Land Matters

In a field that has had, and still has, problems with its professional identity and recognition, Lawrence Halprin established himself as a highly visible and clearly defined practitioner. There were others. But none had the presence before a wide audience of professionals, clients, and the general public that Larry had. All too often the landscape architect is seen as a subservient design team member to architects. Larry wouldn’t allow that.

I was a principal project designer in Halprin’s office from the late 1960s through the late 1970s. To me, at the time, Lawrence Halprin Associates was unique. Though Larry’s influence was always felt on the projects the office produced, there was great freedom for individual project designers to author their own designs and to take them all the way from initial concept to design detail. Compared to my experiences as a young designer in other offices, this was very different. Larry assembled people with talents in a wide range of professional fields and let them do their thing in a synergistic way.

It was a place where the work was driven by art and the user experience. Not the science, not the planning, not even the program. Those of course were important and integral parts of the creative process, but the art and the experience had to be there. Larry felt that the finished project should be interactive with the user. People should be able to get physically involved with the place. If it was a fountain, the user should be able to experience the water directly. If it was an urban street, the user should be able to modify the street with his or her own uses and activities at different times of the day, month, or year. Just as the groundbreaking “Take Part Workshops” made the project design process interactive and participatory, the projects that resulted were also interactive and participatory.

Today, most landscape architects regularly do community input activities—there are even firms that specialize in such workshops—but with Larry the process was more artful. He orchestrated workshops that let people really see their environment, even find new things in places they interacted with every day. Though the legacy of the design workshop has expanded, I think a little of the spirit has eroded. Larry wanted people to experience the joy of the landscape—even the joy of beginning a new design—not just sign in, draw on a map, and write a few comments.

So what influence will Larry continue to have on our profession? I know that both his focus on art and experience and his insistence on the full recognition of landscape architects have affected me and my design approach as I have continued my career. But one thing is for sure: Larry was a dominant force in the field for a long time. He was a superstar who affected many people associated with him and even many who weren’t. His influence has been and will be felt, directly or indirectly, as we move forward as a profession.

Larry knew what we would have to be if we wanted to be taken seriously: We would have to be leaders, innovators. Larry felt the landscape architect had the capacities and abilities necessary to be a leader, the leader, on par with the biggest star professionals in architecture. His actions and abilities set an example for the profession of landscape architecture. I hope we can continue to learn from the legacy, even though the man is gone.

Dean Abbott
Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota