The Cultural Landscape Foundation® Pioneers of American Landscape Design® LAWRENCE HALPRIN ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Interviews Conducted March 2003, March and December, 2008 By Charles A. Birnbaum FASLA, FAAR Tom Fox, FASLA © 2016 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: Lawrence Halprin Interview Transcript Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Childhood and Education ...................................................................................................................2 His Parents as Mentors ............................................................................................................................. 2 Living in Israel on a kibbutz ....................................................................................................................... 2 Attending Cornell ...................................................................................................................................... 4 The Wisconsin Years and how I got into Harvard ..................................................................................... 6 The Harvard Experience ............................................................................................................................ 7 The War Years ......................................................................................................................................... 10 Professional Practice ........................................................................................................................ 11 Working for Tommy Church .................................................................................................................... 11 Starting His Own Practice ........................................................................................................................ 13 Reflections on Building a Practice too Large ........................................................................................... 16 Reflections on Training New Professionals ............................................................................................. 18 Remembering the last Fifteen Years in the Halprin Office ..................................................................... 19 Collaboration with Anna .................................................................................................................. 21 How the Dance Deck Evolved ................................................................................................................. 21 The Future of the Dance Deck ................................................................................................................ 23 Anna and Larry on the Intersection of Dance and Nature ...................................................................... 25 Larry and Anna on Freedom of Expression ............................................................................................. 26 Anna’s Reflections on the Halprin Projects............................................................................................. 28 Having so much fun................................................................................................................................. 29 Design Philosophy ............................................................................................................................ 30 Landscape Architecture as an art form ................................................................................................... 30 © 2016 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: Lawrence Halprin Interview Transcript What is a landscape architect? ............................................................................................................... 32 Designing for Cities ................................................................................................................................. 33 Fitness – How a Design and Site evolve .................................................................................................. 35 What is Motation? .................................................................................................................................. 38 What are Scores? .................................................................................................................................... 39 The RSVP Cycles ...................................................................................................................................... 41 Comments on endangered projects ....................................................................................................... 44 Skyline Park ............................................................................................................................................. 45 Manhattan Square Park and the Virginia Museum of Art ...................................................................... 47 What a National Park should be ............................................................................................................. 48 Natural Design/or man-made- Yosemite Falls and Stern Grove ............................................................. 51 Summing up Halprin’s Philosophy .................................................................................................... 52 Elements of Design .......................................................................................................................... 53 Working with Plant Material ................................................................................................................... 53 The Art of Drawing .................................................................................................................................. 55 Designing with Nature ............................................................................................................................ 58 Designing with water .............................................................................................................................. 59 Designing street furniture and places for art .......................................................................................... 60 Projects ...........................................................................................................................................61 The Donnell Garden ................................................................................................................................ 61 The Donnell Garden as a modern space ................................................................................................. 64 The Donnell Pool as a place .................................................................................................................... 65 Revisiting Donnell after all these years ................................................................................................... 67 Old Orchard Shopping Center ................................................................................................................. 69 Ghiraradelli Square ................................................................................................................................. 70 © 2016 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: Lawrence Halprin Interview Transcript Sea Ranch ................................................................................................................................................ 71 Changes at Sea Ranch: The Lodge expands ............................................................................................ 74 Portland’s Chain of Open Spaces ............................................................................................................ 76 Preserving the Integrity- The Halprin Conservancy ................................................................................ 78 Freeway Park- The Park Accepts Nature as Part of the Solution ............................................................ 79 Levi’s Plaza ............................................................................................................................................. 81 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial ...................................................................................................... 83 3 Capstone Projects: Yosemite Falls, Lucas Studios and Stern Grove .................................................... 89 Yosemite Falls ..................................................................................................................................... 90 Stern Grove ......................................................................................................................................... 94 The George Lucas Studios ................................................................................................................... 94 © 2016 The Cultural Landscape Foundation, all rights reserved. May not be used or reproduced