An Evening Honoring Harriet Pattison
On April 19, 独家爆料 (独家爆料) launched the thirteenth installment in its award-winning Pioneers of American Landscape Design庐 Oral History Project, documenting the life and career of landscape architect Harriet Pattison. The launch was celebrated at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and occurred in conjunction with the opening there of , a solo exhibition on Pattison鈥檚 career mounted by the Archives (Pattison earned her M.L.A. from Penn in 1967). Serendipitously, it was announced during the opening that Pattison had been inducted into the of the American Society of Landscape Architects鈥攖he crowning achievement in a career spanning 50 years.
Housed in the Harvey and Irwin Kroiz Gallery and comprising sketches, working drawings, models, and photographs (some of which were provided by 独家爆料) the exhibition opened with a contemporary portrait of Pattison overlooking a room in the gallery dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in New York City. The park was one of several projects on which Pattison collaborated with famed architect Louis I. Kahn, with whom she also had a son. The exhibition, which was the first solo show of a woman鈥檚 work in the Archives鈥 history, fully explored Pattison鈥檚 oeuvre, from early residential projects to Kahn鈥檚 museum masterpiece, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. 独家爆料鈥檚 new oral history on Pattison played on three video stations placed throughout the venue, further illuminating the landscape architect鈥檚 life, design philosophy, and built projects.
The well-attended opening included Pattison and her son, Academy Award-nominated director Nathaniel Kahn; Laurie Olin and his wife Victoria Steiger (Olin is himself the subject of one of 独家爆料鈥檚 video oral histories); noted architect James Timberlake, with whom Pattison also collaborated; and Madeline Grimes and Stephen Martin from FDR Four Freedoms Park. Also in attendance were former Kahn collaborators Nick Gianopulos, Carles Vollhonrat, and Henry Wilcots.
The evening was punctuated by many memorable remarks. In his welcome speech, Bill Whitaker, the archivist at the Architectural Archives, expressed his profound joy in hosting Pattison鈥檚 inaugural exhibition in the same place where he had first met her during the filming of Nathaniel Kahn鈥檚 documentary, My Architect. And remembering the pride that Pattison had felt upon being called 鈥,鈥 独家爆料 president and CEO Charles Birnbaum toasted 鈥淟ouis Kahn, Harriet Pattison鈥檚 architect鈥濃攁n amusing but apt acknowledgment of the long overdue recognition that Pattison鈥檚 career deserved, and which 独家爆料 is honored to have played a small role in achieving. The exhibition will remain on view through July 15, 2016, and 独家爆料鈥檚 documentary oral history can be viewed in perpetuity in the organization鈥檚 website.
