Kathryn Gustafson

Kathryn Gustafson (born 1951) is an American landscape architect and artist. Her work includes a park in Terrasson, France; a city square in Evry France; and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park, London. She has won many awards and prizes including the Millennium Garden Design Competition. She has developed an international reputation as a designer and is highly admired for her ability to sculpt land and manipulate space and geometry in aspiration to awe the viewer.

Early life

Gustafson grew up in Yakima, Washington, where she was born in 1951 as a daughter to a surgeon. She grew up amongst the mountains of the Cascade Range and Apple orchards. The basis of her designs comes from her memories of past settings. The region around Yakima is a desert-like plateau surrounded by mountains.

Education

At the age of 18, Gustafson attended the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied applied arts for about a year. She then moved New York to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology. After graduating from the Fashion Institute, Gustafson moved to Paris to be a fashion designer. She was captivated with the possibilities of creating free flowing lines, form and the expansiveness for means of fabric draping. Aspiring to take this fascination to a larger context and one that would be more permanent than clothes, Gustafson turned to landscape design. She was educated at the Ecole Nationale Superieure du Paysage in Versailles, where she graduated in 1979.

Style of Design

One of Gustafson's recognized abilities is the way she sculpts and rearranges the land. Her intention is to create harmony, serenity and balance between people and nature. Many of her designs have an abstract style that doesn't fit into Modernism nor Minimalism. Her designs portray open areas with spatial orientation. Although her drawings begin as abstract drawings, the techniques are then turned into reality. Although her projects can range from being convert|1|acre|m2|sing=on to convert|150|acre|km2, Gustafson tries to relate viewer's need for peace and calmness to the landscape. Much of her designs are conceptually influenced by her previous vocation as a fashion designer. Gustafson believes that the design for a site comes from the site itself and not the other way. Therefore, before coming up with a design, she tries to research about the site and achieve the best type of plan for the context of the area.

Firms

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol was established in Seattle and founded by Kathryn Gustafson, Jennifer Guthrie, and Shannon Nichol. The firm aspires to design areas where viewers can feel the site's connection to the nature, culture, use and history. The projects the firm takes on involve unusual sites that need to contain a diverse range of activities, such as rooftops, freeways, spaces between buildings.

Gustafson Porter

Gustafson Porter, founded by Kathryn Gustafson and Neil Porter in 1997, is situated in London. The firm receives international projects in the UK, Asia, Europe and Middle East. It strives for contrast between people and the environment by creating surprise and awe in the viewer, while at the same time maintaining a sense of pleasure and a sensual experience.

Among her works

Shell Petroleum

The landscape for Shell Petroleum Headquarters was completed in 1992. Before beginning this design, Gustafson studied the setting of the land and its relationship to the community. She tried to achieve a landscape that would relate to the company's current stance in environmental issues. Part of the land near the entry is shaped into rolling mounds of earth with stone walls protruding from the ground; the other part of the entry is a rectangular pool. The water in relationship to the water is supposed to signify the dependency people have for Shell's products.

Rights of Man Square

Rights of Man Square, based in the city of Evry, France, was completed in 1991. The theme for this design emerged from the French constitution, which consents freedom of expression. This is meant to draw people to gather at the plaza for personal, public, civic purposes. The plaza is primarily an open space with a few trees lined up on the sides with focal points leading towards the buildings. However, the site's granite floor with fountains of water surging upward from the ground dominates the viewer's experience.

Other Recognized Projects

1. LeMay Museum

2. L'Oreal Factory

3. Corixa Headquarters

4. Lurie Garden

5. University of Michigan: Museum of Art

6. Washington Canal Park

7. Lakeshore Residence

8. Esso Headquarters

9. Diana Memorial Fountain

Among awards

1. National Heritage of the 20th Century (2007)

2. Finalist: Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards for Landscape Design (2005)

3. Remarkable Garden (2004)

4. Design Merit Award (2003)

5. Chrysler Design Award (2001)

6. Honorary Fellow (1999)

7. Jane Drew Prize (1998)

8. Architectural Medal Decoration (1993)

Project Contributor

Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery

External links

* [http://www.ggnltd.com/content/awards.htm Gustafson Kathryn Awards]
* [http://www.ggnltd.com/content/projects.htm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Projects]
* [http://www.landliving.com/articles/0000000264.aspx Memorial by Kathryn Gustafson and Neil Porter Completed]
* [http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/kathryn-gustafson/kathryn-gustafson.htm Four Landscape Designs by Kathryn Gustafson]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2163731.stm Kathryn Gustafson: Art of Landscape]
* [http://www.asla.org/land/053105/gustafson.html Kathryn Gustafson, ASLA: Variations on a Theme]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062401848.html Landscape Architect Kathryn Gustafson, Going With the Flow]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01EED7163AF936A25754C0A9629C8B63 Article with detail of her career]

References

* Diedrich, Lisa. "Kathryn Gustafson - Phantasie and Form." "Topos" journal. Issue 21, 1997.
* [http://www.ggnltd.com/frame-sets/people-fset.htm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd.]
*Levy, Leah (1998). "Kathryn Gustafson: Sculpting the Land." Spacemaker Press. Washington, DC.
*Waldheim, Charles (2001). "Constructed Ground: The Millennium Garden Design Competition." University of Illinois Press.