Thomas Dolliver Church - mid century modern landscape architect. Thomas Church was born in Boston but grew up in Southern California and was very influential in forming the modern landscape style of so cal. He started his design office in the thirties, in the middle of the depression, and yet was immensely successful and designed over 2000 residences as well as many commercial, public and planning projects. Here are a few links if you want to read more about him, as well as some photos of his more famous designs. His book gardens are for people is a must-read for anyone interested in landscape design. alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=37793 tclf.org/pioneer/thomas-church Some excerpts from these links: He is credited as having “more influence in creating the Stanford campus as it is today than any other single person next to Frederick Law Olmsted.” (Leland Stanford himself had engaged landscape architect Olmsted in 1888. In 1930, he started his own practice in San Francisco. It was an exciting time for the new profession, as landscape specialists were beginning to assert their place as partners with architects in the design process. Until the ’30s, most had been regarded as glorified gardeners. “Tommy represented freedom from ‘decorating’ a house,” said former Sunset editor Walter Doty, shortly before Church’s death. “Landscaping had meant gussying up structures that weren’t worth it. Tommy was a ‘behavioral’ landscaper . . . gardens to live in were more important.” An extended visit to Europe in 1937 with his wife, Betsy—she later called the trip “his investment in himself”—proved pivotal to Church’s career. In Finland, he met Alvar Aalto, whose architecture and glassware inspired Church to adopt more relaxed, informal and natural garden plans. Returning home, Church entered into the most creative and influential period of his career, designing more than 2,000 private gardens in California and 24 other states. He replaced the landscaper’s orthodox formalism of a central axis with an emphasis on multiple vantage points. “A garden should have no beginning and no end,” he wrote in Gardens Are for People and should be pleasing when seen from any angle, not only from the house.” He also replaced the inherited East Coast separation of house and garden with a free flow between the two. Church was a longtime contributor to House Beautiful and Sunset magazines, and starting in 1937, Sunset featured many of his creations, including the magazine’s Menlo Park garden. “All the gardens we now create in California are based on the concepts and philosophies of Thomas Church; we just don’t know it,” says Richard McPherson, a landscape architect who teaches a class on Church at UC-Berkeley Extension. “Before Church, gardens were mainly just a collection of plants. (He) changed how the house related to the garden. American Embassy, Havana, Cuba Des Moines (Iowa) Art Center General Motors Research Center, Detroit Hotel El Panama, Panama City Master Plan, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, Calif. Master Plan, UC-Berkeley Master Plan, UC-Santa Cruz Master Plan, Wascana Center, Regina, Saskatchewan Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Park Merced, San Francisco Two apartment houses, Paris Woodner Apartments, Washington, D.C.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 20:56:55 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015