Mixing Two Styles...

Tonight I attended a fashion show in downtown Champaign.  It was the first I have ever been to and I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting and enjoyable of an experience it really was.  The theme of the show, entitled 'Py Pa Po', was about examining what happens when you take two preexisting styles (of anything, but in this case fashion) and force them together thus creating one new unique style.  Does it diminish the successes of the preexisting styles, or does it create something even richer and more complex? As I watched the show take place, I thought of landscape architecture, as I so often do, and how this mixing of styles applies to my own desire to take and learn from some of my favorite landscape architects whose styles vary tremendously and merge them into something unique and original.  Something that is essentially my own.  These preexisting styles allow for my own to develop.  I would like to think that this moves towards something even richer, and more complex, and not the other way around.

That being said, I often times get asked who some of my favorite landscape architects are (as if the people asking that would have any knowledge of the people I would list off).  But thinking about it, I have taken a liking of the form of one landscape architect and the plant palate and horticultural style of another.  Their stuff is truly impressive and I think even people without any understanding or background in landscape architecture could really appreciate their work.

Piet Oudolf:  This is the man whose plant palate I really strive to match.  Some of his most famous works that a lot of you might be familiar with or SHOULD get familiar with is that of the Lurie Gardens (In Chicago's Millennium Park) and his work along New York City's High-Line Park.  But those are just some of his more famous ones.  There are other private sites that far surpass that in my opinion.  Take a look...

Lurie Garden in Late Summer

                                                                 Lurie Garden in Late Spring

                              His intermixing of ornamental  grasses and perennials is extraordinary

                                                         High Line Park at its Finest

                                          Another Section of the Famous High-Line Park
     (Which used to be an abandoned above ground train line running along the west side of Manhattan)

                                                 Now for the really good stuff...

                               Don't you wish this was YOUR backyard?  I prefer this over a lawn...

                                                        Last Image of his I Swear....

Now, as I said, I want to learn from HIS Plant Palate.  However, within his design, he creates a very loose organic form (meandering paths, round borders, etc.)  I am not as big a fan of that form as it is a less efficient use of space and it seems like it is trying to convey that what is there is 'natural' and always existed when in reality, it is everything but that.  In my attempt to master form, I turn to recently deceased  Dan Kiley.  Most of you might know his work if you have ever took a gander to the south courtyard of the Chicago Art Institute.  He is also responsible for much of the Chicago Botanic Gardens and the Plaza at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in NYC... His form is much more geometric, creating spaces that truly invoke the awareness of manipulation to that space that brings it to life.  Here are some good examples of his work...

                                                                   Private Residence

                                                     Chicago Botanic Garden in Summer

                                                 Chicago Botanic Garden in the Winter

                                               South Courtyard @ Chicago Art Institute

                                             South Courtyard @ Chicago Art Institute again

So there you have it.  If you mix these two great styles, you will come up with a new style that is essentially what I am trying to attain.  Whether it is fashion or landscape, I believe we can continue to move forward and find more complex and interesting ways of doing things just by knowing what has been done before.  It is not copying, it is building.