SHEFFIELD PEACE GARDENS

The metalwork and stonework in Sheffield Peace Gardens reflect the city’s tradition of high-quality craftsmanship and manufacturing. Designed by Sheffield City Council .
The gardens employ a theme of stone, water and metal-working, reflecting Sheffield’s history and development as a centre of excellence in craftsmanship and manufacturing, and is surrounded by the commercial buildings of Sheffield’s past, which now house offices, shops, cafés and civic institutions.

Contemporary artists have collaborated to create a unique fusion of seating, ornament, water features, street furniture and lighting set amidst a generous and carefully planned sea of planting. Combining traditional and contemporary styles to provide year-round effects and a cornucopia for the senses, natural stone, bronze, granite and gritstone combine to create gardens that can withstand the deservedly high levels of use they now receive.

As part of the Heart of the City Project, the inspiring Peace Gardens lend an unusually rich and lavish feel to the revived city centre, and are complemented by the new Millennium Galleries and Winter Gardens (under construction) nearby.

PLAZA ESPANA SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE

Santa Cruz is a charming city on the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. The city is the capital of the island and a melting pot of diverse cultures that give it a cosmopolitan character. Santa Cruz is also a local hub for the island’s motorway network and popular with its wide commercial offerings. The city is very attractive, due to the spectacular architecture and the wide range of shops. One of the pleasing landmark in the city is Plaza Espana, a flower-decked plaza near the harbor. The Plaza Espana is a hub of the city’s life. It’s a wonderful square with spectacular landscape design all over a water field. This water basin is an enormous wading pool with some kind of drawing on its surface.It’s extremely clean and visitors can cool themselves during the hot summer days. Plaza Espana is an adventure. While resting there and enjoying the surroundings it’s gonna be you chance for meeting people from all ages. The square rises the Monumento de los Caidos, commemorating the dead of the Spanish Civil War. A variety of historical structures circle this huge water reservoir. Four pavilions, containing tourist information, retail, a cafe and access to below ground parking are nestled in the Plaza’s crust. Different in shape they all share a love to natural forms without imitating them.

KIM WILKIE

Landscape architect Kim Wilkie Associates’ monumental 7m excavation called Orpheus brings both historic continuity and unexpectedness to the grounds of Boughton House in Northamptonshire.
Great landscape interventions — Stonehenge, say, or Petworth Park — are exercises in making explicit the cultural character, or the beauty, of a place. This is true even in Central Park where the intervention runs counter to the landscape context. As works of imagination their power is always in the response to the quality of what was there already.

For modernist architects, the glorious opportunity presented by the need for new forms and untried building types was straightforwardly liberating but, for their confreres in landscape and urban design, it came at the price of setting both place and time at an uneasy and intractable remove. It is tough both to make the place, and to respond to it. It has been a slow crawl back to credibility, with many distractions, false gods and not a few dead ends — new urbanism among them. Once in a while, it is the overabundance of landscape context that provokes a change of direction, and results in a project that is thoughtful and decisive enough to recover some of the lost ground.

Boughton, in Northamptonshire, is one of the greatest English houses with one of the country’s most powerful landscapes, yet neither are easy to characterise. The impression they leave on the visitor is of a complicated layering: periods of power and of diffidence, of neglect and immense activity, of great plans not completed, of enthusiastic focus, of disdain for fashion and, occasionally, of decline. To some extent this pattern reflects the political and social fortunes of the Montagus as they came and went over 300 years, but also the distractions presented by three other family houses, all in Scotland. It is at least possible that the odd duke never himself visited Boughton, and certain that many never thought of it as home. For much of the time the formal Dutch gardens created by the first Duke of Montagu lay becalmed in their immense parkland. They had ceased to be the fashion almost before they were finished and what followed, from Charles Bridgeman onwards, was all in an effort to make things simpler, or more productive. It is because the successive interventions — while difficult to fully reverse — were never so sweeping in themselves that the situation now presents such a challenge.
This setting, as much familial and cultural as it is trees, water and grass, is a thrilling constraint for the landscape designer, and a daunting one for the owner. It demands interventions that are at once bold and very precise. The key judgments — where to begin, which moments in the history of the landscape to refer to, and at what scale — are not self-evident, and they cannot then be corrected in the doing. They needed here to be made by client and designer together, and to be imagined as one key element in a delicate programme of restoration; what is new has to set a standard and, literally, to find a level, for the disinterment of the old. On plan, Boughton is all linear grandeur, stretching to the horizon; by contrast, the surface is a delicate skin, with van der Meulan’s great buried tanks and parterres smoothed and muscular beneath.

The early 18th century Mount, constructed as a truncated pyramid from the excavations of the transverse canal, was restored in 2007 by the present owner, the Duke of Buccleuch. It seemed the right focus but, in the way of such things, it threw into question the unresolved and derelict vista, parallel to the main west axis and next to the walled gardens. The huge scale of the Mount required a matching response but resisted anything in the same plane. Kim Wilkie’s solution, Orpheus — a 7m-deep excavation — suggests a new and unutilised dimension to landscape intervention; the square plan, and the profile of the sides, echo those of the Mount and a descending ramp continues into the shallow water of the central pond, whose surface lies far below the Northamptonshire water table. The pond is rewardingly ambiguous, subtler and perhaps more interesting than the James Turrell skyspaces to which the Boughton publicity material claims it makes reference. In certain lights the ramp, as it descends to extinction, can be dimly discerned; in others, the surface alone, calmed, framed, shaded by the sloping ramparts, simply reflects the clouds. Sometimes the shadow of the sharp lip of the excavation divides the surface, offering both effects at once.

At the whole scale of the landscape, the effect is of Michael Heizer, or James Turrell — the Turrell of dynamite and Roden Crater — each thoughtfully tamed (and probably better built). What does carry over from the wild landscape of the American west is the possibility of individual communion — the sense, if you like, of the mountain having been moved just for you. Orpheus may be at its best on one’s own: it is not then just an elegantly proportioned piece of furniture in a very big park, however good it is in this role. That anything so monumental should in fact need to be discovered, and best on foot, is disarming; and as the ground yawns on approach, there is the sharp, impossible recognition that the void of Orpheus has been literally expressed to form the half-pyramid beyond the canal. This is the key effect.

