The Masters of Modern Landscape Design is a series of biographies featuring landscape architects prominent in the mid to late 20th century in North America. Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009) was a west coast landscape architect who lived productively into his 90s. He is best known in Seattle for Freeway Park, but he was also responsible for the master landscaping plan for the Seattle World’s Fair, a project he worked on from 1958-1962. Author Kenneth Helphand is a professor emeritus in landscape architecture at the University of Oregon and wrote about “Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime” (2007), an award winner which I reviewed in the Spring 2012 “The Bulletin.”
Freeway Park was the first capping of an interstate freeway, a model replicated widely since that time. This biography recounts the initial praise for the project (opened in 1976), the expansion by Halprin associate Angela Danadjieva, the subsequent decline of the park into disuse, and revitalizing revisions to the plantings of the last decade. Before his death, Halprin contributed to this last effort, which leaves the structure of the park in place.
Massive waterfalls are a Halprin signature. I’ve long admired those at Freeway Park but was surprised last summer to discover Forecourt (now Ira Keller) and Lovejoy Fountains in Portland. He designed these in the 1960s and linked them by an eight-block pedestrian mall. “Like all water features they invite attention—and for Halprin, participation.”
He demonstrated this at the dedication of the Forecourt Fountain in 1970. Vietnam War protests at nearby Portland State University created tension between the students and police gathered for the event. Halprin’s words, and even more so his action of walking into the cascading water, helped to calm the crowd and spark a celebration of community.
Excerpted from the Summer 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.