The Cultural Landscape Foundation® Pioneers of American Landscape Design® ___________________________________ RICHARD HAAG ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT ___________________________________ Interviews Conducted November 2004 and May 3-5, 2013 By Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR and Nancy S. Slade, ASLA Tom Fox, Videographer © 2014 The Cultural Landscape Foundation, all rights reserved. May not be used or reproduced without permission. The Cultural Landscape Foundation® Pioneers of American Landscape Design® Oral History Series: Richard Haag Interview Transcript BIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 5 Childhood ..................................................................................................................... 5 Memories of Growing up in Kentucky ............................................................................... 5 Not a Typical Southern Life ................................................................................................ 7 Education ..................................................................................................................... 9 The United States Army ..................................................................................................... 9 Lessons Learned from his Service .................................................................................... 9 The University of Illinois ................................................................................................... 10 Discovering Landscape Architecture ............................................................................. 10 Stan White’s Teaching Style .......................................................................................... 11 Summer Travels with Stan White .................................................................................. 13 Lessons from Hideo Sasaki ............................................................................................ 14 Lessons from Flora Bell Robinson .................................................................................. 15 University of California at Berkeley .................................................................................. 17 Hideo Sasaki Helps him go to Berkeley ......................................................................... 17 Straddling the Change from Beaux-Arts to Modernism ............................................... 19 Harvard ............................................................................................................................. 21 Remembering Fellow Students ..................................................................................... 23 Travels with Hideo Sasaki ............................................................................................. 25 Summers Working with Dan Kiley ................................................................................. 26 Reflections on Harvard .................................................................................................. 29 Fulbright ........................................................................................................................... 31 Winning a Fulbright Scholarship to Japan .................................................................... 31 Practice ...................................................................................................................... 35 Finding Work after Japan ................................................................................................. 35 Working for Lawrence Halprin ......................................................................................... 37 Developing his own Practice ............................................................................................ 41 Teaching ..................................................................................................................... 42 University of Washington ................................................................................................. 42 Developing a Landscape Architecture Department ...................................................... 42 Teaching: The Esquisse ................................................................................................. 44 Combining Practice with Teaching ................................................................................ 45 DESIGN ........................................................................................................ 47 Process ....................................................................................................................... 47 Developing a Personal Philosophy ................................................................................... 47 Crafting the Right Design for your Client ......................................................................... 47 Defending your Design ..................................................................................................... 49 Principles of Design ..................................................................................................... 51 Consider the Min-Max Concept ....................................................................................... 51 The Universals of Landscape Architecture ....................................................................... 52 Elements of the Design .................................................................................................... 53 Thoughts on Change ................................................................................................... 57 © 2014 The Cultural Landscape Foundation, all rights reserved. May not be used or reproduced without permission. 2 The Cultural Landscape Foundation® Pioneers of American Landscape Design® Oral History Series: Richard Haag Interview Transcript Considering the Ephemeral Aspect of Landscapes .......................................................... 57 The Effect of Time on the Landscape ............................................................................... 59 Respecting the Past While Planning for the Future ......................................................... 62 Ideas for Future Gardens ................................................................................................. 64 Thoughts on Development in Emerging Economies ........................................................ 65 PROJECTS ..................................................................................................... 65 Western Washington Campus Work ............................................................................ 65 Seattle Center ............................................................................................................. 66 Bloedel Reserve .......................................................................................................... 68 The Residence .................................................................................................................. 68 Meeting Prentice Bloedel ................................................................................................. 69 The Design Competition ................................................................................................... 69 Working with Mr. Bloedel ................................................................................................ 72 Creating the Series of Garden Spaces .............................................................................. 73 The Garden of Planes .................................................................................................... 75 The Moss Garden .......................................................................................................... 77 The Reflection Garden ................................................................................................... 79 The Bird Sanctuary ........................................................................................................ 82 The Concept behind the Sequence of Gardens ............................................................... 83 Developing the Spiritual Path ....................................................................................... 84 Light and Shadow in the Garden ...................................................................................... 86 Gas Works Park........................................................................................................... 87 Discovering the Gas Works .............................................................................................. 87 How the Gas Works Project came his way ....................................................................... 88 Developing the Site Plan .................................................................................................. 90 Developing a Team ........................................................................................................... 92 Building Support ............................................................................................................... 94 Working to Save the Structures ....................................................................................... 94 Bioremediation ................................................................................................................. 98 How the Design Evolved ................................................................................................