KEN SMITH

Ken Smith is a camoufleur—he uses splashes of color, foliage, earth, grass, artificial rocks and plants, and water to disguise and conceal. He can make a blank wall into a field of daisies, a railyard into a picnic grove, and a blacktop roof into a fanciful garden. A landscape architect of urban areas, Smith is convinced that “creating livable, renewable, and inspiring urban areas is one of the best ways to limit sprawl and the waste of natural resources.”When Smith was asked to design a rooftop garden at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the design considerations read like a laundry list of disallowances: no irrigation, no structural attachments, no live plants, no heavy planters, maintenance-free, low-budget; he also had to incorporate black and white stones that the museum had already purchased. Moreover, the garden was to be physically and visually inaccessible to the museum public; only people in surrounding buildings could see the garden due to its location. After several designs, the museum settled on a scheme that started from a skateboarder’s camouflage pants, and followed with a palette of mostly natural or recycled materials, including recycled black rubber, crushed glass, sculptural stones, and artificial boxwood plants. Finished in 2005, the result is a cross between a Japanese Zen garden and a Jean Arp relief sculpture.According to Smith, “Landscape architecture has always been about making synthetic nature.” Central Park, once a rocky, swampy, and muddy site transformed into a vast green urban oasis, is as much about artifice as Smith’s synthetic plants and pinwheels. But the whimsy and joy of the compositions Smith creates with his 99- cent store discoveries have the same effect as a “day at the park.” For example, his installation at the Cornerstone Café, part of the Cornerstone Festival of Gardens in Sonoma, California, is a colorful spray of artificial flowers and ferns that sprouts from the wall. The installation is Smith’s contemporary version of flowered wallpaper— three-dimensional camouflage which conceals an imperfect wall. Called Wall Flowers, it is intended to both blend in and stand out.Currently on the boards for Smith is the thirteen-acre Santa Fe Railyard Park. Part of a large urban-redevelopment area, the design is based on water harvesting to create a community park that requires little or no municipal water. It will include an open field, rail gardens, performance terrace, and picnic grove. It fits Smith’s modus operandi perfectly: the chance to do a lot with a little.

IRA KELLER FOUNTAIN

Even before remodeling of the Civic Auditorium began in the early 1960s, plans to create an open space across the street were being proposed. The proposal submitted by Lawrence Halprin, the well-known San Franciscan architect who had designed the Lovejoy Fountain a few years earlier, was unanimously approved in 1968. Designed by Angela Danadjieva, the Forecourt Fountain was completed in 1970. 13,000 gallons of water per minute cascade through its terraces and platforms, suggesting the Northwest’s abundant waterfalls. The concrete fountain became an instant city landmark and an internationally acclaimed open space.

In 1978, the fountain was renamed after Ira C. Keller (1899-1978), civic leader and first chairman of the Portland Development Commission (1958-72). Keller pushed through the renewal plan for the South Auditorium area of downtown which included the construction of the Forecourt Fountain. It has been said that “it was Keller’s enormous energy that made urban renewal work in Portland.”

HTO PARC, TORONTO, CANADA

Toronto’s first urban beach opened in June 2007 and has been getting rave reviews from Torontonians and tourists alike since.

The park’s unique layout, complete with water, islands, gardens, lighting and beach furniture, was selected after the designers won an international design competition held by the city in 2003. HTO is part of Toronto’s master plan to revitalize the waterfront.City officials said they chose the name HTO to reflect hope that the park will being the city and the water together it’s a fusion of H2O, the chemical name for water, and Toronto’s abbreviated form.

HIDEO SASAKI

Hideo Sasaki helped to modernize the concepts of Landscape Architecture. He created a practical approach to designing a landscape. In his works, several characteristics are taken into account. This includes and is not limited to the historical, cultural, environmental, and social use of the land. Sasaki has become famous for developing this concept of interdisciplinary planning. In all of the sites that he creates, an obvious balance is implemented into the design. One aspect that Sasaki Associates pays particular attention to is the environmental aspect of the land. They have taken part in creating several“green designs.” These designs are created to enhance or maintain the health of the environment. Some of the prominent examples can be viewed at the Utah State University Innovation Campus, The Virginia Biosphere, Walden Woods, and the Manulife Financial U.S. Operations Headquarters. Another area that Sasaki become renowned for was in evoking [modernism] into many of the college campuses that we find in America today. His works were recognized to inspire creativity, accommodate the large, growing populations, and to have deep aesthetic value. His modern works became internationally recognized and he was asked to implement his creativity into landscapes everywhere.

MARTHA SCHWARZ

Noted for her exploration of new design expression in the landscape, Schwartz’s projects span the globe; from her striking Dublin Docklands project in Ireland to the Children’s Discovery Centre in Damascus, Syria, Schwartz’s project portfolio is extremely diverse. Recent and current projects include: Leamouth Peninsula, London, UK; Wellington Place, Leeds, UK; St Mary’s Churchyard, London, UK Cosmopolitan Casino, Las Vegas, USA; Frederiks Brygge Master Plan, Copenhagen, Denmark; Qatar Petroleum Headquarters, Doha, Qatar; Al Ain Sports City, Al Ain, UAE; Mesa Arts Center, Arizona, USA; Master Plan for Lulu Island, UAE, Jacob Javits Convention Center Plaza, New York City, USA, Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Washington, USA and many others.
The Docklands Authority selected American Landscape Architect, Martha Schwartz, to design the space. Her design features a striking composition of a red “carpet” extending from the theatre into and over the dock crossed by a lush green “carpet” of paving with lawns and vegetation. The red “carpet” will be made of bright red resin-glass paving covered with red glowing angled light sticks. The green “carpet” of polygon-shaped planters will offer ample seating and will connect the new hotel to the office development across the square. The planters will feature marsh vegetation to soften the space and to act as a reminder of the historic wetland nature of the site. These will bring colour and variety to the space and act as a setting for the new buildings. Grand Canal Square will be further criss-crossed by granite-paved paths that allow movement across it in any possible direction, while still allowing for the Square to host major public events such as festivals and performances. The layout will accommodate a diverse range of activities throughout the day and night. The Square itself will become a stage for street performance and the sloped under-croft of the Theatre will also encourage outdoor acoustic performance. The bar and restaurant terraces of the hotel will come alive in the morning and afternoon sunshine, and the dramatic glazed under-croft of the Theatre building will light up at night to reveal spectators as actors on the urban stage.

