Shaping the American Landscape: New Profiles from the Pioneers of American Landscape Design Project

An indispensable reference work that may also be read simply for pleasure of discovery.

Publisher: 
University of Virginia Press, 2009

Logan Circle

An original component of the L’Enfant Plan for the Federal City of Washington, which applied a Baroque system of radiating, mostly diagonal, avenues with a superimposed grid of orthogonal streets. Divided into four quadrants, emanating from the centrally located U.S. Capitol, the intersection of the diagonal and orthogonal streets creates a network of geometrically- and irregularly-shaped public spaces known as “reservations.” Reservation No.

Roosevelt Common

An important example of the work of landscape architect Marjorie Sewell Cautley, the park was a gift of local residents Malcolm Sutherland Mackay, his wife Helen Raynor Mackay, and his sister, Jennie L. Mackay to the Tenafly Board of Education in 1924.The Common’s original 30 acres included an athletic field, a baseball diamond, an outdoor theatre, game grounds, school gardens, a picnic grove, and a woodlot for the Boy Scouts and demonstration center for the Girl Scouts.

Dallas Museum of Art

 Just three blocks from Fountain Place, built two years later, the Dallas Museum of Art garden is a Modernist plaza designed by Dan Kiley. This pair of commissions in the city of Dallas may represent the only instance in an American city (aside from myriad projects in Columbus, Indiana) where two Kiley designs were realized and survive today.

Fountain Place

 Located in the Arts District at the edge of the business district in downtown Dallas, Fountain Plaza, completed in 1986, is a 5.5 acre terraced plaza designed by landscape architect Dan Kiley with Peter Ker Walker and WET Design. Originally known as Allied Plaza, the public space is located at the foot of the Fountain Place office development, a 60-story, geometrically skewed, glass tower, designed by I.M.

Thanks-Giving Square

Located in downtown Dallas, Thanks-Giving Square is the vision of developer Peter Stewart who dreamed of a public place for ecumenical worship to reflect on the world’s blessings and commemorate the nation’s long observance of Thanksgiving. Stewart felt that a symbolic structure was essential to the program of the park and, after interviewing many architects, chose Philip Johnson, who he felt possessed a keen symbolic and historic sense.

University of St. Thomas, Houston

Located in the Montrose area of Houston, the campus of the University of St. Thomas (a Catholic liberal arts university) originally consisted of the 1912 Link-Lee mansion (now listed in the National Register of Historic Places). When John and Dominique de Menil, the renowned Houston philanthropists, turned their attention to creating a permanent campus for the university in the early 1950s, they instinctively thought of Philip Johnson, who had just completed their San Felipe Road residence, to design a campus master plan.

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Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1947, Edward Blake grew up in Mississippi and spent his career there as a landscape architect and educator.

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This symposium places a critical spotlight on influential landscape architects of the 20th century and will be held on October 8th at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, MA.

Event »

On September 25-26 in Washington, D.C., TCLF will host What¹s Out There Weekend, providing residents and visitors an opportunity to discover and explore 25 free, publicly accessible sites in the nation's capital.

Pioneers »

Born in New York City in 1913, Reich’s early childhood gave him an appetite for learning that characterized his entire life and which he shared with generations of students at LSU.