2. • MILLER GARDEN BY
DAN KILEY
• DIANA MEMORIAL BY
KATHRYN
GUSTAFSON
• FENGMING
MOUNTAIN PARK BY
MARTHA SCHWARTZ
3. MILLER GARDEN
Considered to be his residential masterpiece
and an iconic Modernist garden, this 13-acre
property was developed by the Office of Dan
Kiley between 1953 and 1957 as a unified
design through the close teamwork of Dan
Kiley, architects Eero Saarinen and Kevin
Roche, interior designer Alexander Girard,
and clients Irwin and Xenia Miller. The house
interior is arranged around a cruciform grid
of steel columns. Kiley’s plan for the garden,
divided into multiple outdoor rooms,
responds to the orthogonal, geometric
order of the house without being
constrained by a strictly symmetrical
layout.
4. The entrance drive is
flanked by an allée of horse
chestnut trees, with a
gridded orchard of apple
trees planted just east of
the drive. The landscape’s
most prominent feature is
an allée of honey locusts
that define an axis along
the west side of the house
and extend almost to the
limits of the property.
Finely textured, buff-
colored crushed stone
contrasts with the dark
green of the honey locust
leaves. Edged by a row of
red maples, an open,
managed meadow slopes
toward the river, ultimately
becoming a natural
wooded area.
5. Historically, sculptures
by Henry Moore and
Jacques Lipschitz
anchored the two ends
of the axis
The allée received a
terminus at each end in
subsequent years: Henry
Moore's Draped
Reclining Woman at the
north end, and a bas
relief by Jacques Lipchitz
at the south
6. Saarinen brought in landscape
architect Dan Kiley, with whom
he had worked on the St. Louis
Gateway Arch. Kiley wanted the
landscape to be an extension of
the home, loosely divided into
three sections extending from
the corresponding sections of
the house, each with its own
identity. The Miller House is an
example of residential landscape
design that puts a modernist
face on formal European
gardens, which rely on
symmetry and geometry.
7. The plot of land, bounded by the Flatrock
River on the west and Washington Street on
the east, measures about 13.5 acres. Kiley
left the long meadow that sweeps toward
the river largely untouched, choosing to
focus his attention on shaping spaces
around the house. Much of the vegetation,
like the weeping beeches on the west side
of the house, were placed there
strategically to protect living areas from
natural intruders like sun and wind.
An allée of horse chestnut trees lines
the entry drive, which reveals the
house slowly as one approaches. The
Millers did not want their home to be
an imposing object in the landscape
from the entrance of their property or
from their neighbors' homes.Gridded
blocks of apple trees are present on
the lawn farther east.
8. The easternmost edge of the property is planted
with staggered blocks of arborvitae, creating a
hedge that serves as a porous boundary. The garden
areas to the north of the house were originally
planted with redbuds, which were later replaced
with crabapples. In the southwest corner there is a
swimming pool also surrounded by arborvitae
hedges.
One of the most notable features of the landscape
design is the allée of honey locust trees that runs
along the west side of the house which frames the
view of the meadow and the river beyond it.. As
part of a landscape renovation conducted by
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. of
Cambridge, MA, the Honey Locust allée was
replanted in the Spring of 2008. The iconic Moore
sculpture was sold and removed from garden
following Xenia Miller's
death in 2008.
9. Architects: Gustafson Porter + Bowman Location :
London,United Kingdom
Category: Memorial Center Area 5600.0 m2
Year: 2004
Project Manager: Bucknall Austin
Main Contractor: Geoffrey Osborne Ltd Fountain
Subcontractor : Ocmis
Landscape Contractor: Willerby Landscapes
Stone Layers: Cathedral Works Org.,
Stone Masons: S McConnell and Sons
Stone Texturing: Specialists Barron Gould (Texxus)
Surface Modelling : Surface Development
Engineering Ltd
Soil Scientist Soil and Land Consultants :Hydraulic
Modelling Professor David Hardwick
Water feature: consultant OCMIS Collaborating
Artist: Shelagh Wakely
Hydraulic testing : mperial College London
DIANA -PRINCESS OF WALES MEMORIAL
10. Working on the
project began in
2001.The fountain was
designed by gustfson
porter and cost 3.6
million dollars.Kathryn
gusatfson an
american landscape
architect said she had
wanted the
fountain,which was
built to the south of
the serpentine, to be
accessible and to
reflect diana's
inclusive
personality.gustafson
said “ Above all I hope
that it provides a
fitting memorial for
the princess and does
credit to the amazing
person that she was”
The 545 individual pieces of
Cornish granite were cut
using sophisticated
computer-guided cutting
machines by S. McConnell &
Sons, in Kilkeel, Northern
Ireland. The pieces were
made in Northern Ireland and
transferred to England by sea.
Although described as an oval
stone fountain, it has the
form of a large, oval stream
bed about 50 by 80 m (165 by
260 ft) that surrounds, and is
surrounded by, a lush grassy
field. The granite stream bed
is from 3 to 6 m (10 to 20 ft)
wide, is quite shallow and is
laid out on a gently sloping
portion of the park, so that
water pumped to the top of
the oval flows down either
side.
11. One side of the stream
bed descends fairly
smoothly to the
downhill end of the
oval with gentle ripples;
the other side consists
of a variety of steps,
rills, curves, and other
shapes so that the
water plays in
interesting ways as it
flows to the tranquil
pool at the bottom. The
two sides were
intended to show two
sides of Diana's life:
happy times, and
turmoil.
