Boston Flora

Tag: Landscape Architecture

  • Thursday, April 18, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Land vs. Landscape

    “Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the Arts that have influenced us. One does not see anything until one sees its beauty.” In this way Oscar Wilde explains in The Decay of Lying that the fogs above the Thames were first seen only when Turner painted them. Similarly, a “land” becomes a “landscape” only through an artistic process. Land can be considered the zero degree state of a landscape that is waiting to be discovered. With a background in civil engineering, architecture and landscape architecture, Bas Smets, Principal of Bureau Bas Smets in Brussels, has developed a specific approach to representation that enables him to reveal an unseen landscape, starting from a very precise reading of the existing land. His projects range from the conception of territorial strategies to the construction of public spaces. In addition to these public missions, he creates one private garden a year.

    This Sylvester Baxter Lecture of the Harvard Graduate School of Design will take place in the Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street in Cambridge on Thursday, April 18 from 6:30 – 8 and is free and open to the public.

    http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2538/4158017814_85c93a5d96.jpg

  • Tuesday, March 27, 7:00 pm – One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place

    By the time she reached her late twenties, Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was launching a distinguished literary career. She was also becoming a capable gardener under the tutelage of her mother, Chestina Welty, who designed their modest garden in Jackson, Mississippi. From the beginning, Eudora wove images of southern flora and gardens into her writing, yet few outside her personal circle knew that the images were drawn directly from her passionate connection to and abiding knowledge of her own garden. Jane Roy Brown’s book One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place contains many previously unpublished writings, including literary passages and excerpts from Welty’s private correspondence about the garden.  Ms. Brown will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge on Tuesday, March 27, beginning at 7 pm.

    Brown is a freelance travel and garden writer with a focus on historic gardens and landscapes. She is also director of educational outreach for the Library of American Landscape History. She has published in Horticulture, Preservation, Garden Design, and the Boston Globe, and she serves as a contributing editor to Landscape Architecture.  Call 617-491-2220, or visit www.portersquarebooks.com for more information.

  • Thursdays, November 5 – December 17, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Drawing the Garden Landscape

    The Landscape Institute of Boston Architectural College offers a degree in Landscape Architecture, but for those who are interested, certain courses may be audited at a lower price, without receiving academic credits.  One such course is Drawing the Garden Landscape, taught by Clare Walker Leslie.  This module gives students an opportunity to gain confidence and experience in their drawing skills.  Classes focus on methods for using pencil, pen and ink, colored pencil, and watercolor pencil.  Particular attention will be paid to techniques for drawing individual plant specimens, group assemblages, plants in a landscape composition, perspective, walls, paths, water, buildings, and people in a garden setting.  The goal is to learn how to draw better so that clients (or your loving family) can more clearly understand proposed garden designs.  Emphasis will be on gardens in different seasons and conditions.  Attention will be paid to the specific needs of each student.  Several drawing sessions will be conducted outdoors.  Each student is required to produce and present a final drawing suitable for presentation to a client or inclusion in a portfolio.  The audit fee is $950 (compared to $1,380 if you wish to accrue credits).  Course number VS026.  For more information, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu/programs.

  • Wednesday, October 7, 7pm – The Universe in a Garden with Charles Jencks

    Charles Jencks, architectural theorist, landscape architect, and designer, has become a leading figure in British landscape architecture. His landscape work is inspired by fractals, genetics, chaos theory, waves and solitons. These themes are expressed in his award-winning design, the Landform Ueda at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, Scotland, and expanded in his own private landscape, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, at Portrack House, near Dumfries.  Also a furniture designer and sculptor, Jencks completed the DNA Sculpture in London’s Kew Gardens in 2003. Jencks will speak about his design process as it applies to landscapes.  See photo below of his “Life Mounds” at Jupiter Artland.

    Fee: $20 Arnold Arboretum member, $25 nonmember. Presented by the Arnold Arboretum and Trinity Church in Boston. For more information, or to register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu, or call 617-384-5277.

    "Life Mounds" by Charles Jencks by oosp.