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Modernist landscape architects

The work of two landscape architects, Roberto Burle Marx and Dan Kiley, help demonstrate the rise and development of Modernist principles in landscape design in South and North America.

Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect, as well as a painter, sculptor, and musician. His designs ranged from grand to humble, encompassing a collaboration with Oscar Niemeyer on Brasilia, the country’s capital, to quiet private gardens.
Marx’s frequent use of exotic native species in striking formal and textural compositions departed from European models and helped establish a uniquely South American voice in landscape design.

Dan Kiley (1912-2004), the dean of contemporary American landscape architecture, collaborated with a virtual who’s who of twentieth century architects, among them Eero Saarinen, Philip Johnson, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, and Santiago Calatrava. His professional career began as architect of the Nuremburg Palace of Justice. Landscape projects included the St. Louis Gateway Arch, the South Garden of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Milwaukee Museum of Modern Art.

Kiley’s talent for extending the geometries and paths of buildings into the adjoining site was often manifested in a balanced and seamless whole of site and building.

Roberto Burle Marx resources

• Land + Living: Modern Lifestyle & Design
• Sitio Roberto Burle Marx
• Roberto Burle Marx: The Lyrical Landscape
• Roberto Burle Marx: Landscapes Reflected, Landscape Views 3
• The Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx

Dan Kiley resources

• ‘The Poetry of Passages’
• ‘Modern-Era Dan Kiley Landscape Threatened at Lincoln Center’
• The Milwaukee Art Museum
• ‘Dan Kiley Past and Present’
• Dan Kiley: The Complete Works of America’s Master Landscape Architect
• Daniel Urban Kiley: The Early Gardens, Landscape Views 2

Thursday | 31 March 2005 | Sustainability