12. Diana was seen as a
contemporary and accessible
princess, so the goal of the
memorial fountain was to allow
people to access the structure and
the water for quiet wading and
contemplation. However, shortly
after its opening and after three
hospitalisations caused by people
slipping in the water, the fountain
was closed. It reopened in August
2004, surrounded by a new fence,
and people were prevented from
walking or running in the water by
six wardens. Now, however,
entering the water is once again
permitted.
13. Even though the fountain was only open for a part of the 2004 season, and the weather was not particularly wet,
the grass adjacent to part of the fountain was badly damaged, and it appeared that it would turn to a quagmire if
heavy rain ever fell during the main visiting season. Thus, in December 2004, another alteration project was
started. This involved work on the drainage, together with laying new hard surfaces on some of the most
frequently walked areas of the site and the planting of a special hard wearing rye grass mix in others.
14. FENGMING MOUNTAIN PARK
Martha Schwartz Partners designed the Fengming
Mountain Park to lead visitors from a car park at the top of
the site to a sales centre for a property development being
constructed in the area.
"The brief was to design a demonstration park and urban
public realm to express a unique identity in order to
market the future development," explained the architects.
A pathway descends through plazas, planted areas and
water features that reference the surrounding landscape
of mountains, rice paddies and rivers
The red and orange metal structures mark out the route
and act as pavilions that provide shade during the day and
a focal point when illuminated at night.
Their angular shapes are intended to resemble mountain
peaks rising above the lower features along the route and
their bright hue was chosen to stand out against the
greenery and sky.
15. Location: Chongqing, China
Client: Vanke
Associate Landscape Architect: La Cime
Contractor: Third Chongqing Construction Engineering
Size: 16 Hectares
Status: Completed 2013
Design Team: Martha Schwartz, Nigel Koch, Jasmine
Ong, Christabel Lee, Aigars Lauzis, Ignacio Lopez-Buson,
Ceylan Belek-Ombregt, Markus Jatsch and Gilles de
Wever
16. On arrival from Fengxi Road, dancing red and orange sculptures line the entrance to draw people into the arrival plaza
car park. The first of the mountain pavilions stands at the entrance, to mark the start of series of visual mountain
peaks, descending down the slope. Each pavilion is strategically positioned along the zigzag path, leading pedestrians
down the ‘mountain’, towards the sales centre area. The pavilions provide shade during the day and at night, are lit to
create a spectacular glowing lantern effect.
The zigzag path ensures the extreme level change is accessible for all, the path also becomes a geological pattern
language, as if one is a walking on trails winding up a steep mountain. At each turn, a platform provides a place to sit
and enjoy the view or take respite from the hill. The zigzag path is lined with balustrade walls constructed from large
pieces of deeply textured dark concrete to create a rocky silhouette looking up the hill. The valleys or crevices that are
created by the walls become sources for streams which run through the project.
The presence of water is an important part of Fengming Mountain Park and is expressed as a 'flow' of water from the
arrival plaza to the sales centre, using a variety of different water effects, such as: channels, pools and jets to assist
with cooling, provide sounds and atmosphere to what is a captivating landscape
This entire park is a sequence, a triumphant journey, from the patterned markings in the arrival plaza; down the zig
zag path; into meandering water features; through the plazas and then on to the final destination at the Sales Centre.
Fengming Mountain has become a has become a vibrant, joyful and well loved part of the Chongqing cityscape
17. A pattern of perforated triangles casts
complex shadows on the ground when
the sun shines and allows the internal
surfaces to emit a warm glow when
illuminated from within.
A monolithic concrete wall with a
rough textured surface shields
the car park from the rest of the
site, with further walls lining a
zigzagging path that drops down
to the lower level of the park
"The zigzag path ensures
the extreme level change is
accessible for all," added
the architects. "The path
also becomes a geological
pattern language, as if one
is a walking on trails
winding up a steep
mountain.
18. Water flows through the site
from the entrance to the sales
centre along a meandering
channel that feeds small pools,
some of which feature jets to
enhance the aural properties of
these features
Bright orange walls framing
some of the planting provide
a consistent element
throughout the park, which
corresponds with markings
painted across the surface of
the car park and the tall
pavilions
Fengming Mountain Park is set on a
16,000m2 site, located in the growing
Shapingba District of Chongqing. The site
extends south to the old housing quarter,
north to the Huayu City Project, west to
Shangqiao Road and east to Fengxi Road,
which is the main entrance and highest
point of the site. Opened in Spring 2013,
visitors are taken on a dynamic journey via
a series of iconic mountain-shaped follies,
plazas, greenery and water features to the
proposed Vanke Golden City Development
sales centre.
19. The brief was to design a demonstration
park and urban public realm to express a
unique identity in order to market the
future development. The park is required
to draw attention to the development
sales centre from the upper main road
and entrance from Fengxi Road; and be
adaptable for retrofit and integration for
the adjacent future development.
Extreme topography creates both a
functional challenge to facilitate
pedestrian and vehicle movement from
the upper car park to the sales centre at
the lowest point; and a unique
opportunity to provide a dynamic
landscape – the 'mountain'.
The vision was to create a strong
connection between the setting of the
site and the surrounding backdrop of the
mountainous peaks, valleys of the
Sichuan Basin; the agrarian patterning of
rice paddy terraces; the Chang Jiang river;
and the mysterious white/grey misty sky
of Chongqing.