Pioneer Information
Born in Hartwell, Kansas, Berger graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Biology in 1925 and received his graduate degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard in 1928. After working for one year with the Long Island State Park Commission in 1930, he took a position with landscape architect Ferruccio Vitale. During this time, Berger oversaw the landscape construction at the Toledo Art Museum in Ohio and lectured at the University of Kansas, where he also assisted with landscape improvements. He went on to form a Midwest-based partnership with Lawrence G. Linnard, working on numerous large estates in Ohio and Michigan.
During the mid-1930s, Berger began to split his time between Ohio and Texas. After winning the commission to design the garden of Rancho Encinal, now part of the Dallas Arboretum, Berger established a permanent residence in Dallas. In 1946, Berger married his business partner, Marie Harbeck, and the two went on to lecture extensively on landscape architecture and complete 186 designs for private residences, college campuses, corporate headquarters, and resorts throughout the South and in Jamaica, much of which embraced a modernist approach. Berger became a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1959. He died from injuries sustained during a car accident August 13, 1960 at the age of 57.
