August 2005 Archives

 

From time to time I will expound on some influential landscape designers in our "Masters" Series:

Lawrence Halprin is one of the most distinguished modern landscape architects. His scope of work and ability to capture the public imagination with his parks and projects made him as close to a household name as a landscape architect could attain. He is known for may great projects, including his groundbreaking integration of development and nature at Sea Ranch, and for the FDR Memorial in Washington D.C.

At 88 he continues to be active, recently consulting on George Lucas' the new Letterman Digital Art complex. (Also read his recent opinion piece on the Golden Gate Bridge in the SF Chronicle) His San Francisco resume alone is impressive, with works along the Embarcadero including Levi Plaza, involvement in selecting and developing Justin Herman Plaza, and a redevelopment of Ghirardelli Square.

A most captivating signature element to many of these projects is Halprin's fountains. Many of these are inspired by natural streams and water flow from areas such as the High Sierra. As Halprin writes, "I believe not only does form equal process in nature, but also think that we derive our sense of aesthetic from nature... I view the earth and its life processes as a model for the creative process." (1)

Three standouts of Halprin's fountains that I have visited, Levi Plaza in San Francisco, Freeway Park in Seattle, and the Ira Keller Fountain in Portland, clearly show these natural influences. Each Halprin fountain seems to be related, variations on a theme. Large slabs of concrete, that gray over time to look like stone. Man made geometric pieces that use the magic of water to transcend into something natural.

Like most aging public projects, especially fountains, many of Halprin's works are being threatened with removal or redevelopment (Portland, Washington State Campus, Denver, Virginia). Should you get a chance to visit one of these features, with the water turned on and running, you can appreciate some of Halprin's genius for creating a bold statement.

More Information on Halprin:
ASLA Michelangelo Award

Lovejoy Fountain, Portland
Ira Keller Fountain, Portland

(1) From: The Landscape of Man, Jeffery and Susan Jellicoe, p.333

After much work and web toiling, we are happy to present our newly expanded Great Gardens and Parks portfolios. Here you will find gardens from California and the West, and Western Europe.

In the California and the West Galleries there are 15 galleries from gardens, parks and city spaces from British Colombia to Southern California. In the Western Europe Galleries there are over 20 galleries from 7 countries.

We hope that these galleries can serve as an information resource, and that they will be enjoyable to browse through. As with any web based project there is more on the way from Western Europe, and eventually from our travels in Kyoto Japan and surrounding areas.

The Prado Museum hosts one of Europe's great art collections. It is renoun, for its collection of Spanish Masters Goya, El Greco and Velasquez. In addition to the museum there is also an interesting botanical garden on the grounds. The Prado was originally comissioned in the 18th century to be natural science museum, which accounts for the botanical gardens, but by the time of its opening, it was used as a showcase of art from the Spanish empire.

The garden itself has a characteristic Spanish quality of being relaxed and a bit wild and overgrown. This is true of many of the other parks of Madrid that I visited. Below are some photographs-

We received a notice in the mail today confirming the new DSL service for our office. For only $44.99 a month, we would be connected to the "Pro" speed DSL service. There was only one problem, we had signed up for service at $36.99.

Our DSL activation with SBC has been a circus. We called before our move in, stating that we would be assuming occupancy at the first of the month, and that the existing tenants of the space should not be disturbed. The next day we receive a call from the existing tenants, the SBC tech was there to hook up phone service- as if it was even remotely possible to have service hooked up the day following one's call.

When we were ready to move into the space, our original appointment did not show up in the system, and the activation for our phone and internet service had been pushed back. This required several calls to SBC, which did not result in the usual greeting and promise of, "how can I provide you with excellent service today."

There were some bright spots in our dealings with SBC however. The tech that was eventually dispatched was excellent. He hooked up all of our jacks and configured our phones, and without charging us the standard per jack fee that would have amounted to hundreds of dollars.

This brings me back to today's notice. When I called SBC to inquire about the bill, the representative, Steve, checked the account. Despite the fact that the account was still pending, and he could not make changes today, he said he would make a note and take the appropriate steps to fix the problem.

Wrapping up the call, we got to talking about the process of DSL activation. That's when Steve offered to credit me for a month because of the difficulty we had with the process. That was a great gesture, and I appreciated it given all the problems we had. When I compare this experience with the sequence of indifference and denials I faced speaking with Nextel representatives, it is clear the value of empowered employees, especially in large organizations.

It's not that we never receive complaints concerning customer service. We recently received a complaint from a customer with a concern about his bill. The customer was a valued client, and rather than argue over billing, we just told him to pay what he thought was a fair price for the work we completed. Again, to do this, employees need to be empowered to think and make decisions, rather than just blindly follow policies or procedures.

In the process of moving to our new office, I was reviewing some of my photographs of gardens in Europe from 2003. One of the most striking of all the gardens I visited there was the famous Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, Holland. Of course, the Dutch are famous for their flowers, especially their tulips, and the gardens did not disappoint. There are acres of beautiful gardens that should be a must on any Netherlands visit.

As far as floral displays, from my travels these gardens may only be rivaled by the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Colombia.

Below are some of my favorite photos from the gardens:

After some frustrating experiences recently with SBC connecting phone service to our office, I reminisced on when the last time I received truly excellent customer service. In the case of SBC, I made 10 separate calls to get the automated DSL phone service to connect to a representative and had another 45 minute hold inquiring about our order (I have great luck with phone companies).

The last truly distinct service experience with a large company was with Microsoft. We had just updated our computers to Windows 2000 and there was a problem with a conflict that was causing Windows not to operate properly. I called the 24 hour support line at about 10:00pm and I think we did not wrap up until 2 or 3 in the morning. The tech was great; he walked me through every contingency until we found the problem.

The fact that the technical support representative was competent and able to solve this complicated and difficult problem was impressive enough. For those readers familiar troubleshooting computers, especially Windows, there can be many set of variables involved. However, the crowning and memorable service moment happened about a week later. I received in the mail a gift tower from Harry & David and a thank you note from customer support.

Now I don't know if this is standard operating procedure in this case. I would assume not. Maybe the follow-up gift was because of the duration of the call; maybe it was because Windows 2000 at the time was newly released and several large companies were switching over at the same time- whatever the reason, Microsoft Support got a gold star in my book for great service and great follow through.

In the process of our move to our new office, as I was filtering through some books I stumbled up Maria Polushkin Robbins' book A Gardener's Bouquet of Quotations, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites.

A Garden is a thing of beauty and a job forever.
-Anonymous

Nothing is more completely the child of art than a garden.
-Sir Walter Scott

I don't know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice.
-Rowland A. Browne

The great challenge for the garden designer is not to make the garden look natural, but to make the garden so that the people in it will feel natural.
-Lawrence Halprin

But a weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else. In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit. Weeds are people's idea, not nature's.
-Anonymous

Again rejoicing Nature sees
Her robe assume its vernal hues
Her leafy locks wave in the breeze,
All freshly steeped in morning dews.
-Robert Burns

As is the garden such is the gardener.
A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds.
-Francis Bacon

The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

Unless you take care, the sun will pin you down. Put a hat on that foolish head of yours when you go out into the fields.
-Farmers Almanac

He who plants a garden, plants happiness.
-Chinese Proverb

There is nothing pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp.
-John Steinbeck

What I enjoy is not the fruits alone, but I also enjoy the soil itself, its nature and its power.
-Cicero

We collect great garden quotes, let us know some of your favorites.

If you are looking for more good quotes try:
Wisdom Quotes
Quote Garden