Modern Landscapes: Transition & Transformation Book Series

This publication series speaks directly to the design/historic preservation divide, recognizing while change is inevitable, landscapes can be transformed with their design integrity intact. Each book focuses on an important midcentury Modernist work. The books’ two color, soft-cover design is intentionally low tech, making them easily readable, portable, and affordable for students.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Each book chronicles the planning and design motivations behind the work and places it in its historic context.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Richly illustrated with images and drawings—many of which have rarely if ever been seen—the series balances programmatic, design, historic preservation, and environmental concerns while providing practical lessons learned.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Images include exploratory design studies and notes, revealing how the office worked, the team conducted research, and received feedback from its lead designer.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Images and text provide insight into project details, material selection, and planting plans.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

The image on the lower right is a partial view of Halprin's fountain prior to its demolition. The fountain, which had long been inoperative, was jerry-rigged to allow photographic documentation of the water flow.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Images show Halprin's studies for Skyline Park, revealing how he reconciled the heights of the blocks, scale, and perspective.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Halprin’s rehab proposal in his own hand. It was not implemented.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

University of Colorado, Denver, students under author Ann Komara's direction, prepared measured drawings and photographs of Skyline Park that met Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) standards

Prior to its demolition, University of Colorado, Denver, students under author Ann Komara's direction, prepared measured drawings and photographs of Skyline Park that met Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) standards—the first such documentation effort for a Modernist work of landscape architecture in the U.S.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Halprin penned the epilogue for the book, succintly capturing the theme of the series: "I am extremely thankful that this monograph has captured the story of Skyline Park. I believe it offers lessons from the past and hope for the future."

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

In Mellon Square: Discovering a Modern Masterpiece, author Susan M. Rademacher, Parks Curator of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, chronicles the planning and design motivations behind the development of Pittsburgh’s Mellon Square, the first Modernist garden plaza built over a parking structure in the U.S

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Mellon Square was designed by landscape architects John Ormsbee Simonds and Philip Simonds, of Simonds & Simonds, in collaboration with architecture firm Mitchell & Ritchey. The book provides insight into the selection of the designers and their collaborative process.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

The plaza was paid for by the Mellon family foundations and the family offered constructive criticism throughout the design process.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

The book reveals that Sarah Mellon Scaife rejected the original proposal for a rectangular paving, telling Simonds that she’d visited Venice and wanted smaller paving pieces like those in St. Mark’s Square. Simonds later said he thought of triangles because the retail strip and garage entrances required entrances at the corners and set up a diagonal pattern.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

Each book includes valuable notes, appendices (such as the Mellon Square planting plans), and bibliographies.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Media: Please submit high-resolution image requests to images@asla.org.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

You’ve just received a request for proposals to redesign or replace a once celebrated landscape by your hero. What to do? As we know too well, this scenario is playing out more and more frequently.

The Modern Landscapes: Transition & Transformation Book Series directly addresses the design/historic preservation divide, recognizing while change is inevitable, landscapes can adapt with their design integrity intact. The series focuses on important midcentury Modernist works of landscape architecture that have undergone significant change, while presenting tangible tools for measuring success. Each book chronicles the planning and design motivations behind the work and places it in its historic context. Richly illustrated with images and drawings—many of which have rarely if ever been seen—the series balances programmatic, design, historic preservation, and environmental concerns while providing practical lessons learned. The first two books, Lawrence Halprin’s Skyline Park (in Denver, CO) and Mellon Square: Discovering a Modern Masterpiece (designed by Simonds & Simonds in Pittsburgh), have received great acclaim and raised awareness of this pressing practice issue. The series is written for landscape architects, planners, allied designers, students, historic preservationists, and other professionals seeking to balance current needs with preservation. The books’ two color design is intentionally low tech, making them easily readable, portable, and affordable for students.

The first volume in the series, Lawrence Halprin's Skyline Park, was written by Ann Komara, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and co-director of the Urban Design Program at the University of Colorado at Denver. The book showcases Halprin’s once acclaimed urban renewal effort for downtown Denver in the 1970s. Drawing on the rugged beauty of the city's natural surroundings for inspiration, Halprin created a signature landmark of sunken fountains, walls, and berms that served as an urban promenade and an oasis from the surrounding streets. The book honors the legacy of Halprin's original work by presenting the most complete documentation available of the park's conception, construction, and use before its total redesign in 2003. Most importantly, the book includes measured drawings and photographs of Skyline Park generated by university students that met Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) Standards just prior to its demolition—the first such documentation effort for a Modernist work of landscape architecture in the U.S. The 144-page book includes a foreword by Charles Birnbaum, an introduction by Laurie Olin, and, fittingly, an epilogue (published posthumously) by Lawrence Halprin, who wrote: “I am extremely grateful that this monograph has captured the story of Skyline Park. I believe it offers lessons from the past and hope for the future.”

In Mellon Square: Discovering a Modern Masterpiece, author Susan M. Rademacher, Parks Curator of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, chronicles the planning and design motivations behind the development of Pittsburgh’s Mellon Square, the first Modernist garden plaza built over a parking structure in the U.S. Designed by landscape architects John Ormsbee Simonds and Philip Simonds, of Simonds & Simonds, in collaboration with architecture firm Mitchell & Ritchey, the plaza was paid for by the Mellon family foundations. It was conceived as an urban oasis—a public gathering space nested within a cluster of buildings by prominent architects, including Daniel Burnham and Harrison & Abramowitz. The plaza was a cornerstone of the Pittsburgh Renaissance, an initiative established by the Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association at the end of World War II to transform the industrial downtown area into a modern city composed of plazas, parks, and new corporate buildings. The 160-page book contains a foreword by Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, an introduction by Patricia M. O’Donnell, FASLA, (who did the rehabilitation and restoration work), a prologue by Richard “Dick” Bell, FASLA, (who apprenticed under John Simonds more than 60 years earlier), and an epilogue by Barry Starke, FASLA. Featuring new photography and archival material, Mellon Square is the only book to showcase the development of this iconic urban landscape.

O’Donnell, who led the Mellon Square work that was completed in 2014 in partnership with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the City of Pittsburgh, summarized the impetus for the project: “Approaching the work of a master requires insight and humility. An understanding of original design intent and execution is paramount. . . Mellon Square’s transcendent character is palpable once again.”

The Skyline Park and Mellon Square books each made The Dirt’s Best Books of the Year (2012 and 2014, respectively), received coverage from the Denver Post and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2012 and 2014, respectively), and the Skyline Park volume received a 2013 Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History. Three additional books are in various stages of development for future publication, including The Modernist Adventure Playgrounds of Central Park, The Charlottesville Mall, VA, and The Landscape of Philip Johnson’s Glass House. The goal of this series is to remove the artificial silos of design and preservation and provide landscape architects and other professionals with practical, quantifiable tools and strategies to navigate these specialized projects resulting in a product that equally balances change with continuity of design integrity.