Beatrix Farrand, An American Voice in Landscape Architecture, Finally Gets Her Closeup
The documentary "Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes" will have its Hudson Valley premiere at the Beatrix Farrand Garden at the Bellefield Estate in Hyde Park, New York on June 1 and 2. The film follows public garden designer Lynden B. Miller as she explores the remarkable life and career of America’s first female landscape architect — Beatrix Farrand. Written and directed by Stephen Ives and co-produced and co-written by his wife, Anne Cleves Symmes, the movie interweaves the story of Miller and her pioneering mentor as she journeys to iconic Farrand gardens, engaging designers, scholars and horticulturists in a spirited dialogue about the meaning and importance of this ground-breaking early 20th-century woman.
In addition to the film showings, the two-day symposium, Farrand/FORWARD, A Symposium on the Future of Beatrix Farrand’s Public Landscapes, will feature a panel, moderated by Miller, with the directors and educators of the three Farrand gardens that are now part of the National Parks Service, among others. The discussion will include not only the restoration of these gardens to Farrand’s exacting standards but the challenges of climate change, invasive species, sustainability, relevant educational programming, and community engagement. The symposium will encourage opportunities for dialogue, exchange of knowledge, and strategic thinking while creating meaningful connections between participants and their institutions.
Other features of the weekend include a plant sale and informal guided tours with horticulturists and volunteers of The Beatrix Farrand Garden at the Bellefield Mansion, the FDR Home Garden at the FDR Home Historic Site and the Vanderbilt Mansion Home Garden.
Beatrix Farrand (1872-1959) designed more than 200 landscape commissions over 50 years. The only founding woman member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 1899, Farrand was born in New York City and studied horticulture and garden design under the tutelage of Charles Sprague Sargent, Harvard botanist and director of the Arnold Arboretum, at a time when women of her station simply did not engage in these types of pursuits. Through her New York social connections, she received major estate commissions and developed a reputation for her elegant style and rich architectural detail. Her undeniable talent was appreciated by such clients as J.P. Morgan, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, and Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. Dumbarton Oaks remains her finest surviving work. She also is recognized for her campus work for some of America’s premiere educational institutions including Vassar, Occidental, Princeton and Yale.
Lynden B. Miller is an internationally renowned public garden designer based in New York City (who also has a home and gardens in Sharon, Conn.). One of her most notable projects was the 1982 restoration of the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. Based on her belief that good public spaces can transform city life, Miller went on to design projects in all five boroughs of New York City, including Bryant Park, the New York Botanical Garden, Wagner Park in Battery Park City, Madison Square Park, the Entry Garden at Chelsea Cove in Hudson River Park, and the 97th Street Park Avenue Mall.
Beatrix Farrand is famously known for her design of private residential gardens on a grand scale but Anne Symmes, a producer and the Educational Program Director at Bellefield Estate, says her favorite part of the film is the highlighting of Farrand’s design of public gardens and her early advocacy of the development of the National Parks system. According to Symmes, in the early 20th century, women landscape designers were relegated to designing domestic gardens and backyards. Undeterred, Farrand broke through that line and proved herself as a serious and talented landscape architect who could more than handle the types of projects that male colleagues of her generation took for granted. Ives and Symmes felt that Lynden Miller’s ability as a natural educator and her lifelong career as an award-winning public space designer made her the perfect guide to host the film viewer’s journey through some of Farrand’s gardens. The juxtaposition of sharing her own process of redesign and restoration of some of the parks and gardens that many of us enjoy today, inspired by Farrand’s insight, marries a modern viewpoint to the historic focus of a bygone era.
Details of the entire schedule of events can be found at the Beatrix Farrand Garden Association website.
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