Space Unfolding: Paula Deitz

and that is the title of her new book.  A well-known fixture in the garden writing world, Ms. Deitz's academic background distinguishes her from others in the field.  Where she sees an open vista and is reminded of a Frederick Church painting, another might see a meadow filled with drifts of echinacea and monarda.

"The moment has to be right, a little after eight o'clock.  Suddenly moving slowly up and down both sides of the center islands, school buses and taxis fill the slick dark avenue with chrome-yellow shapes that gleam in the rain.  I move away for an instant, then, when I look again, this world in a mist seems transformed into a stream in an old Kyoto garden where golden carp weave in and out of dark waters, their backs glistening as they turn." excerpt from A Winter Garden of Yellow, New York Times, February 27, 1995 collected in Of Gardens.

Ms. Deitz spoke to a packed house at the Annual Meeting of The Horticultural Society of New York on Thursday night.  Her topic The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden on Mt. Desert Island.  As one expects from a landscape historian, Ms. Deitz began with a 19th century map of the island and the origin of the name.

"Some natives stress the second syllable (de-ZERT), in the French fashion, although many others pronounce it in a fashion similiar to the English name of a landscape devoid of vegetation (DEH-zert). French explorer Samuel de Champlain's observation that the summits of the island's mountains were free of vegetation as seen from the sea led him to call the island "Ile des Monts Deserts", or island of the bare mountains."

Wikipedia

Ms. Deitz spends her summers in Maine.  Her relationship to the Rockefeller Garden at Seal Harbor is part neighbor and part historian.  This personal relationship to the past and present owners give her unique access and perspective.

The Rockfellers were inspired to create the garden at Seal Habor after a trip to Peking for the opening of the Peking Union Medical College.  What was it that inspired them to take a rugged part of the Maine coast and turn it into an Asian garden?

Ms. Deitz alluded to the answer.  Mrs. Abbey Aldrich Rockerfeller had a predilection for quiet spaces and saw the opportunity to turn her Maine property into a refuge.  Mrs. Rockefeller is quoted as saying

"only gardens know how to yield such happiness."

After working at Hidcote this summer,  I wondered if Lawrence Johnson, the creator of Hidcote, was influenced by his passion for all things English or if there was any remnant of his American childhood that influenced his building of the gardens at Hidcote. 

For me, gardens can yield happiness, but also sleepless nights.  In the case of the origins of the  garden at Seal Harbor, Deitz provided me with a good night's sleep.

Track Your Happiness

 How simple and frugal a thing is happiness:

a glass of wine, a roasted chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea...

All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple frugal heart.

Nikos Kazantzakis

In a follow up to the blog I wrote two days ago about Nordic Designers, especially Nille Juul-Sorenson and his remarks on the iphone's ability to become individualized. 

Others have found an additional use for the iphone in the world of scientific research. It seems psychologists at Harvard have figured out how to do a scientific study by developing an iphone app.  No need to enlist people to become part of a study.  This study simply asks people all over the world to upload the app:  Track Your Happiness.

It seems we are happiest when we are in the moment, when we focus. 

We're Farmers...

"We're farmers, we don't talk much, we do things."

Nille Juul-Sorenson
partner in Arup

Denmark

Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Curatorial Director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum gathered together a panel of Scandinavian designers on Wednesday night to discuss Social Awareness & Sustainability.  Every country in Scandinavia was represented by leading Nordic designers.  

The panel was reserved.  The vibe was definitely low-key.  It seems this group of Nordic designers are well-fed, in fact, their physical needs are so well taken care of by the state, they have time, energy and the desire to concentrate their artistic efforts on objects that solve human problems.

NILLE JUUL-SORENSEN (Denmark) was definitely more voluble than his fellow Nordic designers.   He told a good story.  "People come to my house and admire the "design" objects in my apartment.  But we never think about "design, design."  We don't buy anything just for fun. We buy for function.  We like the fact that our plates are all the same size, that way they can be stacked.  It saves space."

In discussing craft and the loss of craft.  Mr. Sorenson continued.  "All the good craftsmen are pensioners.  We will have to wait another generation, for perhaps good craftsmen to produce objects."

