Murphy’s Law
Kiley’s Chestnut Grove Provokes Hot Debate
Should it be saved? Or past its prime? At stake is the past and future of a changing city.
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Should it be saved? Or past its prime? At stake is the past and future of a changing city. Back to the full article.
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Readers may benefit from reading 2 books about the vital importance of trees in all of our lives. One is fiction, The Overstory by Richard Powers. He is a well respected author who has garnered numerous awards if that is something that matters to you. In other words, he is not Donald Trump. The book traces the lives of 9 or 10 people who all share a significant relationship to trees. But the life of trees are the main subject of the book. Another book, nonfiction, which might interest people is The Hidden Life of Trees, What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben. Warning, it could change your lives.
RE: “But landscape architecture, by its very nature, cannot last forever.”
Indeed, designed landscapes can be vulnerable to many threats, and change is a given. However, they do not have a defined “usable service life”–unlike roofs, many machines, or items “depreciated” for tax purposes. Lifespans of designed landscapes, like buildings, depend on how they are valued and maintained/preserved/restored. Thousands of designed landscapes remain significantly intact after hundreds of years. That includes many public urban landscapes.
Nonetheless, preserving landscapes does pose different challenges than buildings. The National Parks Services has specific guidelines for treating historic landscapes, whether designed or vernacular. https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/four-treatments/landscape-guidelines/index.htm
Among national experts on landscape preservation are two emeritus University of Wisconsin professors (who taught in the School of Landscape Architecture). William Tishler’s many books include “Midwestern Landscape Architecture.” Arnold Alanen co-authored “Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America,” an early book exploring intersections of nature, culture and history. The first national meeting on that topic was held at The Clearing in Door County in 1979. The late Jens Jensen, who developed a distinctively Midwestern style of landscape architecture, designed The Clearing’s grounds. Formerly his home and a folk school, The Clearing has been continuously preserved and updated, in keeping with Jensen’s original designs.
Milwaukee has only a modest track record of intentionally preserving historic/cultural landscapes. However, it does have an exceptional roster of work by master landscape architects: Frederick Law Olmsted, Warren Manning, Horace Cleveland, Alfred Boerner, Dan Kiley, and Annette Hoyt Flanders (an all-but-forgotten Milwaukee native https://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss245_bioghist.html), to name a few. Their local legacies convey varying degrees of historic integrity.
By virtue of their uniqueness and imbued sense of place, historic landscapes often attract tourism and other economic development. Many such places are public and thus more accessible to visitors than preserved buildings. Milwaukee certainly could capitalize on such assets and the rich narratives they embody–through thoughtful preservation and interpretation. https://shepherdexpress.com/news/features/spotlighting-historic-landscapes-could-benefit-milwaukee/