The first biography of this important landscape architect, James Rose
examines the work of one of the most radical figures in the history of
mid-century modernist American landscape design. An artist who explored
his profession with words and built works, Rose fearlessly critiqued the
developing patterns of land use he witnessed during a period of rapid
suburban development. The alternatives he offered in his designs for
hundreds of gardens were based on innovative and iconoclastic
environmental and philosophic principles, some of which have become
mainstream today.
A classmate of Garrett Eckbo and Dan Kiley at Harvard, Rose was expelled
in 1937 for refusing to design landscapes in the Beaux-Arts method. In
1940, the year before he received his first commission, Rose also
published the last of his influential articles for Architectural
Record, a series of essays written with Eckbo and Kiley that would
become a manifesto for developing a modernist landscape architecture.
Over the next four decades, Rose articulated his philosophy in four
major books. His writings foreshadowed many principles since embraced by
the profession, including the concept of sustainability and the wisdom
of accommodating growth and change.
James Rose includes new scholarship on many important works, including
the Dickenson Garden in Pasadena and the Averett House in Columbus,
Georgia, as well as unpublished correspondence. Throughout his career
Rose refined his conservation ethic, finding opportunities to create
landscapes for contemplation, self-discovery, and pleasure. At a time
when issues of economy and environmentalism are even more pressing,
Rose's writings and projects are both relevant and revelatory.
