Creating landscapes for over 60 years, Halprin designed spaces that brought his knowledge and love of nature, movement, and social ideas into urban spaces.
Oral History Framework
Video Clips are divided into three categories: BIOGRAPHY, DESIGN, and PROJECTS
Each clip is between 1 and 7 minutes long.
Interview: Lawrence Halprin was interviewed in March 2003, and March and December 2008 by Charles A. Birnbaum at the Office of Lawrence Halprin (initially on Battery Street in San Francisco and later in Larkspur, California); the Halprin home and dance deck in Kentfield, California; and Sea Ranch, California and on-site at locations in and around San Francisco.
Reflections: Following Larry Halprin’s death on October 25, 2009, TCLF contacted clients and associates of the Office of Lawrence Halprin requesting they share their memories of Larry. Many responded enthusiastically. In addition to these letters, we have included eulogies from Halprin’s December 20 memorial service in San Francisco, by Charles A. Birnbaum, Donlyn Lyndon, John Parsons and Jahan Khalighi, Halprin’s grandson.
Yosemite is warmly remembered for family vacations and the influence of its forms on later work.
Production Credits and Acknowledgments
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR
DIRECTOR/EDITOR
James Sheldon
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Nancy Slade
VIDEOGRAPHERS
Tom Fox, Principal, SWA Group, Inc.
James Sheldon [FDR Memorial and Donnell Garden]
PROJECT MANAGER
Nancy Slade
VIDEO TRANSFER
Bill Tatum
The Lawrence Halprin Oral History Project would not have been possible without the assistance of many. The Cultural Landscape Foundation would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals and institutions for their financial support, their talents, and their collections.
Thank you to Larry and Anna Halprin for their extraordinary cooperation for three separate, multiple-day sessions; and to Dee Mullen of the Office of Lawrence Halprin for her enthusiasm and assistance in the production and post production aspects of videotaping. Special thanks go to Tom Fox and the SWA Group, Inc. for all their time and talent. In addition, many archives and institutions provided images from their collections. In particular, thanks go to Waverly Lowell at Environmental Design Archives, University of California- Berkeley; and Bill Whitaker and Nancy Thorne at the University of Pennsylvania Archives. Images of Yosemite Falls were provided by the Yosemite National Park Archives; Don Fox, FASLA; and Randy Fong, the National Park Service. Images of Anna Halprin’s Stern Grove performance work were provided courtesy of photographer John Felix Kokoska.
The Lawrence Halprin Oral History Module is grateful to the following
people and organizations who contributed funds to this project:
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund
Lucasfilm Foundation
Ryoko Lleyama
Richard Haag & Cheryl Trivison
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander
Gordon Radley
Van Strum & Towne
Harold & Jacque Eastman
Mimi & Peter Haas Fund
Milton Greenfield
Richard Vignolo
Sue Heinemann
Adrienne Roth
Dr. Ilene Serlin
Joel & Miriam Bennett
Anna Dibble
Photographs, prints, and drawings reproduced courtesy of the following individuals and institutions:
The Donnell Family; Environmental Design Archives, University of California- Berkeley;The 'Hashomer Hatzair archives - Givat Haviva - Yad Yaari's "Between Spring and Cloud" exhibition - photographers: Mordo Abrahmov Asher Benari, Yosef Drenger, Tzvi Marcus, Tzvi Nahor, David Perelmuter, Yehoshua Zamir; Lawrence Halprin and the Office of Lawrence Halprin; John Felix Kokoska; The Library of Congress - Carl Van Vechten Photographs - LC-USZ62-103665 DLC (b&w film copy neg.); Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division under the digital ID cph.3a36793 {Frank Lloyd Wright}; László Moholy-Nagy Portrait at the Institute of Design Chicago, by Vories Fisher, 1946, courtesy of Hattula Moholy-Nagy; Charles Moore Foundation; National Park Service; The Paul Rudolph Foundation; University of Pennsylvania Archives.
