Contemporary Landscape Design Collection

The Contemporary Landscape Design Collection is forming under the direction of the Garden and Landscape Studies department, and is meant as a complement to the existing collection of drawings by Beatrix Farrand at Dumbarton Oaks. Drawn from the files kept by contemporary landscape architects and garden designers in their own offices and private archives, it comprises mainly sketches, drawings, plans, and images of a number of selected projects as well as significant written documents prepared for a particular project. It also comprises some general information about each of the designers whose work is being collected.

Each designer in the collection has a dossier containing essential information about his or her history, writings, and projects, as well as a dossier for each project represented in the collection.

At present, this collection is under development. Designers or scholars who wish for more information may contact Xin Wu, the Contemporary Landscape Design Collection and Asian Program Coordinator.

Designers in the Contemporary Landscape Design Collection

The collection has started to receive materials from the following designers:

The collection also pays attention to a few selected international garden festivals for research purposes.

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Entries to the collection

Diana Balmori

Entries to the collection focus on the following projects:

1. Race Mound for 2012 Olympics, Stanley Island, NY
2. NTT Plaza, Shinjuku Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan
3. Proposal for Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, London, Great Britain
4. Green Roof (a series of ongoing design projects in various locations, in cooperation with research laboratories and city councils)
5. Other writings, studies and proposals

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Paolo Bürgi

Entries to the collection include nine binders of original sketches, drawings, studies and writings on Bürgi's award winning project, Cardada (Locarno, Switzerland). There are also CDs of scanned images. Planning of the whole project lasted for many years; few people know that the design was only partially built.

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Erik Dhont

Entries to the collection focus on the following projects:

1. Gaasbeek, Belgium
2. Dworp, Belgium
3. Ohain, Belgium
4. Sculpture Garden, Malibu, CA
5. Studies of Variations

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Ian Hamilton Finlay

Entries to the collection trace the poet-gardener's engagement with garden and landscape ideas, from earlier prints and publications in association with The New Arcadians, to later garden proposals and records of his own garden, Little Sparta, Scotland.

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Richard Haag

The designer has given his whole archive to University of Washington, where he taught. Dumbarton Oaks reproduced documents from university collection of the following projects for research purposes:

1. Gasworks Park, Seattle, WA
2. Bloedel Reserve, Seattle, WA
3. Victor Steinbrueck Park, Seattle, WA

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Hiroki Hasegawa

Entries to the collection include personal notes and design documents for the following projects produced at Studio on Site.

1. Portside Park, Yokohama, Japan
2. Hoshino Resort, Karuizawa, Japan (papers restricted)

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Ron Herman

Entries to the collection focus on the following projects:

1. The Checkerboard Garden, San Francisco, CA
2. The Garden of Ellison Residence, San Francisco, CA (papers restricted)

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Patricia Johanson

Entries to the collection include studies, sketches and drawings done by the artist in relation to the following projects:

1. House & GardenCommission (drawings of garden proposals)
2. Fair Park Lagoon, Dallas, TX
3. Endangered Garden, San Francisco, CA
4. Ulsan Park, Ulsan, Korea
5. Sugar House Pedestrian Crossing, Salt Lake City, UT

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Lorna Jordan

Entries to the collection include notes, sketches, lectures, writings and detailed design documents of the following projects:

1. The Pull: Wild Gardens, Paerdegat Basin, New York, NY
2. Waterworks Garden, Renton, WA
3. Various proposals

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Bernard Lassus

Entries to the collection include studies, sketches, lectures, writings and detailed design documents of the following projects:

1. Colas Gardens: (Le Jardin du Jeu des Saisons / Le Jardin de Pins / Le Jardin de l'Attente / Le Théâtre de Verdure), Paris, France.
2. Landscape of Rocks-Motorway 837, Crazannes, France.
3. Other Highway Landscapes: Motorway A85 / Motorway A28, France.
4. Le Jardin des Retours (Garden of Returns), Rochefort-sur-Mer, France.
5. Design Competitions and Proposals: Le Jardin des Tuileries / Parc de la Villette / Parc Duisburg-Nord / Jardin de la Anterior / Jardin de la Planets
6. Earlier Experiments and Studies: Pointe Rouge (Red Dot) / Les Ambiances (The Ambiance) / Les Habitants-paysagistes (The Landscape-dwellers)

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Toru Mitani

Entries to the collection include personal notes and design documents of the following projects that the designers produced at Studio on Site.

1. Kaze-no-Oka Crematorium, Ohita, Japan
2. Shinagawa Central Garden, Tokyo, Japan
3. A Rooftop Garden for TV-ASAHI Broadcast Station, Tokyo, Japan

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Yoshio Nakamura

Entries to the collection include design documents and post-built civil group reports of the following projects:

1. Hiroshima Embankment, Hiroshima, Japan
2. Koga Park, Koga, Japan

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The New Arcadians

Entries to the collection include publications by members of the group, especially the Allotment File and watercolors by Ian Gardner. Works by Ian Hamilton Finlay and Bernard Lassus, who were affiliated earlier with the group, are cross-referenced. Dumbarton Oaks library also has a full set of the New Arcadian Journal.

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Athena Tacha

Entries to the collection include studies, images of artworks and design documents of the following projects:

1. Stream, Oberlin College, OH
2. Green Acres, Department of Environmental Protection, Trenton, NJ
3. Other artworks and studies

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Michael Van Valkenburgh (MVVA, Inc.)

Entries to the collection include detailed design documents and slides of the following projects:

1. The Small House and Garden, Martha's Vineyard
2. Regis Garden at Cowles Conservatory, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, MN
3. 50 Avenue Montaigne, Paris, France
4. Black Granite Garden
5. Allegheny Riverfront Park, Pittsburgh, PA
6. Garden on Turtle Creek, Dallas, TX
7. Tahari Courtyards, Millburn, NJ
8. Wellesley College Master Planning & Alumnae Valley, Wellesley, MA
9. Teardrop Park, New York, NY