Paula Deitz
Afterword by John Dixon Hunt
University of Pennsylvania Press • Philadelphia • Oxford
PENN STUDIES IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
John Dixon Hunt, Series Editor
This series is dedicated to the study and promotion of a wide variety of approaches to landscape architecture, with special emphasis on connections between theory and practice. It includes monographs on key topics in history and theory, descriptions of projects by both established and rising designers, translations of major foreign-language texts, anthologies of theoretical and historical writings on classic issues, and critical writing by members of the profession of landscape architecture. The series was the recipient of the Award of Honor in Communications from the American Society of Landscape Architects, 2006.
Copyright © 2011 Paula Deitz
Some of the articles in this book originally appeared in the New York Times, and are reprinted here with permission.
Title page photograph: Fred R. Conrad, Pleached crab apple tree arbor, Oak Spring Farms, Upperville, Virginia. The New York Times/Redux.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Deitz, Paula.
Of gardens: selected essays / Paula Deitz.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(Penn studies in landscape architecture)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8122-4266-9 (hardcover: alk. paper)
1. Gardens. 2. Gardens—History. 3. Gardens—Design—History. 4. Landscape architecture—History. I. Title. II. Series: Penn studies in landscape architecture.
SB465.D44 2010
635—dc22
2010021357
For Fred, in loving memory
Wild blossoms on the river banks
sway yellow in the rising wind:
see—their images loom too,
deep in the watery clarities.
—Frederick Morgan, “Recollections of Japan,”
from The One Abiding, 2003
Prologue. The Lure of the Porch in Summer: Privacy and Pleasure
Chapter One. Landscape Architects and Designers
Designing Women: In-Depth View of Twentieth-Century Women Landscape Designers
Beatrix Farrand and The Bulletins of Reef Point Gardens
The Private World of a Great Gardener: Rachel Lambert Mellon
“Make the Land Work for You”: Russell Page in America
Grounded in History: Deborah Nevins's Landscapes
Private Visions: The Gardens of Michael Van Valkenburgh
A Cultivated Civilization: Barbara Stauffacher Solomon's Drawings of Classical Gardens
Planting Plastic: Martha Schwartz Looks to Art for Inspiration
Resurrection: The Built Landscapes of George Hargreaves
A Twinkling Terrace that Reaches for the Stars: Kathryn Gustafson in New York and France
Landform Future: Laurie Olin and the Integration of Architecture and Landscape
A Feminist View of Landscapes: A Partnership with Nature
Chapter Two. Parks and Public Places
A Bouquet of British Parks: Liverpool, Edinburgh, and London
Central Park's Bethesda Terrace and Its Restoration
Summer in Central Park
For This Movie, Step into the Garden
Rooftop Formal Gardens at Rockefeller Center
Hortus Conclusus: The Gardens at the Cloisters
The IBM Garden Plaza
A Crystal Palace: Final Portrait of the Palm House
Gardens Fit for a Queen
Hartford's 1896 Rose Garden, Whose Ancestors Were Born in France
2,700 Roses Re-create Old Garden: The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden
A Victorian Gem Restored: The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory
A Centennial Bouquet: The Botanic Garden of Smith College, 1895-1995
The Rose Garden at the White House
A New Memorial Squanders a Sparkling Opportunity
The Green Gardens of Jerusalem: Parks, Squares, and Promenades
Garden Letter from Greece: The Agora
The Moonlight Garden at the Taj Mahal
A Rare Garden in Barbados: Andromeda Gardens
Along a Nature and Garden Trail in Bermuda