Boston Flora

Tag: Frank Lloyd Wright

  • Sunday, January 21, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Eastern – Architects Respond to Nature: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Myth of the Prairie, Online

    Although architecture itself originated from a need for shelter from nature, modern humans retain the desire to live with nature around or near them—even in urban settings. Since the development of plate glass in the 17th century and mechanized heating and cooling in the late-19th and 20th, the relationship between architecture and nature has continually evolved to the point that architecture is now including or mimicking natural processes of decay and self-replication.

    Over the course of the last century, the work of two architectural giants, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, responded to nature in very different ways through their philosophies and approaches, influencing the work of other architects as well as builders and clients. Today’s architecture draws on the legacies of these groundbreakers, especially by integrating structures with the site, incorporating natural materials, or maximizing visual access to surrounding nature and the seasons.

    Frank Lloyd Wright is often associated with a Prairie School of architecture characterized by horizontal lines and abstract geometries that purportedly harmonized with the Midwestern landscape and advanced an American style of design.

    Jennifer Gray, vice president and director of the Taliesin Institute at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, takes a closer look at this familiar story and explores how the myth of the prairie related to broad questions about colonization, immigration, and national identity that pervaded social and architectural discourse at the turn of the 20th century. This January 21 Zoom presentation is sponsored by Smithsonian Associates in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Edith Farnsworth House. Designed and built between 1946 and 1951, the Edith Farnsworth House was as a weekend retreat for prominent Chicago nephrologist, musician, and poet, Dr. Edith Farnsworth, as a place to relax, entertain, and enjoy nature. It is recognized as an iconic masterpiece of the International Style of architecture and has National Historic Landmark status. The architect was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and this was his first and most significant domestic project in America. Located 58 miles southwest of Chicago, the glass and steel house is set within a natural landscape on a 62-acre parcel located along the Fox River. Learn more here. $20 for Smithsonian Associates members, $25 for nonmembers. Two additional sessions in February and March, on Mies van der Rohe and Beyond Sustainability, may be found at this link as well.

    A view from across reflecting pool of the Avery Coonley House by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1906–09 (Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University)

  • Tuesday, November 21, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern – American Moderns: Guided by Nature, Online

    The study of landscape design is essentially a study of human culture; the way people shape their environment reflects a sense of their place in the world. Traditionally western landscape design has veered between the Classic and Romantic traditions, pitting European formality against English naturalism. During the twentieth century however, these stylistic polarities gave way to new concerns as designers looked increasingly to the historical, political and cultural context of their sites. As the New World was often in the forefront of this movement, this Gardens Trust four-lecture series on American Moderns will examine key landscapes from the two continents, exploring the designs which pushed the boundaries of the profession by pioneering new approaches, reflecting new philosophies and challenging assumptions about the form, use and meaning of landscape. You may purchase tickets for the entire series through Eventbrite for £16, or individual sessions costing £5, at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/american-moderns-tickets-670807291667 Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

    Week Two on November 21 is Guided by Nature. Inspired, perhaps, by the Aboriginal people whom they largely eradicated, Americans appear more inclined than their European forebears to accommodate rather than eradicate nature. From the Transcendentalist writers and Hudson River painters of the nineteenth century to the Nature poets and photographers of the twentieth century, Americans often find in their wilderness a manifestation of the divine. This lecture will examine the work of such mid-century designers as Frank Lloyd Wright, Lawrence Halprin, Richard Haag and Isamu Noguchi, to demonstrate how they attempted to evolve a new relationship with the natural world. In such varied projects as private retreats, urban parks and obsolete industrial sites, these designers drew design ideas from nature while working with natural processes to construct their effects.

    Speaker Katie Campbell is a writer and garden historian. She lectures widely, has taught at Birkbeck, Bristol and Buckingham universities; she writes for various publications, and leads art and garden tours. Her most recent book, Cultivating the Renaissance (Routledge, 2021) , explores the evolution of Renaissance ideas and aesthetics through the Medici Tuscan villas. Her previous book, British Gardens in Time (Quarto, 2014), accompanied the BBC television series. Earlier works include Paradise of Exiles (Francis Lincoln, 2009), looking at the late nineteenth century Anglo-American garden-makers in Florence, Icons of Twentieth Century Landscape Design (Frances Lincoln, 2006) and Policies and Pleasaunces (Barn Elms, 2007), a Guide to Scotland’s Gardens.

  • Saturday, July 17, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – South Dartmouth Open Day

    Join The Garden Conservancy in the North and South Dartmouth area on Saturday, July 17 from 10 – 4  for a self guided tour of eight fascinating and diverse private gardens.

    Fran & Clint Levin’s Garden, North Dartmouth

    The gardens surround a house designed by an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright. The gardens have evolved over the past sixty years, working first with Allen Haskell, and since 2004 with Nan Sinton. The gardens include a rose garden, succulents, Japanese maples, a tropical garden, and in the last three years the owners have developed a contemporary stroll garden exploring different garden vignettes, vistas, and a “stumpery”. The gardens also include a fish pond, tennis lawn, and secret garden.  Francine Crawford of the Garden Club of the Back Bay reports that a tour of this garden with late fellow member Sandy Tishman several years ago was a highlight of the GCFMA Garden Tour Week.

