The Vanguard Landscapes and Gardens of Martha Schwartz

Rating:
Summary: A BOOK TO PUSH OUR PROFESSION FORWARD
Review: MARTHA SCHWARTZ HAS REDEFINED LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN THIS COUNTRY AND CONTINUES TO DO SO INTERNATIONALLY. THIS BOOK DISPLAYS THE DESIGN POTENTIALS IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND BY DOING SO QUESTIONS OUR OWN INHIBITIONS AS DEVELOPERS, HOME OWNERS AND ARCHITECTS TO LET LANDSCAPE BECOME BANAL - STAID AND THE EVERYDAY - UNDESIGNED.

Rating:
Summary: Visionary
Review: Martha Schwartz views landscape design as an artistic medium and her gardens embrace unexpected materials, vibrant colors, and a minimum of plant life. Based on traditional landscape design models her finished products present a challenging vision of nature, landscape, and design. The Vanguard Landscapes and Gardens of Martha Schwartz presents 32 visionary projects by this Boston original.

Martha Schwartz has been, pushing the boundaries of garden design since her first 15 minutes of fame. In 1980 "The Bagel Garden" landed her on the cover of Landscape Architecture Magazine. In this installation, located at 190 Marlborough Street (her own front yard), she arranged bagels in two evenly spaced rows, atop purple aquarium gravel, around the perimeter of a pre-existing formal box hedge all surrounded by iron railings. Captured in beautiful photographs it is easy to see how she started making waves.

The Vanguard Landscapes includes other Boston projects like the "Necco Garden", an installation at MIT, composed of geometrically arranged Necco wafers and car tires painted in pastel shades. And "The Splice Garden", based on two classical garden models, a French garden with hedges severely clipped in geometric forms and a Japanese Zen garden with raked paths that intend to mimic nature. Rendered in green aquarium gravel and Astroturf her vision fit in with the lack of water for the site and the inability for the roof to hold up the weight of a real garden.

Not all fun and games, she transformed the plaza in front HUD in Washington DC into an interesting and friendly space relying on the design motifs of Marcel Brauer, the buildings' architect. And the Jacob Javits Plaza in NYC received the classical treatment of a parterre de broderie made up of green painted NYC park benches.