“Drawings of the Foundation for Architecture and Landscape Architecture, 1926-31”
A substantial number of drawings from the Lake Forest College library Special Collections makes up a major portion of an exhibition produced by and on view at the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society through December 16, 2010. The focus of the exhibition is the 1926-35 Foundation for Architecture and Landscape Architecture’s (FALA’s) annual Lake Forest-based summer program for top graduates of professional schools in the two disciplines. The program was housed at Lake Forest College and in its last summer, 1931, the studio work was relocated to the newly-opened 1931 Lake Forest Library. The exhibit includes also drawings from the Lake Forest Library, which stands immediately south of the Society’s building. There is a guide to additional works on display there, as well. The Society itself is located at 361 East Westminster Road, a half block east of the North Line Metra Station and of Lake Forest’s historic Market Square shopping district.
Following the depression on the heels of the end of World War I, the economy by 1925 had recovered sufficiently so that the Lake Forest Garden Club, from 1912 to 1922 with the future Winnetka Garden Club the Garden Club of Illinois, could re-launch its summer educational program, started in 1916, to encourage newly-minted graduates of design schools to attend a post-graduate study program. The first director was Italian-born and trained New York landscape architect Ferruccio Vitale, also at the time leading the landscape design for the 1933-34 Century of Progress, Chicago. The teaching was led by Stanley White, of the U. of Illinois’ program in landscape architecture. The students came from such major schools as the U. of Illinois, Iowa State, Michigan, and Harvard. Besides the program being free for the students (paid for by Lake Forest donations), it included a competition for annual traveling fellowships for Europe (Ryerson Fellowship) and the U.S. (Conde Nast Fellowship) judged by leaders in the two fields from around the country. The intensive study together nurtured collaborative work among the best new members of the two disciplines.
The exhibition at the Society and the Lake Forest Public Library draws on a former traveling show of drawings from two boxes, sent about to the participating institutions (from the College’s Special Collections and Lake Forest Library), and also on some large-scale renderings both of local estates (Lake Forest Public Library) and of European ones (Lake Forest College library). The trustees of the Foundation for Architecture and Landscape Architecture included spouses of Garden Club leaders, such as Lake Forest Library president Alfred E. Hamill (1884-1953), spouse of club member Clarisse Hamill, and also leading established designers, notably David Adler (1882-1949)—a master himself of harmonious estate structures and grounds in the Lake Forest area, Chicago, and nationwide in the period.
The exhibit showcases both views of legendary great estates of the Country Place Era at their height of perfection early in the 20th c. and also the new graduate architects and landscape architects who drew the views and plans. The estates shown include the Blair colonial style house at Crab Tree Farm (1928) and the Pike Italian villa garden (1916), both by David Adler. Notable as well are Fletcher Steele’s pool complex for the Schweppe estate and also Charles A. Platt’s base for his stairs and water course to the lake shore from Harold and Edith Rockefeller McCormick Villa Turicum on the bluff above, drawn by future Avery Fischer Hall, Lincoln Center (New York) architect Max Abramowitz. Indeed, many of the artists who created the drawings as summer participants or as traveling fellows went on to play significant roles in their fields: c.g., architects Charles Yost (Chicago) and Kenneth Lind (Chicago and Los Angeles), for example, and landscape architects Charles Mattson and Sanford C. Hill, both with the National Park Service in its formative mid-century years. Also included are a student drawing of Chicago’s 333 North Michigan Avenue skyscraper (Holabird & Root, 1928) and a large-scale color rendering of England’s Canon’s Ashby (much emulated in this country) and a similarly scaled black and white rendering of the Villa Medici at Fiesole by Ryerson traveling fellows.
The handsome and well-interpreted exhibition was produced by curator Laurie Stein for the Society, who is also the author of the guide to the mounted views and plans at Lake Forest Public Library. The exhibit’s hours are 1-4 pm Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday through December 16, 2010. As of now there are no plans for the portion of the show at the Society to travel after that date.
For more about the exhibit and some scans of images, see the article on GazeboNews, http://gazebonews.typepad.com/gazebonews/2010/04/historical-society-garden-drawings.html#more . For more about the Foundation and the drawings, please see the Lake Forest College library Special Collections finding aid (in process) to its collection including contributions to the show, http://learn.lakeforest.edu/archon/?p=collections/controlcard&id=13 and a booklet about the Lake Forest Library’s art collection, available from the library.
This landmark exhibition then offers what may be a unique opportunity to experience the glory of the some of the Country Place Era’s most notable designs captured by very promising students when the places were at their zenith.
Arthur H. Miller, with Franz Schulze
Contacts:
Arthur H. Miller, Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections, Donnelley and Lee Library, Lake Forest College, 555 North Sheridan Road, Lake Forest, IL 60045-2396; www.library.lakeforest.edu/archives/index.html and amiller@lakeforest.edu and 847-735-5064.
Janice Hack, director, and Laurie Stein, Curator, Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society, 361 E. Westminster, Lake Forest, IL 60045; www.lf-lbhistory.org; jhack@lf-lbhistory.org and lstein@lf-lbhistory.org, 847-234-5253.
Kaye Grabbe, director, Lake Forest Library, 360 E. Deerpath, Lake Forest, IL 60045; http://www.lakeforestlibrary.org/lfl.html; board@lfl.alibrary.com and 847-234-0636.
May 14, 2010