Minimal, Not Simple

Author(s): Paul Bennett

Source: Landscape Architecture Magazine , JUNE 2000, Vol. 90, No. 6 (JUNE 2000), pp.
22, 24, 26-27
Published by: American Society of Landscape Architects

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44681478

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 J

I Mount Vernon Group of

Winchester, had designed a series of
wings in such a way that a small court-
yard was contained within the new
structure. The school had little mon-
ey for landscape, and the architect had-
n't made provisions for dealing with
the space, so Stimson offered to work
up some design ideas free of charge.
He made some drawings, developed
some concepts, and before too long
was engulfed - lured by a deep com-
mitment to give the school something
special - in a full-scale design and
building process.
Stimson began by discussing the
matter with teachers at the school, and
he discovered that a science teacher
had assigned students the task of gen-
erating designs for the space. Surpris-
ingly, Stimson didn't spend much
time going over these drawings,

Minimal, Not Simple

by Paul
A children's garden moves beyond Bennett
clichés.

hamlet of Princeton Center, deep in the hills

of eastern Massachusetts. The forested hills
and rolling meadows sensitized the future
landscape architect to the sublime in nature,
'C

while the tightly knit community provided z'

0

ong before he hadhim a with

success-
the moral canvas upon which the
ot
5
ł-

ful landscape practice, before rest of he

his life would be conducted.
worked as z

an associate in the office of Michael van In 1995 Stimson heard that the town was
1

OT -i
Valkenburgh or got his MLA at Harvard, building a major addition to his alma mater, OT

Stephen Stimson, ASLA, was a sixth-grader and he returned to see if he could offer any lEGEHO cc
O
O

at the Thomas Prince School in the quiet guidance. As it turned out the architects, the
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Landscape Architecture I 22 ļ June 2000

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design

because he didn't want to take the approach

of imitating the aesthetics of children or con-
triving a design language of big bold colors
and simple shapes. "I think that the overuse
of primary colors is a litde cliche in children's
gardens," he asserts matter-of-fectly.
Stimson then set out to find a language
that was interesting and sophisticated, that
would speak to children without descending
into cliche. He approached the problem
structurally. Rather than thinking about
style and surface aesthetics, he turned his at-
tention to how the space could be organized Red oaks planted In an "Irregular grid," above, provide a scrim of shade through
to create an experience. Toward this end, he which views of the space proceed. Stlmson's seasonal studies, below , of the
drew his first idea from the children's draw- courtyard and another garden on site, explore the subtle variation of color.
ings. Common to all was the proposition that
the space should be organized around a sin- placed at the fer end, could draw people into derived from the architecture of a Native
gle large object, such as a folly or a gazebo. the space, both physically and visually. A American Quonset hut and covered with
When he contemplated the space, a small sculpture, or something like it, could pro- climbing vines - about two-thirds of the
rectangle (80 feet by 160 feet) accessed from vide a destination and make a small and ar- way into the space. To strengthen its pres-
a single door at the north end, he recognized chitecturally dull place come alive. ence, Stimson set the hut on the edge of an
that such an object, if alluring enough and He placed his object - a dome of rebar, open lawn, which has the effect of casting it
in light. Then, at either end of the garden he
placed two bands of shade so that views
"penetrate through the spaces, from one in-
to the next, from shade to sunlight to shade."
The effect is to make the space seem larger
and more conceptually rich than a scheme
that, say, divided the garden into rooms,
each with its own focus and identity, like a
playground or a traditional children's gar-
den. In this case, the landscape reads as a sin-
gle gesture of undulating qualities.
The band of shade at the northern end is
created by red oaks; at the southern end it is
done in cedars. The former are arrayed in an
irregular grid in a bed of gravel and edged by
large, rectangular stones - an arrangement
intended to be an abstraction of the stone
walls that are ubiquitous in the region. This
space serves as an entrance into the garden.
To preserve views into the garden from the
hallway, and to create a connection with the
surrounding woodland landscape visible
from within the garden through the same
hallway, Stimson has instructed that the
trees be limbed up. This gives them a sense
of artfulness, which he believes the children,
so used to wild nature, will perceive. It is an
urban form imported into a rural context.
The rest of the space is minimally com-
posed. The vocabulary consists of plants and
stone, with colors restrained largely to green
and gray. Accents are accomplished by the
blooming trumpet creeper and wisteria

