Northwest Flower & Garden Show

Laurie Olin – 2006 Show Judge

Laurie Olin is the principle of Olin Partnership, and is one of America’s most distinguished Landscape Architects practicing today.  His numerous award-winning design projects include campuses, urban design and parks. His work extends to Bryant Park and Battery Park City in New York, The Getty Center in Los Angeles, Stanford University, Yale University and most recently, Harvard University design projects.  He has written widely on the history and theory of architecture and landscape, receiving the Bradford Williams medal for best writing on Landscape Architecture.  He co-authored La Foce: A Garden and Landscape in Tuscany; and also wrote Across the Open Field (1999) and Transforming the Commonplace (1996).  Mr. Olin received his bachelors in Architecture from the University of Washington and has served as Chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University.  Since July, 1998 he has served as Professor of Practice in Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Rustic in the ‘Urbs – The Country in the City

Wednesday, February 8 at 4:00 pm in the Rainier Room

Cities and nature have been considered as polar opposites in recent decades by many.  Both, however, are landscapes and need to be considered as inevitably connected to each other.  We don’t have to choose between them, we must have both.  People have been bringing nature in the form of gardens and parks into cities since classical antiquity and need to refocus upon this need.  This talk presents recent work of the Olin Partnership that brings them together – nature, its forces, process, and delight – within the heart of great American cities.

Art and the Garden – Sculpture Gardens and Parks

Thursday, February 9 at 11:30 am in the Rainier Room

For over four thousand years humans have built gardens and put art within them.  In the West in recent decades, renewed interest in sculpture has led to the development of gardens and parks solely intended to exhibit artwork.  Some artists today have even become envious of the gardens themselves and have attempted to create them as well.  This talk considers art, art in gardens, the art of gardens, and gardens as art.