QUARRYHOUSE PROFILES: LAWRENCE HALPRIN
Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009)
QuarryHouse was privileged to collaborate with the late landscape architect Lawrence Halprin on innovative private gardens and prestigious public commissions. Halprin, a New York City native, born in 1916, believed that landscape design could nurture the mind and soul. After receiving a B.A. in plant sciences at Cornell University and an M.S. in horticulture from the University of Wisconsin, he turned to landscape architecture when he visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin estate. Winning a scholarship, Halprin continued his education at Harvard Graduate School of Design. At Harvard, he met the landscape architect Christopher Tunnard, author of Gardens in the Modern Landscape, students Philip Johnson and I.M. Pei, and the architect William Wurster.
The Dewey Donnell Garden, Photo by Millicent Harvey
Halprin moved to San Francisco in 1945 and, through his friendship with Wurster, was hired by the abstract modernist landscape architect Thomas Church. Designing the Dewey Donnell Garden with Church in 1948, the much-photographed project became a symbol of post-war California life. Situated on a hillside of a Sonoma cattle ranch, it featured an Avant-guard kidney-shaped pool. For the first time, a swimming pool integrated with the Bay Area landscape echoing the salt marsh ponds as seen through oak trees. Halprin incorporated natural stones from the property into the hardscape and a floating abstract sculpture by Adaline Kent. While he enjoyed his association with Church, the work was primarily residential, and he wanted to gain public commissions with a social and environmental focus. Halprin opened his practice in 1949.
The Sea Ranch, Photo by Charles Birnbaum
The first project to give Lawrence Halprin & Associates national recognition was The Sea Ranch in Sonoma County. In 1962 architect and developer Al Boeke hired Halprin to design the master plan for a community based on the U.K.'s "New Town Movement" situated on a pristine ten-mile stretch of the California coast. Along with maintaining the environment and seamlessly interacting with the landscape, the rustic architecture developed with architects Joseph Esherick and the firm Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker references the area's rural vernacular style.
Northern Californa is fortunate to be home to some of Halprin's public projects. QuarryHouse worked on many including, Stern Grove Amphitheater, Letterman Digital Arts Center, Yosemite Falls Restoration, and Alcatraz Agave Trail. Among the prestigious awards, the landscape architect received were the 2002 National Medal of Arts and the 2005 Michelangelo Award.
