#lawrence halprin

[tilbageidanmark]

Freeway Park in Seattle

[science70]

Graphic designer and landscape architect Barbara Stauffacher Solomon with an enamel exit sign mock-up at Lawrence Halprin's Demonstration House, The Sea Ranch, California, 1965.

[strathshepard]

Freeway Park, Seattle, designed by Lawrence Halprin and Angela Danadjieva

[iamjapanese]

Lawrence Halprin（American, 1916–2009）

Sea Ranch  1972  Ink on paper  24 x 18 3/4 in.  via

[archiveofaffinities]

Lawrence Halprin, Skyline Park, Denver, Colorado, 1970-1975

[equatorjournal]

cascading falls and quiet pools by lawrence Halprin, 1973

[moodboardmix]

“Hillsborough” Residence, San Mateo County, California, United States,

Built in 1958 by Architect Joseph Esherick and landscape architect Lawrence Halprin & Associates.

Renovation by Richard Beard Architects and The Wiseman Group.

Photo: @josemanuel.alorda

[lauraglazer]

I haven’t been on many walking tours and I remembered that I have friends who dislike them because it inhibits them from doing their own things, both of which were on my mind as I walked to Shattuck Hall on PSU’s campus this morning. I was registered for a South Portland Summer Walking Tour put on by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Architectural Heritage Center, and Halprin Landscape Conservancy and the tour started at this former elementary school built in 1914. For the next two hours I was constantly wowed and blown away by the magic in my life: so many of the stops on the tour were already places that I had explored by following my instincts. How is it that my curiosity had led me there?!! I try to be really aware of directions that my intuition pushes me in.

For example, Phat Cart is on a street next to a food cart pod. Last year when I first started going to campus to use my studio, I stood in front of each cart, trying to decide which one appealed to me. Instead, I choose Phat Cart which is actually a food cart turned storefront and I’ve been going there ever since. (They even sell ceramics inside and I’m enamored with the creations of a local artist, Jenny Watson. I bought a small mug with polka dots on it to use for tea in the studio.)

During today’s walking tour, I found out that Phat Cart is in one of the few remaining structures of the old Jewish neighborhood in Portland! Even more awesome is that it’s the former location of Mrs. Neusihin's Pickles where she had huge barrels out front in which she would make and sell pickles from. 

From there we toured the Halprin Sequence which is one my favorite things to do in Portland. Turns out there is a fountain I had never seen before, called The Source. Other things I noted:

Bring nature into the city was the urban renewal mantra of the 1960s

Lovejoy Fountain was inspired by Sierras, a place that the Halprins spent a lot of time in

In once sense you need to dance as you move thru these spaces!

Water flows and the size of the flows create different sounds

Go to the pavilion during a rain storm so you can hear the rain on the copper ceiling

Pettygrove is the opposite of Lovejoy

A calm opposite to Lovejoy fountain

When the city officials were done dedicating the Keller Fountain, Lawrence spoke and removed his shoes and got into the fountain himself! It was intended to be played in!

I immediately called my mom to share these interconnections and then walked to the library to get all their books on Halprin. I’ve checked out a few before but now that I have more entry points I’m more ready to read them. One of the books is his notebooks and he has exciting handwriting!

In the coming weeks I’ll visit the exhibit on him at the OJMCHE.

Throughout the tour I kept thinking about all the ways the presence of an artist could make more of this history come alive. A guidebook or sign don’t do full justice to the multi-faceted stories of places and history.