The Landscape Designer

    One client in Berkeley, Ca was a traveller, I gave her a garden of Relics

In my studies at UC Davis and now as a design professional, I’ve realized that designing for someone else is hard. As a Landscape Architect, we design based on our own philosophies, and have more freedoms to go on artistic tangents that are informed by self-created scientific and creative processes. To be a Residential landscape designer is to be a listener. You are creating something intimate and something personal. Rarely do I hear someone tell me, “I just want what looks good” because, that’s completely subjective.  Everyone has their own idea of what a garden should be, and its usually something familiar. My own aesthetic came from the stark wind-swept countryside of the Northern  Ca. Valley. I grew up wading through dry golden grasses and trudging  through verdant marshes and rice paddies. I knew gardens as something mapped out and abrupt against a rural pastoral fabric. To me, gardens are not dissimilar to an Eden. A canopy of benevolent fruit trees over-head and water near by, catering to those primordial human elements of comfort. Clients have similar ideals. It is a designer’s job to fine tune their design to the client’s preferences and design accordingly. Often enough, designers don’t satisfy the children of clients. We plot squares of lawns and clean shrubs, but we don’t create mystery and adventure for kids. We scoff at Chicken coops, and complain about “messy” trees. If a garden can’t be a home, it is a failure.  Designers are artists, yes, but we still need to satisfy a client’s needs.

Its our mission to create an Eden for our clients.

Another wanted a Modern Garden with movement and texture

“Green”

Above: my groups 40 and 20 yr Plan of Hunters Point SF

As a Landscape Architect, one’s design should never stop short of aesthetic. An intervention should be holistically progressive. There have been a handful of loaded words I hear quite frequently in the studio; “Green”, “Sustainable”, “Eco Friendly”. While the root philosophies are something I agree with, I question the validity of its practiced actions and the extent to which it is really “Sustainable”. We admit now that our current population and way of living cannot be supported by the limited resources available. We are having problems, should we “sustain” this imbalance?

There are talks of a carbon zero city outside Dubai. Nothing can be carbon zero. The initial construction of an entire city will bury any shining low energy consumption graphs in environmental debt. Its less impactful to continue to drive an SUV than it is to buy a new Prius, given the environmental cost of manufacturing an entirely new vehicle. We need to redress our current actions and determine whether or not we are satisfying our ideals. Landscape Architects should be forerunners in this cause.

Last year, I participated in a studio that discussed the idea of sustainability. We figured out (under the guidance of a very intelligent Prof.) that for something to be truly zero carbon or sustainable, it needs to be productive. This is the only way that the carbon footprint of a project can be taken back after implementation. But, there always seems to be a trend with going “green” in pristine areas, building LEED certified auto factories on an existing meadow. I question how “green” does a factory have to be before it disappears, no matter how many solar panels it has, and whether or not its insulated in recycled denim and cardboard, there will be a factory on a meadow. What I’m trying to say is that it only works if the project is an intervention, if you’re solving a problem. Our instructor selected Hunter’s Point as our “problem”. Hunter’s Point is located at the Southeastern tip on a man-made peninsula, in San Francisco. Hunter’s Point used to be a thriving navy base, and this was where the shipped off the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The surrounding community possesses the lowest income levels within San Francisco. The site is also a Superfund site, meaning that the government has allotted  a super fund of a great deal of money to deal with it. The reason being is that the entire abandoned military base is peppered (or super super soaked) in carcinogenic and mutagenic waste from the Bomb development. San Francisco is dealing with the site by building around it, and they are dealing with the community by gentrifying it. They have yet to invent an emoticon for a sarcastic smile. Lennar (a ca development company has produced a plan with a team of architects and landscape architects.

Lennar’s plan centers around a new stadium and a retail and restaurant district. The homes are low density on somewhat large plots of land, much desired in sf but rarely affordable.  They base their phases of development on the cleanliness of each area’s soil, starting with the cleanest first. I pray for whatever po’dunk town receives a big shipment of excavated radioactive soil.