GOLDEN GATE PARK, S.FRANCISCO

What’s larger than New York’s Central Park, once consisted of sand dunes, is now covered with more than one million trees and is bison-friendly?
Golden Gate Park — the ultimate haven away from urban chaos — was deeded to the people in 1870 out of the prescient notion that San Franciscans would one day feel overcrowded. This foresight proved invaluable, as 75,000 people now visit the park on an average weekend. Finding the land was the easy part. Someone still had to make grass and trees grow out of sand dunes blasted by harsh oceanside winds.
The person to do it was John McLaren, a brazen Scotsman and ardent nature lover. He arrived in San Francisco in the 1870s, and by 1890 he had established grass, trees and numerous plants in an environment most thought too barren for lush foliage.
The first buildings came with the Midwinter Fair, a sprawling expo and carnival meant to boost the economy and increase tourism. S.F. wanted to prove that it had culture — so a fine-arts museum was built. To prove that outdoor activities could be pursued, horse stables and vast, unlandscaped greens were preserved. And to showcase the exotic and quirky atmosphere of the city, several theme areas were developed, including Cairo Street, Japanese Village and an Eskimo habitat.
The fair succeeded at what it set out to do. Millions of people visited San Francisco, business boomed and locals found renewed pride in their formerly sand-covered park.

The Park Today
Though the park has seen changes over the years, what remains today is a testament to the will of the city to preserve a place to play, relax and grow culturally. The new de Young museum is sure to bring a new wave of visitors, as the re-opening of the Conservatory of Flowers did in 2003. The music concourse is being improved and should open in early- to mid-2006, perhaps around the same time the Murphy Windmill returns from repairs in the Netherlands. The California Academy of Sciences is due to re-open in 2008. The old horse stables, closed in 2001, may be renovated starting in 2007. And a new, temporary disc golf course is being evaluated in late 2005 for long-term feasibility.

FLETCHER STEELE

Born – Died : 1885 – 1971
When considering the development of Art Deco and Modernism in American gardens, Fletcher Steele is the key figure. He had a design training; he had design talent he was interested in Modern Art; he gave his professional papers to the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), which deposited them in libraries, so that his work can be studied. Robin Karson published an account of his work in 1989 but he has not received the recognition he deserves. Her book opens with an inspiring quote from Fletcher Steele “I want all my places to seem the homes of children and lovers. I want them to be comfortable and if possible slightly mysterious by day, with vistas and compositions appealing to the painter. I want them to be delirious in the moonlight…. I believe that there is no beauty without ugliness and that it should not be otherwise. Both are capable of stinging us to live. Contrast is more true to me than undeviating smugness. The chief vice in gardens is to be merely pretty.” Fletcher Steele also remarked that ‘Next to cooking, gardening seems to be the most ephemeral of the arts’. Steele was born in Rochester, New York, the child of a lawyer and a pianist. They accepted the profession he had chosen in childhood and made sure he obtained a general education at Williams College. Fletcher Steele learned social graces befitting his future clientele – witty conversation, a zest for alcohol, a liking for female company and ability to charge high fees. After taking his degree Steel joined the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Harvard in 1907, at the age of 22. Harvard had begun teaching undergraduate landscape architecture in 1900 and replaced this course with a graduate programme in 1906. Fletcher Steele was in the second intake. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr was one of the teachers. In his two years at Harvard Steele considered that ‘The one great teacher I had there, Denman Ross, more than made up for a lot of wasted time’. Ross taught aesthetic theory, not landscape architecture, and remained a friend after his pupil left Harvard.. In 1908 Fletcher Steele withdrew from his course when was offered an apprenticeship with Warren Manning, a former assistant of the elder Olmsted and a founder of ASLA. Manning had worked in his father’s nursery before joining the Olmsted firm and taking charge of their planting plans. He adopted the picturesque style and was interested in city planning. In 1913 Steele obtained leave of absence for a 4-month tour of Europe. He was deeply impressed by the famous sights and filled his sketchbook with notes and drawings of the great gardens. On returning to America Fletcher Steele decided to found his own practice. His early garden plans are well-represented by the diagram of the Arts and Crafts style but, like Charles Platt, his detailing was more directly influenced by Italy than was the work of his English predecessors, Jekyll, Blomfield and Mawson. Steele used balustrades, hedges, urns, statuary, stone pineapples and flights of water steps. His interest in planting design was correspondingly less. He spoke of ‘plant material’ as one of the elements in a composition. Steele’s inventive design talent is unmistakable. He had a sense of proportion and an interest in geometry. His curves flow. They are related to the contours. He experiments with the relationship between curved and straight lines. His detailing is always fresh. Steele lacked technical knowledge but had the good sense to employ assistants with an engineering bent. Fletcher Steele spent time in Europe, with the American Red Cross, during the First World War and became a regular summer visitor after the war. In 1922 he wrote an essay on ‘French Gardens and Their Racial Characteristics’.in which he reviewed, critically, the work of the Vera brothers (Andr� and Paul) who admired cubism. In 1925 he visited the Paris Exposition of Modern Decorative Art (the ‘Art Deco Exposition’) and saw examples of cubist gardens with mirrors, concrete and coloured gravel. In 1930 Fletcher Steele wrote with enthusiasm of the garden designs of Andr� V�ra, Tony Garnier and Gabriel Guevrekian. Dan Kiley identified this article as a key influence on his own career. Steele’s first opportunity to develop this enthusiasm came with his work for Helen Ellwanger in the 1930s. The rose garden was described by Steele in 1935 as ‘almost modernistic’ and would now be classified as Art Deco. It was made in what was then the most revolutionary of garden materials: concrete. A bold diagonal runs from curved steps up to and across an intricately patterned terrace. In 1926 Fletcher Steele met Mabel Choate who became his more important client. Aged 56, to his 41, she was about to inherit the family fortune and Naumkeag. Stanford White (McKim’s partner) had been her mother’s architect and Mabel knew how to work with designers. The Afternoon Garden (c1930) was her first project with Steele. In 1934 they extended the garden, with bold flowing curves, into the South Lawn. A Chinese garden was made (1937-9) and stimulated their interest in colour. In 1938 they worked on what became Steele’s most famous project, the Blue Steps at Naumkeag. The Oxford Companion to Gardens describes this beautiful design as follows: ‘In the Blue Steps (of concrete painted light blue) rising in sweeps over small cascades through a birch wood, which he created, selecting trees of various sizes, he has successfully re-interpreted Renaissance forms in terms of the modern concern for values of space, form, texture and colour’. In 1952 Steele designed a rose garden with eleven scalloped waves of pink gravel. Steel’s importance in the development of American landscape architecture, and the modern garden, lies in his influence on the young designers who passed through Harvard in the 1930s: Kiley, Eckbo and Rose. He proved to them the importance of creative design and the potential of modern art. As Eckbo remarked that Fletcher Steele was ‘the transitional figure between the old guard and the moderns. He interests me because he was an experimenter’. Kiley says ‘Steele was the only good designer working during the twenties and thirties, also the only one who was really interested in new things’.

