TCLF in Minneapolis for ASLA
Attendees of The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF) events held in conjunction with the American Society of Landscape Architect’s (ASLA) Annual Conference on Landscape Architecture in Minneapolis got a warm and welcoming dose of “Minnesota nice” during their stay.
There were several TCLF-related events and activities that dovetailed with the ASLA conference beginning with the Annual Silent Auction (the nineteenth annual and the fourth consecutive year it was held entirely on line) and the perennially popular and always sold-out daylong excursion. This year it featured four residential projects of varying scale by the Minneapolis-based landscape architect Shane Coen and his team beginning with a 22-acre Lake Marion Estate, which includes a rich mix of wetlands, remnant oak savanna, and pristine maple-basswood forest linked by a network of paths that converge at varied spaces for gathering and contemplation: a Zen raking garden, a floating hammock garden, a recessed fire pit, a sculptural mound, and recreational areas. At each juncture, the path warps into walls, recessed seating areas, benches, raised wooden boardwalks, and distinct art installations of tree branches harvested from the site’s restoration effort.
The second residence, Bde Maka Ska, is sited at the highest elevation possible at the southernmost point of Lake Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun) taking full advantage of the varying topography maximizing both downtown and lake views. The landscape architects created a series of spaces diverse in character and function (e.g. pool terrace, outdoor kitchen, roof terrace) yet unified through the material palette.
Next, the group visited Mt. Curve, an exemplar of Modernist design and one of Architectural Record’s Houses of 1964,where the landscape was reimagined in 2019 to connect inside and outside, creating opportunities for residents and their guests to move through the site easily. Each of the residence’s four main garden “rooms” convey a distinct mood specifically tuned to the intended usage and accomplished through variations in material and planting palette.
A sumptuous lunch was held in a private dining room at the Walker Art Center before attendees boarded the tour jitney to the final destination, the Speckmann house, designed in 1956 by a University of Minnesota architecture professor (and the site of the group photo at top). The comprehensively redesigned landscape, on a highland location with views of the Minnesota River Valley, takes full advantage of the topography to create multiple linked outdoor rooms. A refined palette of concrete, steel, wood, and water, complements plant materials including a plinth-like lawn panel and white birch.
That evening a reception in honor of TCLF’s 25th anniversary was held in a private room at Orchestra Hall overlooking Peavey Plaza, originally designed by M. Paul Friedberg (1975) and rehabilitated by COEN + PARTNERS, working with Fluidity Design Consultants (fountains) and Tillett Lighting Design (2019). Peavey Plaza, one of Friedberg's most significant extant projects, is the progenitor of a typology that melds a park and a plaza; it received an American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Centennial Medallion in 1999. The site was the subject of years of the foundation's advocacy following plans to demolish it in 2012, which was ultimately halted following a lawsuit filed by TCLF and the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (now Rethos).
In January 2013 Peavey Plaza was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, where it was deemed “a nationally important Modernist landscape”; this was the first designation of a Friedberg-designed park. Local ASLA members documented the plaza for the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS), introducing one of the first Modernist landscapes to the archive, housed at the Library of Congress.
A prime participant in the National Register designation of Peavey Plaza, and more recently the threatened Hiawatha Golf Course, is former TCLF Board Member Charlene Roise. Indeed, her work at the historical consulting firm Hess Roise has been exceptionally and uniquely important and powerful in the stewardship of the city's landscape legacy. In recognition of her decades of thoughtful, professional, and meticulous work on behalf of the Twin Cities’ cultural heritage, a very surprised Roise was presented with a Stewardship Excellence Award by TCLF president & CEO, Charles A. Birnbaum. The honor was created in 2001 to “highlight stewardship stories that will educate and inspire future generations of cultural landscape stewards.” It was the first award post-pandemic award; the one prior was given in 2019 to the City of Minneapolis and Mayor Jacob Frey for the rehabilitation of Peavey Plaza.
The capstone of the evening was a memorial toast in honor of the Canadian landscape architect Claude Cormier, who passed away on September 15. Two principals from Cormier's firm, CCxA, Marc Hallé and Sophie Beudoin, offered touching, entertaining, and heartfelt remarks about their friend, collaborator, and mentor, who will be the subject of a TCLF Pioneers Oral History currently in production and slated for release next year.
Bookending the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture, on Monday evening, October 30, at the ASLA President’s Dinner, TCLF received the Olmsted Medal which was “instituted in 1990 to recognize individuals, organizations, agencies, or programs outside the profession of landscape architecture for environmental leadership, vision, and stewardship.” TCLF’s Birnbaum accepted the award on behalf of the foundation. In his remarks Birnbaum issued a call for greater collaboration in the landscape architecture profession and cited Olmsted who noted, “in unity there is strength, in disunion is weakness and waste.”
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