

A Genius for Place was also selected as an Outstanding Title by the American Association of University Presses. The designation recognizes books of “exceptional editorial content and subject matter” that “are essential editions to most library collections.”

This definitive work traces the development of a distinctly American style of landscape design between the 1890s and the 1930s, from the naturalistic wild gardens of Warren Manning to the mysterious “Prairie style” landscapes of Jens Jensen to the proto-modernist gardens of Fletcher Steele. Charles Platt, Ellen Shipman, Beatrix Farrand, Marian Coffin, and Lockwood de Forest Jr. are the other practitioners Karson covers as she analyzes seven country places created by these leading landscape architects of the period.

Three Titles Wrap UP ASLA Reprint Series

Ten years ago, LALH launched the ASLA Centennial Reprint Series, a library of ten classic books about American landscape architecture, to honor the centennial anniversary of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The titles were selected by historians and practitioners, who identified them as important in shaping design, planting, planning, and stewardship practices in the field, and still relevant today. Each book  is reprinted from the original edition and introduced by a new essay that provides historical and contemporary perspective. University of Massachusetts Press is offering a special price of $250 on the set of ten books—purchased separately, these would retail for about $380. Call UMass Press for details (800) 537-5487.
 
This spring the three final titles in the series roll out:

Country Life: A Handbook of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Landscape Gardening (1866) by Robert Morris Copeland (1830–1874) features a new introduction by William H. Tishler. Copeland was one of a small number of American landscape practitioners who helped establish the foundations for city planning and integrated park systems. Tishler’s new introduction analyzes the importance of the book to mid-nineteenth century Americans and also chronicles Copeland’s other important achievements, including his early concept for a metropolitan park system for Boston. Tishler is professor emeritus of landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and editor of Midwestern Landscape Architecture (University of Illinois Press in association with LALH, 2000).

Landscape for Living (1950) is an influential manifesto on modernism in landscape design by Garrett Eckbo (1910–1996), one of the most highly respected American modernist landscape architects. This new edition features an introduction by David C. Streatfield.

Published when Eckbo was forty years old, Landscape for Living synthesizes fourteen years of writing, thinking, and professional work and presents a theoretical approach to achieving what Eckbo identified as the “total landscape.” Streatfield’s new introduction chronicles Eckbo’s life up to 1950, well into his early career as a landscape designer, prolific author, and committed social activist, interpreting Eckbo’s text as a reflection of this history. Streatfield is professor emeritus of landscape architecture at the University of Washington and author of California Gardens: Creating a New Eden.

The new edition of The Art of Landscape Architecture (1915) by Samuel Parsons Jr. includes an introduction by Francis R. Kowsky. A protégé of Calvert Vaux, Parsons (1844–1923) worked with the architect until Vaux’s death in 1895. As superintendent of planting in Central Park and landscape architect to the City of New York for nearly thirty years, Parsons was, until his resignation in 1911, the last direct link in the city to the ideals of Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted.

A new introduction by Francis R. Kowsky explores Parsons’s contributions to the nascent profession of landscape architecture, his championing of the work of Pückler-Muskau, his defense of Olmsted and Vaux’s vision for Central Park, and his own landscape designs. Kowsky is professor emeritus of architectural history at Buffalo State College and author of Country, Park, and City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux.

Shear Joins LALH Trustees

The LALH Board of Trustees recently welcomed a new member: Barbara Shear is research manager for the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. Prior to joining the Philharmonic, one of the nation’s premier orchestras, in 1999, she served as a development consultant to several arts organizations, including the 92nd Street Y.

Shear earned a bachelor’s degree at Barnard College, with a major in American studies, concentrating on American cultural history. After receiving a master’s degree in cinema studies from New York University, she worked as a researcher on several books and documentaries, including a history of women in cinema; as a cataloguer for a wide-ranging movie collection; and as a copy writer for Time-Life Films. Subsequently, she moved into the marketing-research field, providing market analysis and strategic planning guidance to both corporate and not-for-profit clients. Shear is a member of APRA, the professional researchers association. For the past several years, she has served on the LALH Consulting Committee.

A Genius for Place Exhibition Begins New Tour

Launched in 2000, the LALH exhibition A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era toured nine venues in eight years, receiving raves from New York City to Nashville. Now, after the publication of Robin Karson’s book of the same title, the show will hit the road for an encore tour, 2011–2013.

From February 22 to May 23, 2011, the show will kick off fiftieth-anniversary celebrations at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida. Located on the banks of the St. Johns River, the Cummer gardens bear the imprint of O. C. Simonds, Ellen Shipman, Thomas Meehan and Sons, and the Olmsted firm.

LALH is now booking A Genius for Place for the remainder of 2011 through 2013. Please e-mail or call for more information: (413) 549-4860.

Mobot to Host Public Gardens Conference

The American Public Gardens Association will hold its 2009 annual conference at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront Hotel in St. Louis, Mo., June 23–27. Hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden, the gathering of public garden professionals from all over North America will celebrate “The Global Garden.” More than 150,000 bulbs in springtime bloom will mark the occasion.

For more information, visit Missouri Botanical Garden’s website, or call the toll-free, twenty-four-hour recorded hotline at (800) 642-8842.