FERNANDO CARUNCHO

For more info visit:

http://www.fernandocaruncho.com

EDWARD DURELL STONE

(born March 9, 1902, Fayetteville, Ark., U.S. — died Aug. 6, 1978, New York, N.Y.) U.S. architect. He earned architecture degrees and traveled in Europe before joining the New York City firm that designed Radio City Music Hall. In 1936 he organized his own architectural firm. A leading exponent of the International Style, he designed El Panamá Hotel in Panama City (1946), the U.S. embassy in New Delhi (1954), the U.S. pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair (1958), the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (1971), and the Aon Center in Chicago (1974). He also taught at Yale University (1946 – 52).

KATHRIN GUSTAFSON

Kathryn Gustafson, the Landscape Architect, established her practice in Paris in 1980, working as a sole practitioner in collaboration with architects, artists, and engineers.
Kathryn initially studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City before moving to Paris to study landscape architecture at the Ecole Nationale Superieure du Paysage in Versaille, France where she obtained her Diploma in 1979. Through her private practice, she has won a series of high profile landscape projects including the corporate headquarters for Shell, Esso and l’Oreal near Paris, a new park in Terrasson la Villedieu which has become a listed landmark, the Square of Human Rights in Evry and Square Rachmaninov in Paris.
Kathryn Gustafson now works throughout the world with the two offices, Gustafson Porter in London and Gustafson Guthrie Nichol in Seattle.

For more info visit:

http://www.katherinegustafson.com

STEVE MARTINO

For more info visit:

http:// www.stevemartino.net

THE GETTY GARDENS, LOS ANGELES

The 134,000-square-foot Central Garden at the Getty Center is the work of artist Robert Irwin. The design of the Central Garden re-establishes the natural ravine between the Museum and the Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities with an inviting, tree-lined walkway that leads the visitor through an extraordinary garden experience. The walkway traverses a stream planted on each side with a variety of grasses and gradually descends to a plaza where bougainvillea arbors provide scale and a sense of intimacy. The stream continues through the plaza and ends in a cascade of water over a stone waterfall or “chadar,” into a pool in which a maze of azaleas floats. Around the pool is a series of specialty gardens, each with a variety of plant material. All of the foliage and materials of the garden have been selected to accentuate the interplay of light, color, and reflection.The process of creating the Central Garden began for Irwin in 1992, when he started working with Harold M. Williams and Stephen D. Rountree of the J. Paul Getty Trust in consultation with Richard Meier, the architect of the Getty Center. Irwin has also worked closely with Richard Naranjo, the Getty’s manager of grounds and gardens, and the landscape architecture firm of Spurlock Poirier, in finalizing all facets of the garden.

The Central Garden
The Central Garden, created by renowned artist Robert Irwin, lies at the heart of the Getty Center. The 134,000-square-foot design features a natural ravine and tree-lined walkway that leads the visitor through an extraordinary experience of sights, sounds, and scents.The walkway traverses a stream that winds through a variety of plants and gradually descends to a plaza where bougainvillea arbors provide scale and a sense of intimacy. Continuing through the plaza, the stream cascades over a stone waterfall or “chadar,” into a pool with a floating maze of azaleas. Specialty gardens encircle the pool. All of the foliage and materials of the garden have been selected to accentuate the interplay of light, color, and reflection.The Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is one of two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum. The museum’s permanent collection includes “pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs”. Among the works on display is the painting Irises by Vincent van Gogh.The Center, which opened on December 16, 1997, is also well known for its architecture, gardens, and views (overlooking Los Angeles). Besides the Museum, the Center’s buildings house the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, and the administrative offices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which owns and operates the Center.

DAN KILEY

Dan Kiley was born in Boston Mass in 1912. From the age of 20 to 26 he worked in the office of Warren Manning. Like Fletcher Steele, who had worked for Manning 30 years before, he then enrolled in Harvard’s landscape architecture programme. He made friends with his classmates James Rose and Garret Eckbo and, like Steele, left before graduating. Kiley took a job, as Associate Town Planning Architect, with the United States Housing Authority where he had the good fortune to make friends with Louis Kahn and Eero Saarinen. Kiley left the Authority in 1940 and began to work on residential projects, including a garden for the Edmund Bacon (later the author of Design of cities). From 1942-45 Kiley served with the Army Corps of Engineers, including a spell as architect for the Nuremberg Trials Courtroom, which gave him an opportunity to visit European Gardens. The geometrical purity of Le N�tre impressed him, and laid the basis for his own future classicism. In 1955 he worked with Saarinen on the Miller garden. Inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion, and the De Stijl movement, it had a grid plan and full integration of indoor with outdoor space. As in Palladian villas, geometrical shapes were valued for their Neoplatonic purity. Palladio projected the geometry of the Villa Rotunda to form the entrance steps, but no further. Kiley and Saarinen projected the grid of the building to structure the outdoor space around the building in a Mondrian-type asymmetrical pattern. There was also a picturesque transition from Garden to Meadow to Wood. The Miller garden was widely acclaimed and became a key American example of the Abstract style. It is at once splendidly modern and rooted in tradition. Like Palladio and Schoenmaekers, Kiley believes the perfect geometrical forms have a cosmic awareness. He aimed to ‘express this connectedness with the universe’ in his design approach. Kiley’s subsequent projects, evidencing a beautifully proportioned grid-based classicism, include the United States Air Force Academy, the Oakland Museum, Independence Mall in Philadelphia, the Dallas Museum of Art, and Fountain Place in Texas. In her book on The Modern Garden (2000) Jane Brown rightly describes Kiley as ‘the supreme master of the modern garden’.

BUFFALO BAYOU, CITTY OF HOUSTON

About the Watershed
The Buffalo Bayou watershed is located in west-central Harris County and drains an area that is mostly within the City of Houston and, to a lesser degree, the Memorial Villages. Buffalo Bayou is the largest primary stream within the watershed and also the sole outlet for the Addicks and Barker reservoirs. The bayou flows into the Houston Ship Channel after combining with White Oak Bayou and passing through downtown Houston. Buffalo Bayou becomes the Houston Ship Channel at the Turning Basin. The Buffalo Bayou watershed covers approximately 103 square miles and has about 47 miles of open streams within the watershed, including the primary stream and tributary channels. The estimated population within the watershed (Harris County portion) is just over 410,000.
Land Use
The watershed is almost entirely urbanized, except for the Clodine Ditch sub-area near Barker Reservoir, which is partially undeveloped.
Completed Plan Features
Early regional planning for the entire watershed was completed by the Corps. The Corps enlarged and straightened Buffalo Bayou from the Addicks and Barker dam outlets to approximately where Beltway 8 exists today.
Upstream of the I-610 West Loop, there are numerous tributaries flowing into Buffalo Bayou which have been included in various levels of subregional planning. Some are now concrete-lined channels, or have been fully enclosed as storm sewer systems; others have not been modified. Addicks and Barker Reservoirs were constructed to protect areas downstream along Buffalo Bayou and downtown Houston. Linear stormwater detention, to store excess flood waters, has been constructed by the District in the right-of-way of Buffalo Bayou between Wilcrest Drive and Dairy Ashford Road.
Environment
Buffalo Bayou passes through Terry Hershey Park, Memorial Park and Sam Houston Park. Although the watershed is highly urbanized, maintenance is generally limited to clearing debris blockages. Buffalo Bayou downstream of Beltway 8 is heavily wooded and in a natural state. Upstream of Beltway 8 to the reservoirs, Buffalo Bayou was cleared and enlarged in the 1950’s, but has since regained natural characteristics.

