Lawrence Halprin

Lawrence Halprin (July 1, 1916 – October 25, 2009) was an American landscape architect, designer, and teacher.

Beginning his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1949, Halprin often collaborated with a local circle of modernist architects on relatively modest projects. These figures included William Wurster, Joseph Esherick, Vernon DeMars, Mario J. Ciampi, and others associated with UC Berkeley. Gradually accumulating a regional reputation in the northwest, Halprin first came to national attention with his work at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, the Ghirardelli Square adaptive-reuse project in San Francisco, and the landmark pedestrian street / transit mall Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. Halprin's career proved influential to an entire generation in his specific design solutions, his emphasis on user experience to develop those solutions, and his collaborative design process.

Halprin's point of view and practice are summarized in his definition of modernism:

In his best work, he construed landscape architecture as narrative.

Early and personal life Halprin was born on July 1, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Zionist leader Rose Halprin and Samuel W. Halprin, where he also grew up. Being Jewish, after finishing Poly Prep at 16, he went to Israel on a kibbutz for three years near what is today the Israeli port city of Haifa.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1939 at Cornell University, studying horticulture with Professor Lee Gand; While at Wisconsin, his wife Anna convinced Halprin to visit Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's studio in Wisconsin, which in turn sparked Halprin's initial interest in architecture; Although Tunnard was teaching at Harvard, he never took a course from him. His Harvard classmates included Catherine Bauer, Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, and William Wurster. They have two daughters: Daria Halprin, an American psychologist, author, dancer, and actress, and Rana Halprin, a photographer and activist for Romani and human rights. His first commission was for Anna's parents, who had recently moved from Chicago; that project was a collaboration with Wurster (Schuman House, Woodside), who was responsible for the house's architecture. followed by the Heritage Park Plaza in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by Hrlprin and built in 1980, featured by NRHP as its featured listing of the week, on May 21, 2010.

From 1984 to 2002, Halprin designed and created the Armon Hanatziv Promenade in Jerusalem. He also designed several other notable buildings in Jerusalem including the Israel Museum and the Hadassah Medical Center.

Halprin's final three projects were all completed in 2005: the Letterman Digital Arts Center (for George Lucas), the approach to Yosemite Falls, and the amphitheatre at Stern Grove.

Several of Halprin's works have been threatened by redevelopment as they have aged. Some, such as the Water Garden in Olympia, Washington, have fallen victim to neglect and deferred maintenance, and are in states of disrepair. Others have attracted undesired users (homeless, drug users, and skateboarders); Critics argue his pieces have become dated and no longer reflect the direction their cities want to take. Budgetary constraints and the urge to "revitalize" threaten some of his projects. In response foundations have been set up to improve care for some of the sites and to try to preserve them in their original state. Prior to its destruction, Skyline Park was documented as Colorado's first Historic American Landscapes Survey project.

Anna and Lawrence Halprin co-created the "RSVP Cycles", a creative methodology that can be applied broadly across all disciplines.

Projects Halprin's range of projects demonstrates his vision of the garden or open space as a stage. Washington Water Power

West Coast Memorial to the Missing of World War II

1962 Seattle World's Fair

Sproul Plaza

Saint Francis Square

Sea Ranch, California

Ghirardelli Square

Oakbrook Center

Innerbelt Freeway

Northwest Plaza

Nicollet Mall

Cascade Plaza

Park Central Square

Ira Keller Fountain and Lovejoy Fountain Park

Skyline Park

Inspired by Colorado National Monument; largely destroyed following 2003 redesign. United Nations Plaza

Sculpture Garden at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Manhattan Square Park

Riverbank Park

Freeway Park

Plaza 8 Water Feature

Downtown Mall

Main Street

Heritage Park Plaza

Levi's Plaza

Library Steps

Public art and architectural installation of a 20-foot wide double stairway flanking a river rock "stream" that cascades down to a fountain with concrete seating. Halprin incorporated Robert Graham's Source Figure sculpture and pool as the symbolic "source" of his Library Steps which terminate at the Los Angeles Public Library entrance. Commonly known as the Bunker Hill Steps. Grand Hope Park

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

Letterman Digital Arts Center