Pioneer Information
Born in Lipezk, Russia, which he fled in 1920, Timchenko studied landscape design and agriculture in France before arriving in the United States in 1926. He established a design practice in Washington, D.C., and completed commissions for many prominent Washingtonians, among them Mamie Eisenhower and Jacqueline Kennedy, whose Georgetown garden was designed during John F. Kennedy’s time in the Senate. His Washington, D.C.-area projects include Tompkins Hall at The George Washington University, the National Geographic Building, and the Watergate. He also designed a garden for former Ambassador George McGhee at his estate, Farmer’s Delight, in Leithtown, Virginia. Timchenko received awards from various organizations, including the First Lady’s Committee for a More Beautiful National Capital for his garden atop the Shoreham Hotel’s Regency Ballroom, and the American Association of Nurserymen for his landscape design of the Washington Hilton Hotel. Timchenko passed away in 1975 and is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. His epitaph remembers him simply as “Landscape Architect.”