ANDREA COCHRAN

Philosophy
Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture’s distinct body of work places its clients’ individual narratives in conversation with the land to create designs with deeply personal meanings. Based in San Francisco, the firm maintains a diverse set of projects to foster a cross-pollination of ideas between residential gardens and commercial and institutional projects. The firm principal, Andrea Cochran, is a leader in her local design community and a strong believer in civic contribution. She currently serves as a commissioner on the civic design committee of the San Francisco Arts Commission and on the executive board for the Architecture and Design Forum at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Ms. Cochran was a finalist in Landscape Architecture for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards in 2006.

Awards and Exhibitions
2006 Finalist in Landscape Architecture
Cooper-Hewitt Museum, National Design Awards

2006 Invited Juror for Professional Awards Jury
American Society of Landscape Architects

2006 Merit Award in Design for San Francisco Private Residence
American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter

2006 Best Affordable Housing Award for Curran House
Residential Architect Magazine

2005 Honor Award in Residential Design for Ivy Street Roof Terrace
American Society of Landscape Architects

2005 Invited Juror for National Design Awards
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

2005 National Green Building Award for Dore & Folsom Apartments
AIA

2005 Merit Award in Design for the Stanford Private Residence
American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter

2005 Excellence in Architecture Honor Award for the
Visiting Artists House at Sheep Ranch, with Jim Jennings Architecture
American Institute of Architects, San Francisco

2005 Gold Nugget Grand Awards
Best Affordable, Sustainable Residential Neighborhood,
Attached Residential Project of the Year
for Folsom Dore Apartments with David Baker + Partners Architects
Pacific Coast Builders Conference

2005 National Green Building Award
for Folsom Dore Apartments with David Baker + Partners Architects
American Institute of Architects

2005 Unbuilt Design Citation
Maison D’Acier in Akron, OH, with Fougeron Architecture
AIA, San Francisco

2004 Merit Award in Design for the Pacific Heights Private Residence
American Society of Landscape Architects

2004 Merit Award in Design for the Hillsborough Private Residence
American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter

2003 Honor Award in Design for the Pacific Heights Residence
American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter

2003 Merit Award for Hotel Healdsburg
AIA, California Council

2003 Merit Award in Design for the Ivy Street Roof Terrace
American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter

2002 Merit Award in Design for the Ward Residence
American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter

2001 Honor Award in Design for the Wong Residence
American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter

2001 Honor Award for Renovation and Expansion for Portland Art Museum, with Ann Beha Architects
Boston Society of Architects

1994 Movable Landscapes and Site Furnishings Award for the Bank of America, Corporate Center Roof Renovation, from Landscape Architecture Magazine

ROBERTO BURLE MARX

Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909, São Paulo – June 4, 1994, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian landscape designer (besides being a painter, ecologist and naturalist) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world famous. He is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape architecture to Brazil. He was known as a modern nature artist and a public urban space designer.Burle Marx’s first landscaping inspirations came while studying painting in Germany, where he often visited the Dahlem Botanical Gardens and first learned about Brazil’s native flora. Upon returning to Brazil in 1930, he began collecting plants in and around his home. In 1932, Burle Marx designed his first landscape for a private residence by the architects Lucio Costa and Gregori Warchavchik.In 1949 he acquired the 365,000m² estate Barra de Guaratiba (just outside of Rio de Janeiro) to house his growing collection of plants. This property was donated to the Brazilian government in 1985 and became a national monument. Now called Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, under the direction of IPHAN-Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional / Ministério da Cultura, it houses over 3,500 species of plants and can be reached at (21) 2410-1412. The house was rebuilt in a valley opening on the site of a garden house belonging to the original plantation estate.Roberto Burle Marx founded a landscape studio in 1955 and in the same year he founded a landscape company, called Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda.Much of his work has a sense of timelessnes and perfection. His creations were each unique expressions of thought. His aesthetics were often nature based, for example, never mixing flower colours, utilisation of big groups of the same specimen, using native plants and making a rocky field into relaxing garden. He was very interested in each plant’s character and what effect that has on the whole garden.He spent a lot of time in the Brazilian forests where he was able to study and explore. This enabled him to add significantly to the botantical sciences, by discover new rocks plants for example. At least 30 plants bear his name.

JINJI LAKE, CHINA

World-Class Landscape Design
To create a world-class landscape design, EDAW’s senior landscape designers researched successful waterfronts around the world. They created the design for Jinji Lake around eight key principles:

Develop a hierarchy of open spaces, elements, and functions for different uses.
Design an interesting and dynamic public open space and waterfront design.
Incorporate active commercial and civic uses into open space to provide economic vitality.
Provide a variety of recreational and educational opportunities.
Create a unique identity for each neighborhood.
Establish a cohesive visual and public connection around the lake.
Use the latest techniques for naturally improving the lake water quality.
Orient residential streets to the lake to allow views of the waterfront.
Public open spaces at Jinji Lake are realized in a series of culturally resonant, sensitively sited and designed, and exactingly executed parks and plazas. The newly built communities of Cityside Harbor and the Waterfront Promenade are on the edge of a mixed-use City and create large-scale public gathering places that for the first time allow the residents of Suzhou to gather and recreate informally in large open spaces.
Because Jinji Lake is one of China’s cleanest and largest lakes, EDAW took special measures in the design to clean surface water by using natural and created wetlands along receiving streams to filter pollutants in agricultural and urban stormwater runoff. The southern area of the waterfront will contain a large Eco-Park, to educate the public about the importance of environmental sustainability, water quality, and proper stewardship of the lake’s resources. Environmental preserves have been enhanced with viewing areas and interpretive facilities.

