Fall 2013: Landscapes of Stone
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A Publication of the Foundation for Landscape Studies A Journal of Place Volume ıx | Number ı | Fall 2013 Essays: Native Ground, Architectural Substance: Landscapes of Stone 3 Laurie Olin: From Suzhou to Malibu: The Power of Stone in Landscape Design Elizabeth Barlow Rogers: Bedrock, Ice, Sand, and Water: The Geological Landscape of New York City Christa Sadler: House of Stone and Time: The Grand Canyon as Home John Beardsley: Designed and Written in Stone: Four Freedoms Park and the FDR Memorial Place Maker 16 Carole George: The Stones of the Spirit Book Reviews 18 Lauren Belfer: The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System By Frank R. Kowsky Edward S. Barnard: Ginkgo By Peter Crane Frederic C. Rich: Eat the City: A Tale of the Fishers, Foragers, Butchers, Farmers, Poultry Minders, Sugar Refiners, Cane Cutters, Beekeepers, Winemakers, and Brewers Who Built New York By Robin Shulman Contributors 23 Letter from the Editor andscapes of stone? siders how past and present allows us to perceive the gist by training, Sadler can ernmost tip of Roosevelt “Little Sparta,” a garden Stonehenge: a pre- designers have made stone effects of geology within the speak with expertise about Island. Here pale granite is of allusive words incised historic circle an essential element in their span of a single generation, the processes that formed used to create an elevated upon stones and structures of megaliths; Egyp- work. The mineral material it is nearly impossible for the extraordinary topogra- platform for a greensward that arrest the eye within tian pyramids and underlying the built world, most of us to comprehend phy of the canyon’s river- approached by imposing the rolling sheep-studded Ltemples, rising stark and on the other hand, speaks deep time – the millions carved walls, which are stairs; steeply canted walls landscape of southern Scot- colossal from the desert; the of the macro-landscape – a upon millions of years that banded by layer upon layer defining a perimeter prom- land. But whereas Finlay’s Athenian acropolis towering product of cosmic forces formed, eroded, re-formed, of sedimentary strata. But enade; and a roofless, three- rock-inscribed words are above the Agora; Japanese operating on a vastly greater and again eroded the she proves herself some- sided “room” enshrining metaphorical, classicizing, and Chinese gardens; grot- time scale. In my essay mountains whose roots are thing other than a scientist an inscription – the reso- and often polemical, hers tos; squares and plazas. All “Bedrock, Sand, and Water: the rock outcrops found in when she quotes the poet nant words of the wartime are oracular and existential, of these landscapes are man- The Geological Landscape Central Park and other city Alfred Bryan, who charac- president’s Four Freedoms an expressive articulation of made, some melded with of New York City” I attempt parks. That their surfaces terized this mind-boggling speech. The view from the ten qualities of being: char- nature, others quarried, to describe these primordial bear grooves and scratches slash in the American desert memorial is that of another acter, simplicity, discipline, carved, and constructed in processes of Earth’s forma- marking the passage of a landscape as “ten thousand landscape of stone: the unity, harmony, restraint, their entirety. Their chief tion from a local perspec- two-mile-tall wall of glacial cathedrals rolled into one.” memorable skyline of New boldness, solidity, délica- defining characteristic is tive. ice that scoured and pol- For Sadler, this confining York City. tesse, and consecration. durability, for rock outlives We worry, as we should, ished them a few thousands landscape of towering walls On her home ground Please remember that flesh – to the point that about the effects of a warm- of years ago is another cause is a never-ending wonder, in rural Virginia, Carole Site/Lines is made possible by landscapes and structures ing planet and bizarre for wonder. Talk about cli- and yet one that has become George nourishes a spiri- gifts from its readers. You made of stone are some- weather turbulence on the mate change! almost domestic through tual relationship with the can visit our website and times all that is left as lives of the eight million Christa Sadler tells long familiarity. land. In this issue’s Place donate online or place your material evidence of past human inhabitants who call another geological story in In “Designed and Written Maker essay she writes about contribution in the enclosed cultures. New York City home. But “House of Stone and Time.” in Stone: Four Freedoms the inscribed stones she envelope. Thank you! In his essay in this issue, such concern only takes into A professional river guide, Park and the FDR Memo- embedded into a hillside, a “From