Re: A bit OT but not that much

Nan,

The book recommended by the authors Walker and Simo is
great for text and background, but rather thin on good
representational photos for landscaped residences. 
Another book that covers the topic quite well is the
Landscape Design Forum One book, published by James
Trulove and Spacemaker Press.  This would be a good
book for more current adaptations on this style.  A
better period reference in my opinion would be David
Streatfield's book, California Gardens, Creating the
New Eden.  The seventh chapter-New Gardens; has some
great photos of the Hilltop Residence and gardens,
designed by Thorton Ladd with its "extremely subtle
synthesis of ideas derived from Italian and Sapnish
courtyard houses, Japanese Zen gardens, and De Stijl
painting and sculpture."  The Walter Tremaine garden
in Montecito is also featured, which was designed by
Ralph Stevens and the architect Richard Neutra.  This
was also recently featured in Pacific Horticulture
Magazine, and is one of the classics of Modern
landscape style.  Halprin, Royston and Eckbo were also
proponents of this style, and their early work is
fairly well covered if you/your friend is willing to
do some digging in libraries.  As mentioned, Burle
Marx would be another good source for design ideas,
although he was working with a tropical plant pallette
and conditions, many of the principles as well as
plantings do overlap.

I would synthesize the main garden components of the
modern style as emphasizing texture and line in the
garden over color from flowers, although foliage color
was also a strong component.  Plants such as Aeoniums,
Papyrus, Agave attentuata, Mondo Grass and Zoysia,
Equisetum, would all lend themselves to use in such a
garden, and especially as combined in strongly
positive/negative juxtapositions.  Contrast of these
forms against backdrop walls to heighten their punch
is also a central tenent of such design, and the
Valentine Garden in Montecito by Isabelle Greene is
another masterpiece of such design, although not all
of the garden is of this style.  Look especially at
the front entry courtyard and west side elevated
garden with its Zen elements and carefully edited
compositions.

I would question the slavish emulation of an older
previous style, as my feeling is that any garden
should also take into account the era in which it is
constructed.  Updating the look in a respectful way is
more challenging to me as a designer than replicating
a past style.  Some current landscape designers doing
interesting designs in the modernist style would
include Mia Lehrer, Ron Herman, Raymond Jungles, and
Ron Lutsko in the USA.

Interesting topic, thanks for posting the question
David Feix in Berkeley, Ca.

--- nick & laura <coopertaggart@earthlink.net> wrote:
> The book "Invisible Gardens: The Search for
> Modernism in the American
> Landscape" by Peter Walker and Melanie Simo fits the
> bill perfectly--it
> profiles many of the formative greats of Modernist
> Landscape Architecture:
> Barragan, Noguchi, Eckbo, Burle-Marx,Church--and
> also has pictures.


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