Design Philosophy
The design philosophy of Jinji Lake is a minimalist palette focused on raising the awareness of the beauty of the natural landscape element rather than the more conventional Chinese landscape archetypes of enhancing natural features behind shrubbery or ornate park structures. The design promotes the use of traditional craftsmanship with local materials, such as granite and wood. The choice of materials complements the traditional beauty of old town Suzhou, and provides a global, modern interpretation of the rhythms, materials and colors of the old city. The craftsmanship at Jinji Lake has set new standards in China by which other public spaces are now being judged. The details are simple and easily maintained, restrained and well executed. The materials are all locally made or derived, and the color palette is natural and subdued. The plantings are indigenous and sustainable year round. The focus on open space and a sense of expansiveness is amplified by the seamless connection of the sky, water, and plaza at the horizon line.The landscape features range from a festival plaza to intimate boardwalks; a waterfront promenade to a rolling picturesque park and wooded camphor forest.These parks and open spaces are open day and night all year round, changing in character and subtleties over the seasons. Safety and maintenance procedures have been implemented and maintained as envisioned in the design. As Chinese culture embraces the idea of public open space, the peoples’ love of the land has been re-ignited. On the weekends the parks are flooded with crowds escaping the old city (and Shanghai, only one hour away) to the open landscapes and waterfront parks along the lake.

Artistic Features
SIPAC understood that attracting world-class companies would require that the Jinji Lake development encompass certain western customs and high-tech amenities that would blend the two cultures. This challenge resulted in a fusion of art and culture that extended local traditional craftsmanship and built an international appeal into the landscape design.

MILLENIUM PARK, CHICAGO

Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers.Among Millennium Park’s prominent features are the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion , the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States; the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the contemporary Lurie Garden designed by the team of Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel and Anish Kapoor’s hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture on the AT&T Plaza. Since its opening in July 2004, Millennium Park has hosted millions of people, making it one of the most popular destinations in Chicago.

GARDEN OF LIGHT, IRELAND

Omagh actually receives the least amount of sunshine in Ireland. Because of its position, the bomb site is more often than not in the shade.In the Memorial Garden, about 300 yds. around the corner, large mirrors positioned by computer control track the sun constantly, and when it shines pour beams of sunlight via nearby arrays, onto 31 pole-mounted small mirrors, one for each life lost. These are directed to send the light down the street where another array of mirrors bends it around the corner, and via one small mirror mounted on the nearby gable into the heart inside the obelisk. There is an ‘ideal’ viewing point on the opposite pavement, where the viewer can look through the pillar and back up the beam of sunlight; as seen in the photo.The ‘pillar’, the final form of which was designed, as well as other elements, by landscape architect Desmond Fitzgerald who is also responsible for the Memorial Garden, is influenced both by obelisks and cenotaphs.

FREEWAY PARK, SEATTLE

Freeway Park, Seattle

Freeway Park, executed by Lawrence Halprin’s office under the design direction of Angela Danadjieva, is one of the most compelling treatises on post-War landscape architecture that survives today. Perched above Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle and using 5.5 acres of interstate air rights, the linked spaces of the park evocatively and imaginatively engage the three major preoccupations of post-War landscape design as described by Elizabeth K. Meyer: the car, the garden and the growing awareness of ecology. Yet like so many other modernist works, Freeway Park is threatened by poor maintenance, shrinking budgets and the threats attendant with community revitalization.

SIMCOE WAVEDECK, TORONTO

Spadina WaveDeck

Fun… sexy… unique. The sleek, curving design of Toronto’s new waterfront WaveDeck isn’t the only attractive aspect of the latest addition to our evolving waterfront. Today it was unveiled, coming in at half a million dollars under budget and opening two weeks ahead of schedule, after eight months of intense construction.Acrobats danced across the deck at today’s ribbon-cutting. The wonderful flamboyant new deck more than doubles the width of a pedestrian space that used to be grimly utilitarian. The deck is the latest in the Waterfront redesign by Adriaan Geuze, whose Dutch firm West 8 won Toronto’s 2006 Waterfront design competition. Over time, a vibrant lakeside walkway will stretch from Bathurst to Parliament Street. Waterfront Toronto is transforming Toronto’s central waterfront by creating a bold new look and unified design for the 3.5 km area running from Bathurst Street to Parliament Street. Soon Torontonians will be able to walk from one end of the central waterfront to the other on a continuous water’s edge promenade; enjoy spectacular new open spaces that feature breathtaking views of the lake and city skyline; and bicycle or jog along a new section of the popular Martin Goodman Trail. A key feature of Waterfront Toronto’s central waterfront design is a series of wooden wavedecks that resemble the contours of the Lake Ontario shoreline and provide generous public gathering spaces at main waterfront streets. These unique spaces will also act as gateways to the waterfront. The transformation of the central waterfront will include four wavedecks located at Spadina Avenue, and Rees, Simcoe and Parliament streets. The wavedecks provide visitors with an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the lake in areas that previously lacked public access. The Spadina WaveDeck opened in late-summer of 2008 followed by Simcoe WaveDeck in June 2009 and Rees WaveDeck in July 2009. Located at the foot of Spadina Avenue, the 630 square-metre wooden wavedeck offers Torontonians a new waterside gathering place in an area that was formerly a narrow sidewalk and lacked public access to the lake. Built in less than 10 months, the Spadina WaveDeck creates more public space along one of the most heavily used parts of the Toronto shoreline. This project will also help to stitch together the Music Garden and HTO Park, two already revitalized public spaces on Toronto’s Waterfront.In addition to the installation of the wooden wavedeck, construction activities also included dockwall repairs, in-water fisheries habitat construction and landscape improvements.

CAL ANDERSON PARK, SEATTLE

Cal Anderson Park, Seattle

Formerly known as Lincoln Reservoir, this site was originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers in 1904. The master plan included the construction of a new underground, lidded reservoir in order to comply with water-quality and security standards while increasing the usable park area. This adaptive redesign of the Olmsted plan opened up 4 acres of urban open space in one of the region’s most densely developed neighborhoods. Input from neighborhood groups and the community resulted in a design that allowed the new park to be both a gathering place and an urban open space for the whole city.