    Nancy & Richard Forbes, 523 Barneys Joy Road, South Dartmouth

    Come see one of the most gorgeous properties on the South Coast. God provided incomparable views of the tidal Slocums River, farms tilting down to the river, and meadows, woods, and salt marshes. The Forbes’  part (and landscape architect Martha Moore’s) was to arrange native plant material so as to create interest and still to direct the eye outward. They have augmented the native material with an enclosed cutting and vegetable garden that includes prize-winning dahlias. You will be interested in how the two of them manage the place, with a little help, as they weekend and vacation in their Richard Bertman-designed house.

    Frog Landing, 77 Elm Street, South Dartmouth

    Set in mature coastal woods, Nan Sinton’s seven-year old garden draws inspiration from classic Renaissance design with an axial plan using native plants as key structural elements. Explore the street-side glade garden, then climb stone steps to a gravel entrance court planted with standard wisterias. Walk through tall wooden gates to discover the main garden areas. Here the designer/owner, who is also a passionate plant collector, has made a patterned viewing garden, a “green” room, and a formal allée. A hidden flower enclosure displays luxuriant tropicals, a vegetable and cutting garden is adjacent to the house, and a series of shaded woodland walks—the cool “bosco” of the historic sixteenth-century gardens—feature native viburnums, clethra, holly, magnolias, and ferns. The garden was featured in the August/September 2008 issue of Horticulture magazine.

    Jardim Escondido, 147 Russells Mills Road, South Dartmouth

    Jardim Escondido (Hidden Garden – and yes, the owner says it is Jardim, not Jardin) is a plantsman’s garden gem, tucked away behind tall hedges and large trees. The two-and-one-half acres is divided into two areas. Initially, you encounter a country garden: a large wildflower field, lush cutting gardens, and vintage milk house surrounded by specimen trees and backed by twelve acres of woodland. The garden surrounding the house is a romantic, Monet-like garden begun by the Perry family in the 1930s. This European-inspired garden includes beds of pastel annuals, perennials, mature specimen trees, and magnificent old taxus topiaries. Jardim Escondido offers the visitor a visual surprise sure to be appreciated.

    Betsy & Greer McBratney, 29 Grinnell Road, South Dartmouth

    Fifty years ago, Betsy and Greer McBratney purchased three acres of a new subdivision, Birchfield Farm, a defunct dairy on the shores of Buzzards Bay and Padanaram Harbor. In 1974, seven McBratney’s moved into their new house designed by Wills Association of Boston. The front retaining wall and rock garden were built by Lloyd Lawton of Tiverton, Rhode Island. Design assistance for plantings was given by Blanche Frenning of Little Compton, and later by Allen Haskell. The present sunken garden and attached greenhouse had two incarnations: the first had steps and walls of railroad ties; the second, with assistance of Chris Tracey of Avant Gardens, was of stone for steps and walls. Twenty-two hypertufa troughs line the sunken garden walls. Greer, a beekeeper, is also interested in the lawn, trees, fruits, and vegetables. Grass-cutting, pruning, picking, canning, and freezing are his domain.

    Paradise Farm, 1157 Russells Mills Road, South Dartmouth

    It takes a village to design a garden, at least in this case. Before the owners moved from Cambridge twenty-four years ago, gardening consisted of keeping house plants alive—barely. Here multiple overgrown acres were in much need of attention. Rather than trust their own green thumbs, they consulted an army of knowledgeable designers, drawing inspiration and information from each one. Lili Morss helped with the pool; Sue Underwood, Allen Haskell, Jim Sears, Nonie Hood, and Kathy Tracey with other gardens. Their collective vision, the rich soil, and a growing understanding of the evolution of a garden have brought the garden  to this point. The many rooms in the garden each have a different high season, and special feeling.

    Seathrift – Alfred J. Walker, 288 Russells Mills Road, South Dartmouth

    The home of Al Walker and Keith Karlson, “Seathrift” was built in 1860 by whale ship Captain Benjamin M. Wing. For the past twenty years the current owner has reclaimed more than six acres, designing garden spaces both formal and natural, creating the feeling of an arboretum of trees and flowering shrubs using English country and Italian influences in both structure, walls, and ornamentation, yet retaining a country feel. Keep an eye out for the wonderful conifers, a large selection of more than forty Japanese maples, and the granite creations of local artist Ron Rudnicki.

    Sarah Spongberg Garden at Herring Run, South Dartmouth

    Herring Run Farm is located in a bend of the Paskamansett River. The nine acres on which the house stands is part of old fields and groups of trees edged by native plants. Nothing has been done to alter the character of the landscape. The plantings are intended to enhance its natural swells and dips. The entrance to the kitchen has an herb garden and the entrance to the garden itself is a simple gate that is the portal to a serene natural landscape that feels timeless and is a welcome respite from the world. The reflection of the trees on the far bank of the river is the backdrop for an aerating fountain that reflects the light and adds sparkle to the dappled shade.

    Admission to each participating private garden is $5 per person. Children 12 and under are admitted free. Admission may be paid in cash or check. Tickets are not required to attend Open Days. To purchase discounted tickets in advance or to order an Open Days Directory with complete directions to each garden, log on to www.gardenconservancy.org. The Garden Conservancy thanks Garden Design magazine, its national media sponsor for 2010.