A Program on Natural Traditions in Natural Landscape Design

Lake Forest College, 555 N Sheridan Rd, Lake Forest, IL | Get Directions »
FREE

What is the heritage of natural design for landscapes in this area and how has this related to restoration of natural areas?  What was the impact of east-coast designer Warren Manning who visited here annually from 1896 to 1935?  How did Middle Campus get its ring road? 

These and more questions will be addressed on Sunday, June 17 at 3 pm, Meyer Auditorium, Hotchkiss Hall, Middle Campus, when a panel of distinguished authors will join Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections Arthur Miller and English Prof. Ben Goluboff for a discussion and tour of a campus natural landscape.  The distinguished guests are all related to the Library of American Landscape History (LALH), Amherst, MA: two authors of new books published by LALH and the organization’s director, Robin Karson.  The panel discussion will be followed by a tour of nearby Shooting Star Savanna, led by Goluboff.  The afternoon will conclude with a reception at Glen Rowan, nearby, with its newly restored and awarded terrace and reflecting pool, supervised by Craig Bergmann and working with Fernando Masonry. The terrace overlooks the restored ravine edge at Glen Rowan.  To attend this free program, please r.s.v.p. by June 14 to Arthur Miller, amiller@lakeforest.edu and 847-735-5064. 

The two featured visiting authors are Christopher Vernon speaking about his new book, Graceland Cemetery: A Design History, and Robert Grese, speaking about his new book, The Native Landscape Reader.   Robin Karson will discuss the LALH’s current project to document the design work of pioneer landscape architect Warren Manning, Brookline, MA, who visited Lake Forest for forty springs, 1896-1935, while engaged in developing Walden, the estate of Cyrus McCormick II and his spouse, Harriet Hammond McCormick, who studied botany at the College in the summer of 1895.  Manning also created a design for the campus, 1897, envisioning the circular drive around Middle Campus to highlight the remarkable ravines.  Benjamin Goluboff  has written about “The Campus as Natural Site” in Lake Forest College: a Guide to the Campus (2007). 

The authors will be available to sign copies of their books at the reception following the brief tour.  Also, copies of View (2011), the annual of LALH and containing an article by Miller on Manning’s design for the campus, will be available free of charge while supplies last.    

The guest authors are widely published and their previous books have been resources for local preservation and restoration effort.  Christopher Vernon, Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia, also is the editor of the republished 1915 The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening by Wilhelm Miller (including a photograph of Manning’s Walden).  Grese’s books too have been of wide interest locally, where his 1991 biography of Jens Jensen has detailed about forty Lake Forest area design projects.  His 2000 edition for LALH of O. C. Simonds’ Landscape Design also is well-known locally. Robin Karson has published two important studies of landscape architects who practiced in Lake Forest.  The first is a study of Gwin, an estate at Cleveland by Charles A. Platt (Villa Turicum) and Warren Manning and also one on Fletcher Steele (Schweppe, Pike and Bentley estates all on the lake).  Both books have been republished in new editions recently.  

In his article on the campus as a natural site Professor Goluboff has described the restoration of the Shooting Star Savanna on the ravine edge north of Hotchkiss Hall.  Now after more than a decade of annual burns of the native grasses, many dormant species of wild flowers embedded in the deep soil have reasserted themselves, some very rare. Archivist Miller’s article details how Manning came to work on the campus at the outset of a major building phase in the late 1890s, and how his vision for a loop drive around the ravines on Middle Campus finally was fulfilled a half century later. 

The project to restore the ravine edge at Glen Rowan was undertaken by trustee Dennis Nyren ’72 in 2000, under the guidance of landscape architect P. Clifford Miller, who also oversaw the work on Shooting Star Savanna.  Lake Forest Garden Club member Carol Blomquist led in calling attention to the need to restore the 1909 Glen Rowan terrace, with Faye Kelly, director of events for the College.  Craig Bergmann stepped forward to donate the design and seasonal plantings and he drew in Fernando Masonry, Lake Bluff, who donated much of his work to reconstructing the reflecting pool, replacing the 1909 electric motor and pump for the fountain, and restoring the sculptures. Major funding was provided by the Lake Forest Garden Club, the College, and other donors.  In May this project was recognized with an award by the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation and has been featured in two newsletters mailed to the entire Lake Forest community since last fall.