New Grants Support Manning Project

The LALH Warren H. Manning Research Project has received two new grants to help move the project into the publication phase: The International Music and Art Foundation, a private foundation based in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, donated $25,000 toward new photography by Carol Betsch. The Elizabeth Ring Mather & William Gwinn Mather Fund, Cleveland, Ohio, also contributed $25,000. William Gwinn Mather (1857–1951) was one of Manning’s earliest and most enthusiastic clients, and his descendents remain great admirers of this forward-thinking landscape architect and planner.

Miller Family Donates Kiley Garden, Saarinen House to Museum

For decades, landscape-architecture students have swooned over the images on classroom screens: the allée of honey-locust trees, the outdoor rooms outlined by low, crisp hedges. The iconic Miller Garden, laid out by famed landscape architect Daniel Urban Kiley (1912–2004), surrounds an Eero Saarinen-designed house in Columbus, Ind. The property, created for J. Irwin and Xenia Simons Miller in the 1950s, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000.

In just a few years, admirers will be able to step into the garden (and house) they’ve viewed only from afar. Late last year, Miller family members and an associated foundation donated the property to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The museum also owns the Oldfields–Lilly House and Gardens, with a 1920s landscape designed by Percival Gallagher of the Olmsted Brothers firm.

The donors have pledged $5 million toward an $8-million endowment for the house and landscape. IMA is raising the rest of the endowment and $2 million for an 18-month renovation of the house. After that, the museum will work with the Columbus Area Visitors Center to provide public access to the property. Stay tuned to the IMA for updates.

New Landmark Includes de Forest Landscape

Landscape historian David Streatfield, in his book California Gardens: Creating a New Eden, called Casa del Herrero “one of the most exquisite houses and gardens of the Spanish Colonial Revival period.” The property’s 1920s landscape, created by Lockwood de Forest Jr., Ralph K. Stevens, and Francis T. Underhill, surrounds a house designed by architect George Washington Smith, in Montecito, Calif.

In January, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated Casa del Herrero (House of the Blacksmith) a National Historic Landmark, the nation’s highest recognition of historical significance. The Secretary of the Interior noted that the eleven-acre property, also known as the Steedman Estate, “represents a remarkable fusion of landscape design, architecture, horticulture, and interior design, reflecting the influence of the antiquities, architecture, and gardens of Mediterranean Europe . . . and responding to the splendid climate, ideal growing conditions, Hispanic roots, and scenic beauty of the Southern California landscape.”

Original owners George and Carrie Steedman gave the local landscape architect Lockwood de Forest Jr. one of his first important commissions, a richly collaborative one. The property, now managed by the nonprofit Casa del Herrero Foundation, is open by appointment.

Dept. of Art & Whimsy: Floral Clock (with Bluebird) Marks Mobot’s 150th

How well the skilful gardener drew
Of flow'rs and herbs this dial new …
(Andrew Marvel, “The Garden,” 1678)

When the Missouri Botanical Garden celebrates its sesquicentennial anniversary this year, a twenty-foot-by-twenty-foot clockface will display the time in flowers. From May until the first frost of October, the clock, including the numerals and hands, will be planted in seasonal colors. The living spectacle is on display near the garden’s reflecting pools.

Flower clocks originated in England in 1903, but they grew out of the older Victorian passion for carpet bedding, a craze that was peaking when philanthropist Henry Shaw founded the Missouri Botanical Garden (a.k.a. Mobot) and neighboring Tower Grove Park.

Visitors passing by at the quarter hour will be treated to a chirping wooden bluebird, the state’s ornithological emblem, popping out, cuckoo-style, from numeral 11—that is, unless the St. Louis Cardinals are playing at home, or it’s the week of the All-Star game, when a wooden cardinal will pinch hit for the bluebird.

Spring Recipe from LALH: Printemps Pea Soup

Seasonal cooking is about the fresh, vibrant flavors that come from local ingredients. After a long winter subsisting on roots and tubers, New Englanders’ excitement over the arrival of spring, with its promise of crisp, green vegetables, grows feverish. Spring peas are some of the earliest vegetables to show up in our markets and on our tables.

From LALH resident foodie Jessica Dawson, here is an original recipe for a soup that uses black pepper and lemon to bring a zing to these sweet legumes:

Lemon Pepper Spring Pea Soup
Makes six appetizer servings, or four bowls complemented by your favorite crusty bread.

Ingredients:

2 cups of vegetable stock
20 oz. or 2 ½ cups of petite fresh spring peas (frozen peas also work)
1 medium Yukon gold potato, diced very small
1 clove of garlic, minced
the juice of one lemon
1/2 tsp. fresh-ground black peppercorns (or to taste; I like it really peppery)
salt to taste
sweet pea sprouts (for garnish)

Bring vegetable stock to a boil in a four-quart pot and add the peas, garlic, and potato with the ground pepper. Simmer until the potato is tender. Pour the soup into a blender (in two batches if necessary) and purée until smooth (add more stock if you like a thinner purée). Return to the pot and add the lemon juice. Adjust seasoning to taste, garnish with the sweet pea sprouts and serve.