Lavrans Lovlie, Director of livelwork (Norway) discussed the change from design object to design service.  What is it? ZipCar, it changes the business model from a buying a car, which is business to a service.  It's another type of solution.

As an example of a design object that is mass produced, yet is individualized: the iphone.  Again, Mr. Sorensen spoke up "My iphone is different than your iphone."

Perhaps, that is the paradigm of the new design object, a billion on the planet, but each one different from the other.

The Zen calendar for 11.11.2010

Through enlightment I acquired nothing.

THE BUDDHA

Seizing The Worst Part of the City: Carol Franklin

"a common field grass, is one of nature's remarkable adaptations to stress an change. 
Wherever landscapes are disturbed, andropogon is one of the first field grasses 

to colonize the ground, providing a self-sustaining cover for the gradual return
of native forests." from the andropogon website.

The times they may be changin' but for Carol Franklin the times have finally caught up with her ideas.  On October 25th at the Manhattan "satellite campus" of the New York Botanical Garden,  Franklin gave an impassioned plea for finding unused pieces of land and making them into healing ecosystems.

Rooftop gardens, rain gardens. school wetlands, bio ponds, forest restorations and green streets are the trademarks of Franklin's firm, Andropogon.  Their projects are wide ranging. Yet, Franklin is an advocate for an inclusive landscape architecture.  "It is the fusion of all flavors that make a great stew."

Franklin came prepared with a power point that included number of gallons of water stored, detailed percentages of soil mixtures, and figures on raw sewage filtered. And although all of this had some interest, it was not the real point.  Franklin has spent a lifetime arguing for a holistic vision of man and nature.  Her devotion to the earth hasn't changed in the last forty years: what has changed is the technology now available to implement her ideas.

Carol Franklin keeps on truckin' with enthusiasm. I hope I feel as passionate as she does about my profession 4 decades into it.
 ___________________________________________
Carol Franklin
Andropogon
Landscape Design Portfolio Series 2010
New York Botanical Garden
October 25

Making A Canvas For People To Walk On: Bridget Baines of GrossMax

Piranesi drawing provides inspiration for fire escape garden

Drawing by Mark Dion of fire scape garden

Fair Street Housing Association

The installation is composed of fire escapes alongside a gable wall whihc utilises this three dimensinal structure as a support for a vertical garden.  The various plantings represent diffeerent conditions of London.  The plantings also include reference to the local breweries:  hop will wind up the staircases.  Other plants represent the import herbs and spices, historically shipped to nearby docks. 

Bridget Baines of GROSSMAX

is interested in Stitching THE CITY Together 

by whatever means possible. 

Drawing inspiration from a Piranesi drawing, working with Mark Dion, mining the history of Kew Gardens, or thinking about genetically modifying plant material are all ways of animating space for GrossMax.  

On Monday, October 18, Bridget Baines animated the room at the first lecture of the New York Botanical Gardens Landscape Design Series.

 Garden For A Plant Collector

GARDEN FOR A PLANT COLLECTOR:  The plants in each greenhouse are the same,
but the glass is a different color in each box.

Most landscape architects don't like competitions, but not Bridget Baines.  Her firm looks for competitions. "Competitions allow us to work provactively: to experiment and push the boundaries."  GrossMax starts with conceptual images and these concepts become the touchstone for making gardens

that tell the story of a place.  As Baines said she is making a canvas for people to walk on.

 

A Maternity Hospital was torn down to build the current park.  The hospital was an important landmark in the community.  People were connected to it.  GrossMax saved some of the stones from the hospital to incorporate them into this wall in the park.

Research and History seem as important to Bridget Baines as plants and topography.  

Conceptual starting point for Potters Field Park.  Reconnecting the site with the past:  the pattern of the fence relates to the history of the place.  English Delft tiles were made in this community.

The Reality



Baines' interest in art and how artists think about space is evidenced in all GrossMax's projects and conceptual drawings.  Referencing the comment by German aritst, Joseph Beuys in the film Dutch Light, that the Dutch had lost "their liquid light,"  Baines has certainly not lost hers.  
_________________________________________
Bridget Baines
GrossMax
Landscape Design Portfolio Series 2010
New York Botanical Garden
October 18