This plan is not sustainable, economically, environmentally, and definitely not socially.

Lennar: FAIL

Our class came up with a couple of ideas, from as small as compost “Plants” to as extreme as turning the entire site into a salt marsh and bio science museum. It was up to us (hypothetically) to create a development plan. Our group understood that development had to happen, it was inevitable, but how? Is it right to send SF’s poisoned soil else where? Was it right to build on top of it? Also, we started brainstorming about an independent sector of SF that utilized its waterfront, and produced its own food, offered different sizes of homes and free’d up space for parks.  My brilliant team members and I determined, yes there is a way to fix this and even profit from it. How American is that? We were familiar with the process of phytoremediation ( the use of ceratin plants that remove toxins from the soil), we were quick to map out the site and its toxicity, using USDA charts and reports. We determined all the toxins, and found plant species that cleaned everything. Also, we could harvest those plants and use the elements they collect. We can use Mustard plants to remove lead, burn the mustard, and collect the lead. The only issue with this, is that the process only removes toxins that make contact with the roots. The lower levels of toxicity are undisturbed.

This is my solution:

If the contaminated soil from the entire site was excavated and regraded in the above example the toxins would be removed in 40 years. The PR Park harnesses the powers of phytoremediation and activated carbon “canyons” (think brita filter) and turns a toxic landfill into a sculptural park that simulates rare California coastal ecosystems.

So instead of building over a problem, or sustaining new development, we took a chunk of land back, reclaimed it, and produced something beautiful.

Not sustainable, but productive.

Round Things

 Osage Oranges, like an installation work of tennis balls on turf

Okay, I guess a landscape designer/ future architect should talk about plants

I’ve come to realize that there are a few plants that just “do it” for me. I’ve also come to realize that these plants have something in common, they’re always round. It’s usually some sort of orb, on a verdant green pedestal, or suspended as a christmas ornament. Something about that unusual shape draws me in like a parrot to a piece of tin foil.

So I’d like to share with you a couple of my favorite Round Things.

 Osage Orange (Hedge Apple, Horse Apple) Maclura pomifera  

    

      This American Native tree was planted on large farms and ranches to act as natural cattle fences. They are covered with thorns (sculptural + or  painful - you decide) and have very tough desireable wood. The interesting thing about these trees is that they drop beautiful tennis-balleque balls in early autumn. The balls are non-toxic but repel spiders and some bugs. The trees mature to have a beautiful branch architecture. I would suggest planting these above an open space so one could truely admire the spectacle of a field of tennis balls come halloween.

California Buckeye  Aesculus californica

The California Buckeye isn’t for the artistically conservative gardener. It has a stoic beauty, but as most stoic creatures it is misunderstood. The California Buckeye is a native to the dry summer and wet winter chaparral areas of California. It has evolved to drop its leaves mid summer to store energy and water from scorching and dry summers. This can be used to your advantage, when most trees pitter out in winter, the Buckeye shines. With its paper white limbs forming a bristly sphere (yes again, a sphere) in its juvenile structure, and its orbs hanging in the most bizarre way, it would definitely catch the walker by. Its one of the first to send out Spring Flowers in the form of large white horse-chestnut plumes. I would suggest one plants this special specimen behind a deciduous dense canopied shrub, so it’s summer strife is hidden and its winter grace can be enjoyed.

American Persimmon diospyros virginiana

The American persimmon always makes me think of where I grew up, on a little farm in Northern California. These trees were everywhere. They were always filled with birds. This tree has a spectacular fall show. Their leaves look like they just popped out of a Miyazaki film. This tree is dioecious, meaning that you’ll need a mama and a papa plant if you want fruit. This specimen’s fruit is rumored to have been served at the first thanksgiving meal in the form of a pudding. I’ve had a couple breads and cookies from my mom’s fruits. It never really was worth the time. The fruit is only ripe when soft and is extremely pithy when firm (learned the hard way). It’s rather mushy with not much taste. They don’t compare to the asian varieties as far as taste goes. But if you want a fiery explosion of delicate jewels of orange from October to Christmas and you don’t mind the swarms of starlings (its a package deal). Plant these trees. I still love these trees, maybe its nostalgia. I would suggest planting them as a background tree or shrub,  you’ll want something to hide all the fruit drop. But only plant these if you love them, because they’ll make children all over your property.