HIGHLINE PARK, NEW YORK

Before it was turned into a park, the line was in disrepair, although the riveted steel elevated structure was basically sound. Wild grasses, plants, and rugged trees such as sumac grew along most of the route. It was slated for demolition under the administration of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.In 1999, neighborhood residents Robert Hammond and Joshua David created the community group Friends of the High Line to push the idea of turning the High Line into an elevated park or greenway, similar to the Promenade plantée in Paris.The Standard HotelIn 2004, the New York City government committed $50 million to establish the proposed park. On June 13, 2005, the U.S. Federal Surface Transportation Board issued a certificate of interim trail use, allowing the city to remove most of the line from the national railway system. On April 10, 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg presided over a ceremony that marked the beginning of construction. The project is being undertaken by New York-based landscape firm of James Corner, Field Operations, with plant-selection advice from Piet Oudolf of the Netherlands, and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Major backers have included Diane von Furstenberg,her husband Barry Diller and their children Alexander von Furstenberg and Tatiana von Furstenberg, and Philip Falcone. Hotel developer Andre Balazs, owner of the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, built the 337-room Standard Hotel straddling the High Line at West 13th Street. The southern section of the High Line park, running from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street, opened to the public on June 9, 2009. This southern section includes five stairways and an auxiliary elevator at 16th Street. An elevator at 14th Street is scheduled to begin operation in July 2009.View south where the tracks run through the second floor of the Chelsea Market building, with a side track and pedestrian bridgeThe park welcomes visitors with naturalized plantings that are inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the disused tracks and with new, often unexpected views of the city and the Hudson River. Pebble-dash concrete walkways unify the trail, which swells and constricts, swinging from side to side, and divides into concrete tines that will meld the hardscape with the planting embedded in railroad gravel mulch. Stretches of track and ties recall the High Line’s former use. Most of the planting, which includes 210 species, is of rugged meadow plants, including clump-forming grasses, liatris and coneflowers, with scattered stands of sumac and smokebush, but not limited to American natives. At the Gansevoort end, a grove of mixed species of birch already provides some dappled shade by late afternoon. Ipe timber for the built-in benches has come from a managed forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, to ensure sustainable use, conservation of biological diversity, water resources, and fragile ecosystems.The park will eventually extend from Gansevoort Street north to 30th Street where the elevated tracks turn west around the Hudson Yards development project to the Javits Convention Center on 34th Street. The northernmost section, from 30th to 34th Streets, is still owned by the CSX railroad company.Bloomberg noted that the High Line project has helped usher in something of a renaissance in the neighborhood: by 2009, more than 30 projects are planned or under construction nearby.

JENS JENSEN

Humboldt Prairie River, on west side of Humboldt Drive, is a meandering stream designed in 1906 by the Jens Jensen, the founder of the prairie-style of landscape architecture. Inspired by Midwestern natural landscapes, Jens Jensen designed a long narrow waterway to look like a natural prairie river, linking it with the park’s existing lagoon. Historically, the prairie river forked off into two rocky brooks with lovely water cascades. There were also stepping stone paths and simple footbridges that fit well into Jensen’s naturalistic vision for the area. The river was edged with native aquatic plants and prairie grasses. Its southern portion was surrounded by perennial gardens with views of the nearby rose garden. In 2003, the Chicago Park District undertook a major restoration of the Humboldt Prairie River which included dredging filled-in portions of the River, reconnecting it to the main lagoon, redesigning pedestrian pathways, restoring stony brooks and waterways, thinning weedy trees, removing non-native invasive plant species, reintroducing native wetland, prairie grasses and wildflowers, and installing a circulation system to pump water from the north end of the Prairie River to the south end. This circulation system improves water quality and ends the wasteful practice of continually drawing on city water to feed the Prairie River. Also solar panels and a wind turbine were installed to provide renewable energy to power the circulation pump. Powering the pumps with renewable “green” energy saves money, reduces air pollution and conserves resources. Humboldt Park also has a swimming lagoon and fishing lagoon. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources stocks the lagoon with bluegill, crappie, green sunfish, pumpkin seed, rock bass, largemouth bass, channel catfish, bullhead, and carp. Other aquatic life at the lagoon may include waterstriders, crayfish, dragonflies and other insects, turtles, tadpoles, frogs and toads, and waterfowl. The Park District provides a worm pit for fishermen to use, in an effort for limit shoreline disturbance caused by anglers digging for worms. Limestone fishing stations and lagoon edge plantings were installed in 2003 as part of a lagoon shoreline restoration program.

PINAR DEL PERRUQUET PARK, SPAIN

Architect: ARTEKS Arquitectura
Location: La Pineda (Vila-Seca), Spain
Architects in charge: Gerard Veciana Membrado & Elisabet Faura Pavia
Arteks Collaborators: Elena Berri, Laia Esteban,Gemma Roca, Carlos Cobreros, Fermin Sánchez, Alex Miralles, Ricard Blanco, Miquel Mercè, Manuel González
Constructed Area: 28,000 sqm
Project Year: 2008

PARC DIAGONAL MAR, SPAIN

One of the legacies of the 1992 Olympic Games was the city’s decision to reclaim and redevelop Barcelona’s waterfront, which paved the way for Diagonal Mar, a $900 million mixed-use project begun in 1997 with a ten-year development plan. The major public space, the third largest park in Barcelona after Parc Guell and Parc de la Civtadella, known as Parc Diagonal Mar, is located on a former railyard once hidden behind downtrodden industrial buildings and railroad maintenance sheds that bordered the Mediterranean Sea waterfront.Half of the 84-acre mixed-use development is devoted to open space, including the 34-acre Parc Diagonal Mar, which opened in September 2002. In addition to extending the Avenida Diagonal and providing direct access from the surrounding neighborhoods to the Mediterranean Sea, the development comprises five residential projects consisting of 1,400 units within 15 buildings, three hotels with a total of 950 rooms, three Class “A” office towers totaling 613,320 square feet, a retail center of more than 1 million square.The design concept connects the surrounding working class neighborhoods, with hundreds of thousands of residents, to the Mediterranean Sea, using Parc Diagonal Mar as the greenway. As a gateway to the sea for locals and visitors, Parc Diagonal Mar contains playgrounds, a waterfall, shaded seating areas, sports facilities, an outdoor café, fountains, and viewing mounds, grouped around a large central lake with many fountains and sprays, and linked by paths that lead to the sea. Conceived as an abstract tapestry in plan view, the park is enjoyed from above by high-rise residents. The plan of Parc Diagonal Mar is a playful and exuberant mixture of pavements, water and plantings meant to evoke a canvas of modern art. It reflects the sensibilities of its site in Barcelona and its strong tradition of modern art and architecture. In this case, the landscape is object, not background, and the frame of high rise residential towers built at its perimeter becomes the unifying backdrop. The design incorporates a number of engaging, playful, interactive elements such as the musical squares, sculptural mist fountains, custom playscapes and unique seating elements. These, combine with the open space and water elements to create an exciting and memorable user-friendly park. The design process incorporated significant collaboration between the private developer and client and the public agencies for parks and urban design.

