Main entry:

Grese, Robert E., 1955-

Title & Author:

Jens Jensen : maker of natural parks and gardens / Robert E. Grese.

Publication:

Description:

xiv, 304 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm.

Series:

Creating the North American landscape

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-294) and index.
1. Jensen's early background -- 2. A cultural context for Jensen's work. The European roots of American "native" landscape design ; Frederick Law Olmsted and the "natural" style ; Formalism and the search for an American style ; The Chicago landscape ; The prairie as a regional style ; The emphasis on native plants in design -- 3. Jensen's design career. Chicago's West Park district ; Residential design work ; Public and institutional work ; Conservation efforts ; The clearing : Ravinia, Illinois, and Ellison Bay, Wisconsin -- 4. Jensen's design style. The use of native plants ; Spaces ; Light and shadow ; Movement ; Water ; Stonework ; Council rings ; Players' greens ; Formal gardens ; Time and change -- 5. Jensen's legacy -- Appendix A: Jensen's projects -- Appendix B: Key names and terms.
Also issued online.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

Jens Jensen was one of America's greatest landscape designers and conservationists. Using native plants and "fitting" designs, he advocated that our gardens, parks, roads, playgrounds, and cities should be harmonious with nature and its ecological processes--a belief that was to become a major theme of modern American landscape design. When Jensen died in 1951 at the age of 90, the New York Times called him "the dean of American landscape architecture." In Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens, Robert E. Grese evaluates Jensen's work against the background of landscape design traditions that included Andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted, as well as earlier movements in Europe. Grese examines Jensen's part in the Chicago cultural renaissance that occurred just prior to World War I, a movement that brought social reform, a new understanding of ecology, organic trends in architecture, and great strides in American literature. Drawing on Jensen's writings and plans, interviews with people who knew him, and analyses of his projects, Grese presents a clear picture of Jensen's efforts to enhance and preserve "native" landscapes. Jens Jensen worked with some of the leading architects of his day--Sullivan and Wright among them--so many of his projects involved the extravagant estates of wealthy entrepreneurs in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. But Jensen also worked on schools, parks, playgrounds, hospitals, institutional homes, and government buildings. Long before environmental activists took over the idea, he foresaw the need to preserve the dunes, forests, prairies, and wetlands native to the Middle West. He championed the network of forest preserves around Chicago, protection of the Indiana Dunes (now a national lakeshore), the state park system in Illinois, and numerous parks in Wisconsin. Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens offers a compelling look at Jensen's visionary work and remarkable career.

Resources:
Table of contents
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

0801842875 (acid-free paper)
9780801842870 (acid-free paper)
0801859476
9780801859472

Subject:

Jensen, Jens, 1860-1951.
Jensen, Jens 1940-
Jensen, Jens.
Jensen, Jens (Künstler)
Landscape architects United States Biography.
Conservationists United States Biography.
Native plant gardening United States History.
Architectes paysagistes États-Unis Biographies.
Écologistes (Défenseurs de l'environnement) États-Unis Biographies.
Plantes indigènes Culture États-Unis Histoire.
Conservationists
Landscape architects
Native plant gardening
Landschapsarchitectuur.
architecture paysagère Etats-Unis 20e s. (1ère moitié)
United States
Landscape design

Form/genre:

Biography.
collective biographies.
Biographies
History

Added entries:

Creating the North American landscape.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 76667
Call No.: ID:92-B672
Status: External loan