Creating landscapes for over 60 years, Halprin designed spaces that brought his knowledge and love of nature, movement, and social ideas into urban spaces.
Oral History Framework
Video Clips are divided into three categories: BIOGRAPHY, DESIGN, and PROJECTS
Each clip is between 1 and 7 minutes long.
Interview: Lawrence Halprin was interviewed in March 2003, and March and December 2008 by Charles A. Birnbaum at the Office of Lawrence Halprin (initially on Battery Street in San Francisco and later in Larkspur, California); the Halprin home and dance deck in Kentfield, California; and Sea Ranch, California and on-site at locations in and around San Francisco.
Reflections: Following Larry Halprin鈥檚 death on October 25, 2009, 独家爆料 contacted clients and associates of the Office of Lawrence Halprin requesting they share their memories of Larry. Many responded enthusiastically. In addition to these letters, we have included eulogies from Halprin鈥檚 December 20 memorial service in San Francisco, by Charles A. Birnbaum, Donlyn Lyndon, John Parsons and Jahan Khalighi, Halprin鈥檚 grandson.
Parental influences supported artistic feelings from a young age.
2.
A chance meeting upon arrival in Israel led to living in a kibbutz for a year.
3.
Learn what experience while visiting Taliesin East proved life changing.
4.
Halprin's sketches illustrate his wartime stories.
5.
Learn why Harvard was "one of those wonderful, wonderful experiences."
6.
This decision meant pursuing landscape architecture rather than architecture.
7.
Recollections include advice to young professionals about clients.
8.
Personalities and projects are noted to convey the character of the office.
9.
Practical and aesthetic considerations influenced the dance deck design.
10.
Anna and Larry reflect on their 67 year marriage.
DESIGN
1.
Learn the definition of "RSVP Cycles" and their contribution to the design process.
2.
Sketches are thinking and a second language.
3.
Advice includes an explanation of why landscape architecture is the "overview profession."
4.
Anna and Larry describe similarities in their work and creative process.
5.
Design considerations include reflections on Olmsted's Central Park.
6.
Reflections lead to a request that the profession champion these places.
7.
Nature is "the greatest designer that I ever met" but sometimes manmade is valid.
PROJECTS
1.
Ghirardelli Square was an opportunity to design for an urban center.
2.
The garden is an incubator of ideas.
3.
Learn what features make the Donnell Garden Modern.
4.
See features of the site and learn the history of the plaza.
5.
Reflections include the story of opening day and why Portland is a role model for change.
6.
Freeway Park "accepts the nature of where it is and uses it as part of the solution."
7.
Learn the story of Sea Ranch and hear sounds of the ocean, which "is like music all the time."
8.
Reflections include how Sea Ranch is similar to the kibbutz.
9.
Recalled events add to this explanation of how the memorial was designed to reflect Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the person.
10.
Yosemite is warmly remembered for family vacations and the influence of its forms on later work.
Production Credits and Acknowledgments
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR
DIRECTOR/EDITOR
James Sheldon
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Nancy Slade
VIDEOGRAPHERS
Tom Fox, Principal, SWA Group, Inc.
James Sheldon [FDR Memorial and Donnell Garden]
PROJECT MANAGER
Nancy Slade
VIDEO TRANSFER
Bill Tatum
The Lawrence Halprin Oral History Project would not have been possible without the assistance of many. 独家爆料 would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals and institutions for their financial support, their talents, and their collections.
Thank you to Larry and Anna Halprin for their extraordinary cooperation for three separate, multiple-day sessions; and to Dee Mullen of the Office of Lawrence Halprin for her enthusiasm and assistance in the production and post production aspects of videotaping. Special thanks go to Tom Fox and the SWA Group, Inc. for all their time and talent. In addition, many archives and institutions provided images from their collections. In particular, thanks go to Waverly Lowell at Environmental Design Archives, University of California- Berkeley; and Bill Whitaker and Nancy Thorne at the University of Pennsylvania Archives. Images of Yosemite Falls were provided by the Yosemite National Park Archives; Don Fox, FASLA; and Randy Fong, the National Park Service. Images of Anna Halprin鈥檚 Stern Grove performance work were provided courtesy of photographer John Felix Kokoska.
The Lawrence Halprin Oral History Module is grateful to the following
people and organizations who contributed funds to this project:
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund
Lucasfilm Foundation
Ryoko Lleyama
Richard Haag & Cheryl Trivison
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander
Gordon Radley
Van Strum & Towne
Harold & Jacque Eastman
Mimi & Peter Haas Fund
Milton Greenfield
Richard Vignolo
Sue Heinemann
Adrienne Roth
Dr. Ilene Serlin
Joel & Miriam Bennett
Anna Dibble
Photographs, prints, and drawings reproduced courtesy of the following individuals and institutions:
The Donnell Family; Environmental Design Archives, University of California- Berkeley;The 'Hashomer Hatzair archives - Givat Haviva - Yad Yaari's "Between Spring and Cloud" exhibition - photographers: Mordo Abrahmov Asher Benari, Yosef Drenger, Tzvi Marcus, Tzvi Nahor, David Perelmuter, Yehoshua Zamir; Lawrence Halprin and the Office of Lawrence Halprin; John Felix Kokoska; The Library of Congress - Carl Van Vechten Photographs - LC-USZ62-103665 DLC (b&w film copy neg.); Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division under the digital ID cph.3a36793 {Frank Lloyd Wright}; L谩szl贸 Moholy-Nagy Portrait at the Institute of Design Chicago, by Vories Fisher, 1946, courtesy of Hattula Moholy-Nagy; Charles Moore Foundation; National Park Service; The Paul Rudolph Foundation; University of Pennsylvania Archives.
