One of the Greats: Lawrence Halprin
As a Landscape Architecture student, you learn about the so called “greats” of the field: Fredrick Law Olmsted, Thomas Church, Ian McHarg, and Lawrence Halprin just to name a few. You take notes on their design style, theory, career, and projects only to regurgitate them into A, B, C, or D on a multiple choice test. You hear about them every year,in almost every class, so much so that they become common. But we must not forget why they are “Great.” Especially one, Lawrence Halprin who died on the 25 of October this year.
Halprin was the ultimate sculptor of the environment. His sphere of achievement and influence extends not only to residential works but to memorials, parks, plazas, environmental planning, and urban design. He understood the connections between environment and design, social interactions in space and environment, and creativity and ingenuity. Like the other “Greats,” Halprin solved problems not by words but design in its most ingenious form.
There are countless reasons to be inspired by Lawrence Halprin and others like him. For one, he was a master at figuring and communicating with his clients. On working with clients he stated,
“One is that they will feel about you that you’re going to make something wonderful for them. And they help you by expressing themselves. Not telling you how to do it but encouraging you and accepting your vision and working with you on that kind of level.”
He understood this unique connection between designer and client, and how important it is to the success of the design.
His ability to process information from people combined with a talent for reading the landscape resulted in a long list of designs, books, and awards . His wife, Anna, describes his legacy perfectly:
“He believed the most important thing about designing is to generate creativity in others, and be inclusive- to include the needs and experiences of people interacting with the environment, and to let them be a part of its creation. That doesn’t mean that you don’t use your own artistic sensibilities to shape and contain and incorporate your own vision, but it means that vision must connect with people’s feelings, experiences, and needs. That’s his legacy.”
This is why he is Great.
Check out a few more of his projects:
