April is World Landscape Architecture Month.
Although national parks are sometimes thought of as primarily wild or natural places, parks have a strong foundation in landscape architecture and design.
Many sites and landscapes now managed by the National Park Service were designed by landscape architects. This includes landscapes designed as private estates and commemorative landscapes like memorials and cemeteries. It also includes those “wild” places designed to be national parks, aiming to enhance the visitor experience without detracting from the natural surroundings.
The formal garden at Bellefield, part of the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NHS, was designed by Beatrix Farrand. It continues to be maintained to reflect the historic character of the garden design based on historic photos. (NPS Photo)
During the formative years of the NPS, from 1916 to 1942, landscape architects, architects, and engineers crafted a cohesive style of landscape design that met the expanding needs of park development while upholding the agency’s responsibility to preserve the natural qualities for which each park had been designated. While some elements typical to this development era are reflected from coast to coast, their stylistic expression is associated with the particular landscape character of each park.
The concept of park planning also emerged from this period, calling for a more systematic process of review and approval to help ensure that the fundamental principles and designs were aligned with natural surroundings, while upholding the service’s responsibilities for both stewardship and visitor use.
A visitor stands beside a low stone wall in a parking pullout along the Rim Drive Historic District, overlooking Crater Lake in Oregon. (NPS Photo)
The design of natural parks and rustic structures was rooted in nineteenth-century English gardening tradition, which was popularized in the U.S. by the writings of Andrew Jackson Downing and the urban parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The sturdy, rustic style of park architecture and the naturalization of the landscape features became known as the Rustic Style.
Today, visitors to national parks can still experience the landscape design features that express the history of park development, planning, and visitation over the last century, from the nature-inspired Rustic Style in the early part of the century to the modernist style of the Mission 66 era.
The Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center is one of the features of the Mission 66-era Hoh Developed Area in Olympic National Park, WA. (NPS Photo)
“Designed by a Landscape Architect“
April is World Landscape Architecture Month, and you don’t have to be a landscape designer to join in the celebration. The month-long celebration emerges out of a joint partnership between the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).
Visit the website to download a wallet-sized card that says, “Designed by a Landscape Architect.” Follow the instructions on the website to display this card in photos at landscape-architect-designed spaces and share on social media with hash tags #WLAM2015 #ASLA #IFLA.
Get all the World Landscape Architecture Month details here.
Want to know more about the history of landscape architecture and the National Park Service? Take a look at Linda Flint McClelland’s book Building the National Parks: Historic Landscape Design and Construction (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).
PARKitecture in Western National Parks: Rustic Design and Naturalism
