James van sweden biography sample
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The Enduring Appeal of Oehme, van Sweden's "New American Garden"
Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden / Photograph © Volkmar Wentzel, ca. 1990, courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The default American landscape before game-changing landscape architecture firm Oehme van Sweden & Associates (OvS) came along was a great expanse of lawn, really an ecological wasteland, with perhaps a fringe of flowers. But all of that changed with James van Sweden and Wolgang Oehme's New American Garden style, which burst onto the scene in the early 1960s. A new exhibition at the National Building Museum (NBM) in Washington, D.C. honors this still-evolving approach, which was inspired by Native American landscapes. As NBM explains, "the New American Garden is characterized by large swaths of grasses and fields of perennials." The style recreates the seasonal splendor of the American meadow while "celebrating its inherent ecological, sustainable, aesthetic, and ornamental v
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EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR
DIRECTOR/EDITOR
James Sheldon
INTERVIEWER
Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR
VIDEOGRAPHER
James Sheldon
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Nancy Slade, ASLA &
Shirley Veenema
PROJECT MANAGER
Nancy Slade, ASLA
The James van Sweden Oral History Project would not have been possible without the assistance of many people. The Cultural Landscape Foundation [TCLF] would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals and institutions who donated to this project in myriad ways.
First, thanks to our lead donors namn and Sylvia Slifka Foundation and Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation for providing the critical medel to videotape, edit, and produce this fifth module in TCLF’s ongoing series. In addition, thanks to the Oehme van Sweden & Associates (OvS) firm, Barbara and Tim Downs, Darwina Neal, Susan & Elihu Rose Foundation for their support. Thanks also to Arturo and H
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By James van Sweden
The Chicago Botanic Garden is located, oddly enough, a good 40 miles from that city in the suburb of Glencoe, Ill. And although it is specifically named for the Midwest’s greatest city and might seem a municipal endeavor, it is actually maintained by private donations and serves to display the entire region’s rich flora and scenic beauty.
The garden is organized around a large body of water known as the Great Basin, which was created some 60 years ago by dredging the area and diverting the Skokie River to create a series of islands and lagoons. The largest island, known as Evening Island, was the initial focus of our work in redesigning the space.
My firm, Oehme, van Sweden and Associates of Washington, D.C., became involved in the project about six years ago, when we were invited with three other firms to compete for what was clearly a prestigious landscape-design contract. After a lengthy, juried selection process, we were fortunat