The park clearly addresses the main purposes for which it is intended: recreation, strolling, connection to the beach, and stormwater retention. These functions are given poetic expression through the artful use of basic materials: stone, steel, wood, concrete, water, and plants. Inspired hardscape detailing and creative use of native plants give the park a fresh appearance at all scales.The park features a palette of simple materials: concrete and brick pavements; wood benches and play equipment; and steel arbors and fountain supports. All materials were selected to weather the salty air of the seashore and the intensity of use expected for an urban park.Ecology played a meaningful role in the park’s design. In fact, Parc Diagonal Mar resulted in the first-ever public/private sustainability agreement in Spain, a pact between Hines and Barcelona’s town hall, which governed the park design, construction, and, now, its operation. Hines commissioned the design team to develop a Statement of Environmental Sustainability Report in English and Spanish/Catalan. The report called for sustainable development principles such as balancing human and natural resources; respecting interdependence of natural systems; respecting biological and cultural diversity, promoting social equity and economic development; balancing short-term and long-term needs and objectives; and conserving natural resources to be incorporated in the design of the park.

As a result of following the sustainable development principles, the park was designed with the following:
· Porous pavements that minimize storm water runoff.
· Native plants specified to curtail irrigation and pesticide applications.
· Time-controlled fountains and smaller fountains spray a mist at low pressure.
· Irrigation system water provided from the park’s lake.
· Wetland areas around parts of the lake for stormwater filtration
· Lake bottoms at two meters below water’s surface, allowing groundwater to be the lake’s primary source of water.
· Lake liner protected with a soil cap
· Recycled soil from excavated materials from the adjoining Diagonal Mar retail development.
· Grass clippings and other harvested vegetation will be composted.

This project is a prime example of the landscape architect’s role in the management of large teams of professionals, contractors, developers, community stakeholders and local governments. In addition, this project is a successful representation of the global collaboration between design firms. The connection that the park provides to new and old neighborhoods, as well as to the reclaimed beachfront, completes an effective collaboration between the city, developer, community and design team.

Parc Diagonal Mar provides the opportunity for the public to use an urban site that was once a vacant brownfield and has become a catalyst for redevelopment of the surrounding beach area. The new Diagonal road extension and the park have spurred many residential, office and retail developments in the area.

PARC CENTRALE NOU BARRIS, SPAIN

Landscape Architecture: A. Arriola, C. Fiol
Collaborators: E. Amat, X. Arriola, V. Bagnato, M. Boutin, A. Carreras, L. Dazio, D. Dethlefsen,M. Fiore, U. Huber,C. Kolar, I. Kuhn, M. Marugg, R. Nana, S. Rux, A. Soler
Budget: 15.884.031 €
Dates: project:1997
Work:1999-2004
Area:170.000m²
Project cost: 11.326.424 €

Arriola & Fiol: The construction of Nou Barris Park is the central intervention in the complete renewal of Barcelona’s eastern periphery. It was begun under the leadership of the politician Antoni Santiburcio, who died a year ago after a long struggle to transform the dismal periphery into a self-respecting area. With the new international Forum organized by Barcelona on the maritime front in 2004, the decision to finish the park is quite an achievement.The Nou Barris district is a part of Barcelona with no identity of its own. A vast conglomeration of different neighbourhoods with different urban histories and weak connectivity, it extends over eight square kilometers. Only after the 1992 Olympics, when the Ronda de Dalt ring road was finally built, was it connected to the rest of the city. Its potential was greatly increased, for the well-to-do areas in the west and the District of Nou Barris around Karl Marx Plaza are now only ten minutes apart.

IN SITU:THE EXHIBITION OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

IN SITU:ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE

The exhibition In Situ: Architecture and Landscape draws from the rich collection of The Museum of Modern Art to examine the diverse attitudes towards landscape over the last 100 years. Featuring approximately 60 drawings, models, and videos, projects include single houses that frame the landscape, designs for buildings based on the surrounding landscape, urban gardens that compose “nature” within the city, and parks that transform former industrial areas into new attractions. The exhibition closes with three cemeteries whose designs demonstrate that our relationship to landscape often transcends our quotidian needs. The exhibition is on view in The Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries, third floor, from April 8 to September 14, 2009. It is organized by Andres Lepik, Curator, and Margot Weller, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.In recent decades, landscape has taken on an expanded definition in architecture. In the first half of the twentieth century, the architectural avant-garde celebrated autonomy from nature, and architects devised utopian schemes for creating urban realms ex novo. More recently, however, the challenges of a threatened environment and rapidly expanding cities have fostered a revised understanding of landscape. Harmony between the spatial, social, and environmental aspects of human life has become a priority in political thought, and this has had profound reverberations in both architecture and landscape design. Landscape—no longer understood merely as nature untouched—now encompasses complex interventions by architects and landscape architects in urban and rural surroundings.Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Fallingwater, Edgar J Kaufmann House (1934-1937) in which architecture becomes part of a dramatic setting in the nature, and Mies van der Rohe’s Wolf House (1925-27), built atop a prominent ridge of Gubin overlooking the Neisse River Valley, are among the earliest examples in the exhibition. Other examples that demonstrate a similar profiting relationship between architecture and landscape are Edward Larrabee Barnes’ Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (1958-61), Emilio Ambasz’s Casa de Retiro Espiritual in Spain (1976-1979), and Diller + Scofidio’s Slow House project (1988-90). Hans Hollein’s Vulcania (1994-2001), Tadao Ando’s Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum in Osaka (1989-1994) or Toyo Ito’s Relaxation Park in Torrevieja, Spain (2001-2006) all seem to merge with their surroundings. Roberto Burle Marx’s lively landscape design for Saenz Pena Square (1948) and Duque de Caxias Square (1948) in Rio des Janeiro bring nature back into the densely populated city. These examples show his painterly style, mixing biomorphic abstraction with tropical planting into a new geometric language for urban gardens.

A contemporary approach for urban parks is the Southeast Coastal Park in Barcelona (2000-2004) by Foreign Office Architects. Inspired by seaside dunes, the parks gentle peaks swell to accommodate two open air-auditoriums. One of the famous competitions for the transformation of former industrial areas into “an urban parc for the twenty-first century” with new attractions is the Parc de la Vilette of 1982-83. Bernard Tschumi and Zaha Hadid had both developed highly complex concepts to create a new space for recreation, sports, and culture in which nature is included as one layer among many others. Cemeteries have also been a traditional exercise to combine architecture and landscape. This is represented in examples from Erik Gunnar Asplund’s Woodland Crematorium (1935-1940), Aldo Rossi’s San Cataldo Cemetery (1971-1984), and Enric Miralles and Carme Pinos’s Igualada Cemetery (1985-1996).

In Situ: Architecture and Landscape
April 8, 2009 – September 14, 2009
MoMA New York
The Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries, third floor