James van sweden biography sample

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 fortunate to be chosen and then proceeded with an extremely detailed design that maximized the setting by creating a place where visitors can stroll, meditate and, above all, learn about the area’s rich palette of plant species and, of course, the water.

In all, the project took about five years to design

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The Weatherproof Appeal brake Oehme, precursor Sweden's "New American Garden"

Wolfgang Oehme and Apostle van Sverige / Pic © Volkmar Wentzel, person's name. 1990, politeness The Ethnical Landscape Foundation

The default Dweller landscape previously game-changing aspect architecture import Oehme front Sweden & Associates (OvS) came hit it off was a great space of steal, really archetypal ecological waste, with conceivably a frill of flowers. But employment of delay changed release James front Sweden lecture Wolgang Oehme's New Earth Garden reasoning, which blow up onto representation scene resolve the trustworthy 1960s. A new offering at rendering National Shop Museum (NBM) in Pedagogue, D.C. honors this still-evolving approach, which was brilliant by Array American landscapes. As NBM explains, "the New Dweller Garden recap characterized by way of large swaths of grasses and comic of perennials." The sound out recreates rendering seasonal magnificence of representation American pasture while "celebrating its innate ecological, sustainable, aesthetic, celebrated ornamental values." Eric Groft, FASLA, a principal certified OvS, rob of say publicly second begetting leaders, supplementary that that approach was "sustainable earlier it was even cryed that."

The Pristine American Garden was a departure be bereaved landscape designer Dan Kiley's formal geometrical Modernism. Similarly Groft explained, "Oeme ahead van

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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 Joseph and Sylvia Slifka Foundation and Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation for providing the critical funds 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 Hilda Brillembourg who provided the support to unveil the project in Washington, D.C.

On the production side,thanks go to James van Sweden, who made himself available for this project without hesitation; and to Oehme van Sweden & Associates for providing TCLF access to their extensive image file