Lawrence Halprin

Halprin, born in July 1916 and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was influenced by Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and New Deal-era programs. From the 1960s he was fascinated by cities, taking on new projects and spent his time improving the lives of urban dwellers, he gave people reasons to come back to, stay, and be apart of cities again. Halprin worked with a 'bottom-up' process, allowing the community to influence their spaces. He focused on reimagining the public realm of American cities, making social and pedestrian spaces out of historic industrial complexes or spaces under freeways. 

Halprin wrote in 1995, “My own way has been to design the outward forms of nature but emphasize the results of the processes of nature…This act of transmuting the experience of the natural landscape into human-made experience is, for me, the essence of the art of landscape design.”

Below are the example project that I have chosen from his website, these are the projects that stood out to me the most and I felt most strongly about, they all inspired me in some way or another. I admit my favourite from them all would have to be Freeway Park since I have never seen anything like it and I simply love the contradiction and mergance of inorganic materials and shapes looking so organic and at one with nature. It just seems so ironic to me. 

Example projects:

Hebrew University: 1957-60 • Jerusalem, Israel.

 

The northern entrance to the campus is Halprin’s Chaim Weizmann Square, which features checkerboard paving. At one corner of the square is a rectangular reflecting pool with fountains, and a sculpture called Two Lines Oblique by American artist George Rickey in the centre. 

The site, which is really just a large open space of hard landscaping seems quite boring but this patterned checkerboard paving creates visual interest that is very aesthetically pleasing that gives this site character. I find that I prefer paving that adds interest to the site rather than the minimalistic plain pavings. 

Portland Open Space Sequence 1965-70 • Portland, OR

 

Planned as a series of outdoor rooms, the design presents a procession of four public spaces connected via leafy allées: starting with the Source Fountain designed by Angela Danadjieva, then to Lovejoy Plaza, Pettygrove Park, and ending at Ira Keller Forecourt Fountain. Featuring large-scale fountains with waterfalls and pools, these spaces offer abstracted representations of the nearby Cascade Range and Columbia River. 

The first project I saw that introduced me to Halprin, I think these 'rooms' are a unique feature added to Portland. The geometric shapes that create the waterfalls and float in the water and create a playful space for all ages to relax in warm weather. The room aspects create a sense of serenity and privacy away from the rest of the world, trapping you in this alternate reality of curated space. The only critique would be personal preference, I think the colour scheme of the site is slightly too dull and grey. However, I can see how adding anything else would detract from the beauty of the waterfalls. 

Freeway Park 1969-76 • Seattle, WA 

 

When Interstate 5 was cut through Seattle’s hilly terrain, it created a chasm that physically divided the city’s downtown neighborhoods. Seattle officials approached Halprin’s office to design a park that would reconnect the city. The design used air rights to develop a seven-block “lid” over the interstate. 

The park contains a series of plazas that are unified through a design palette including board-formed concrete planters and evergreens. The plantings were selected to reconnect the city dweller with the regional forested landscape. The plazas are differentiated through varying water features, from a calm pool to a cascading “canyon” fountain. It is widely recognized as the first park to have been built over a freeway. 

This project reminds me a lot of the previous, they both have very geometric characteristics- where the other site has cubes floating in and producing water, this site focuses on greenery. The geometric shapes here appear to be climbing and growing out of the ground to create this inorganic geometric organic shape. There is a inspiring juxtaposition that can be found when looking into the site. 

Sigmund Stern Grove 1998-2005 • San Francisco, CA

 

This 64-acre linear public park was developed as a free concert venue, with a naturally sloped meadow at one end serving as an outdoor amphitheater, the defining characteristic. Halprin built a series of low grass terraces along the natural slope, fronted by stepped granite retaining walls that serve as benches and also mitigate erosion on the hillside. The venue provides seating for more than 4,000 people.

One of Halprin's more organic feeling shapes, I can feel the softness of the site with the gentle steps and sloping grass, it looks incredibly inviting and very personal- it feels very real.