Allium

This is what I think about when I think of England, I imagine a couple of ladies eating their scones and drinking their tea amidst a garden of Alliums. Also, I think of Monet’s garden in Giverny. I find these flowers to be so classy and formal. They can easily add some impromptu structure to the most wild gardens, and they would fit so well in a contemporary courtyard. Its the cleanliness of lines and their factory like similarities that make them so pleasing. I would plant these in mass in a bed of lady’s mantle or Berkeley Sedge.

Edgeworthis chrysantha Chinese Paper Bush

This is one of my latest discoveries. They don’t sell these anywhere around here. These plants, sadly for me, are more suited for colder climates. Native to the Himalayas, used for paper making in China, once en vogue in America, and back again. This plant is stunning, and it smells amazing. It blooms in February in the shape of little dangling Indian earrings. The shrub takes on the shape of a dome. I would plant this plant near a path or patio so it’s scent could be enjoyed, or on the edge of still water so it’s dome could be reflected as a full sphere.

Tänzer und tanz-architekt

I’d like to start with dance.

Two Dance artists, Anna Halprin and William Forsythe. I believe these two artists to be working on very different planes but to be on a contextually similar path. When someone asks me about my dance interest or are perplexed by the combination of dance and landscape architecture, I drop these names.

Its still strange that I have yet to meet Anna Halprin. I think I need to have a chat with her. I’ve been to lectures on her work, studied her ideas, I live a easy drive away from her studio, and I’ve even been in email contacts with her, but I still haven’t met her.

She has always been of particular interest to me. Her fiery history as an outlier of dance is enough to perk my interest, but its her methods and partnerships that truely excite me. Anna Halprin is an artist and trailblazer in the truest sense. She’s that nymph rolling in the waves, or that earth goddess dancing nude with twigs and mud in the woods, having ephemeral pleasures with the thickets and fields. She was the one who lit a fire in the brains of The Judson Church, and Her late husband, Lawrence Halprin was a Landscape Architecture legend. They’re relationship, the most bohemian, is inspiring. One could assume that Anna’s views were embedded and woven into Lawrence’s experiential landscapes. Its the translation that interests me. How did movement, the artist’s realm, and those pleasures translate into a designed form?

A couple of summers ago, I won a scholarship to Attend the American Dance Festival where in, I took part in a Forsythe intensive with 14 other international and American dancers. It was an amazing experience. At the time I wanted nothing more than to be a Forsythe Dancer and live in Frankfurt Au Main. This was one of the few experiences that challaneged me both as an architect and a dancer. The Forsythe company has created a methodology that applies architectural, geometrical, and physic theory to movement, and choreography. The complexities of these processes create an aesthetic or form that is some what (but not completely) removed from the artist’s known aesthetic and ego. This seems relevant in concept to early minimalist art, where in the artist’s self was removed from the art and the laws of the universe were all that applied to the creation i.e. gravity, time, light, and energy. Forsythe’s work would not be as powerful if the guild of artists he emloys were fully removed from the creation. From what isn’t created through manipulations, movement video scratches, work with Laban’s cube and the application of his Improvisation technologies Forsythe’s work is strangely evocative yet removed of drama, its stark and powerful, absurd when you least expect it and demanding most of the time. Its almost as if he takes everything from the world out of context and displays it under glass. In one corner you’ll have people entwined in a kiss, a man sweeping snow across a stage, and another covered in spots, naked in the ice.

Again, its the translations that are interesting. How does an artist translate? In what way does an artist “display” content, and how much of the work is the artist?