Landscape Architecture | 24 | June 2000

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wmmm Working with a small budget,
Stlmson scrounged for donated
materials, Including the surplus
rebar for the Quonset hut, left and
opposite , and organized work crews
with parents to get the Job done.

m part-time laborer. Sometimes these

H constraints proved to be blessings. For
Ü instance, to save money on the Quoti-
li set hut Stimson designed it using re-
M cycled rebar. But he says he came to
m love the "construction site aesthetics"
m of the material and found that it
m worked well with the minimal play of
WĚ materials he was putting together.
H The only professionally constructed
M piece of the garden was the concrete
E path. For everything else Stimson or-
m ganized a workforce of parents and
students, as well as several of the
minimalism of the composition. Stimson,
growing on the Quonset hut, and a shock of younger associates in his office. They spent
yellow bulbs appears along the wavy con- whose firm is used to corporate and resi-weekends digging holes and planting ten-
crete path in spring. But these are sub-dential work with ample budgets, wasfoot cedars. The Quonset hut was the
servient to the program of heightening one limited
s crowning achievement. Stimson oversaw
to a very small budget for the proj-
ect - so small, in fact, that he was forced notthe management of the entire project, so-
sense of the subtle variations between gray
and green, light and shade. only to donate the design but also to serveliciting donated and end-of-the-year clear-
There is also a pragmatic reason for the
as project manager, general consultant, andance items from local nurseries. And in the

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Landscape Architecture | 26 | June 2000

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 end the total project cost a mere won an ASLA award for design in
$10,000. 1999. Remarkably, it beat out
Stimson says it was refresh- hundreds of other, better-funded
ing to get his hands dirty and to projects. Stimson is happy about
acquire some firsthand knowl- the award, of course. But the
t edge about the craft of land- pride he draws from the project
scape construction. No matter goes deeper. He's happy just to
how exact a drawing may be, be able to give something back
some interpretation always to Princeton Center and the -
takes place in the field. Typical- Thomas Prince School. It s a gift
ly he tries to supervise projects that is more than a garden. It's an
t as much as possible, but period- example of what design can do
ic visits are no substitute for ac- when its backed by integrity and
tually doing the work. "I think heart. "I think every firm has to
its enlightening for a landscape consider doing some pro bono,"
architect to work in the field," he says, "to ment in materials was necessary and where he says. "Its something that we need to do
move a four-hundred-pound root ball with skimping would be acceptable. For instance, in order not only to help communities, but
„ a few other people or pound a piece of re- he spent more money than usual on trees be- to educate people about landscape architec-
bar three feet into the ground." cause they were going to be the dynamic ture and what it can do." LA
Obviously, donating so much time and heart of the design that, as they grew, gave
energy (not to mention sweat) was difficult; the space further definition. In contrast, the
however, Stimson says that because of it the ground plane beneath the trees was a little Landscape architects: Stephen Stim-
client gave him almost complete control, the more expendable. So he used a cheap gravel son, Stephen Stimson Associates, Fal-
^ only limitation being the small budget. that would be resilient and provide good col- mouth, Massachusetts.
Such freedom meant that, if he could find or and texture contrast, but also could be eas- Architects: Mount Vemon Group, Win-
creative ways to get things accomplished, he ily and cheaply replaced (in comparison with chester, Massachusetts.
could do them. This approach took creativ- trees) after several years if necessary. Client: Thomas Prince School, Princeton
ity and an ability to decide where invest- The Thomas Prince School courtyard Center, Massachusetts.

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JUNE 2000 I 27 I Landscape Architecture

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