Well Aged Controversy.

The New York ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) has what they call a 'bi-weekly happy hour'. This is basically a studio crawl twice a month to landscape architect offices around the city where the food and wine is for certain the best any attendees partake in during a typical work week. These Thursday night events are a highlight of the week for me. Great food, even better wine, 200+ young, hip landscape architects, and seeing the various work environments around the city.

Last weeks soiree was at Michael Van Valkenburgh's gorgeous Union Square studio. My office happens to have 3 spousal connetions at MVVA, so that made the night more entertaining than usual. And the fact that MVVA has their own in-house yoga instructor, who, much to my chagrin (I've always wanted to use that word) wasn't there for the party. I could use some help with this AutoCad crook neck.

It was a typical studio happy hour meeting new people. And somehow I found myself in the middle of a heated discussion about the work my firm is doing at Lincoln Center. In particular the alteration of Dan Kiley's mid-century urban bosque and reflecting pool. Most of the preservationist anger was directed towards Diller+ Scofidio rather than my peeps, but we're no doubt guilty by association. Perhaps more so because it's our responsibility.

Dan Kiley is one of the most well revered modernist landscape architects in the world. Kiley believed that geometry was an inherent part of man and the structure man could use to help comprehend her surroundings. He also believed that man was a part of nature, rather than being separate from it - a controversial belief during Kiley's time when the picturesque was the foremost landscape practice. Rather than copying and trying to imitate the curvilinear forms of nature he asserted mathematical order to the landscape. Kiley’s landscapes overstepped their boundaries rather than ending elements neatly on a suggested edge. He called this approach slippage, or an extension beyond the implied boundary, creating ambiguous relationships in the landscape.

Kiley's work at Lincoln Center, although not one of his most notable landscapes, is a geometric work of art. The design centers on "quartet" planters surrounded by a tightly spaced tree bosque. The combination of the two spatial elements produces a strong order to the complex as a whole. Kiley's signature use of minimalist and well proportioned planters creates spatial containment and a balanced relationship between the series of open plazas, courts and shaded bosque areas. "Quartets" of plane trees were planted in twenty-foot square travertine planters, which were partially recessed to minimize their scale. The mature trees today at Damrosch Park, which will be demolished in phase 2 of the redevelopment, are supremely healthy, and proof of the timelessness of Kiley's urban forest concept.

As the landscape architects on this project, it is difficult to approach such honorable work in a delicate and respectful manner. I don't know how the conversation I had tonight will affect anything, but I am grateful for such informed and concerned conversation with my fellow practitioners in the city. It contributes to my growth and transformation as a landscape architect. And that is very important.