Suzhou to Malibu: account the tiniest, frac- she rafts us in words on an rial” landscape historian task undertaken in inti- With good green wishes, The Power of Stone in Land- tional part of a much larger, imaginary trip through and author John Beardsley mate dialogue with the site. scape Design,” the landscape longer, and ongoing story the Grand Canyon. A geolo- writes about the cut blocks George’s project brings to architect Laurie Olin con- of ice ages alternating with and elegant geometries mind Ian Hamilton Finlay’s global warming and ris- of Louis I. Kahn’s final ing sea levels. Although the commission, recently real- Elizabeth Barlow Rogers city’s coastal reconfiguration ized forty years after it President was designed for the south- Note our Gallery page will allow straint of a print issue. Please you to view photographic slide use the footer on the home page Although the Foundation for shows associated with various or the appropriate tab on the Landscape Studies is commit- essays. navigation bar to access reviews On the Cover: ted to publishing Site/Lines in In addition, the website now and other blog posts of interest Late afternoon on the Colorado print format, our reconfigured contains a blog. This feature to you. River in Marble Canyon, website allows us to build allows us to publish electroni- We welcome your sugges- out its contents in new ways. cally more book reviews and tions regarding further Grand Canyon National Park. All back issues are still topical articles than is possible ways to expand and enhance 2 available in pdf format, but now within the numerical page con- our publishing outreach! Native Ground, Architectural Substance: Landscapes of Stone From Suzhou to Malibu: One of the most famous and impressive is the Lingering element – sometimes their only element – was stone: natural The Power of Stone in Landscape Design, Garden, which contains what may be the single most famous and raw; cleft, carved, shaped, and shattered; raked, swept, hen we contemplate nature, it is difficult not stone in the country. This is the Cloud Capped Peak, a tall, and piled. Kyoto has one of the most outstanding collec- to think in terms of metaphors and similes: menhir-like piece of bizarrely eroded karst that stands in a tions of important gardens in the world, displaying a broad water is the blood of the earth; stones are the courtyard between two pavilions, affording each a markedly range of expression and form. Many of them were created bones; soil and plants are the flesh. And we different perspective. Another superb example of this aes- for members of the Imperial court and are associated with are like the clouds that drift across the moon thetic is that of the nearby Lion Grove garden, which pos- palaces, villas, and country retreats, but a number of the most Wor the leaves that are blown from the trees in all their colors, sesses an enormous rockery composed of dozens of upright admired, such as Ryoan-ji and Daisen-in, were developed leaving bare branches against the sky of approaching winter. stones (“lions”) standing in a pool; as one travels the twisting within monastic enclaves. But earth and stone remain. paths around it, small caves and tunnels reveal themselves In Kyoto, as in Suzhou, stone is key. One first encounters Stone, the mantle of the Earth, underlies everything every- among the numerous outcroppings and recesses. Gardens it on approaching the gardens: as the base for stucco walls where and forms the topography of the lands on which we such as these served as models for several built later by the and drain channels. Next, one inevitably finds a handsome make our homes. Poets and painters, architects and landscape Qianlong emperor: at a number of villas west of the Forbid- threshold of granite while stepping through a gate into the architects, garden designers, and builders all over the world den City; at others further afield at Yuan Ming Yuan; and at garden itself, where a path of beautifully fitted and perfectly have considered, sought out, confronted, and worked with his summer palace at Chengde, in lower Mongolia. placed stones awaits. Sometimes it might be a carpet of tightly stone: with boulders, rocks, and pebbles, whether cut, uncut, From very early times many cultural practices, ranging set, irregular shapes fused into cleft, carved, or tumbled; with stone of every size, shape, from Buddhism to metalworking, were imported from India a dramatic strip; elsewhere, Rockwork forming a mountain color, and density; and with sand, stone’s crushed or finely and China to Japan, where they would then evolve in fresh even within the same gar- composition by a pond of a former ground remains. Stone is fundamental, utilized throughout and sophisticated ways. Despite Buddhist tenets of asceti- den, slabs may be irregularly imperial villa on the grounds of human environments for thousands of years.