Research Fellow Talks | Environmental Design Archives

Christine Edstrom O’Hara: Theodore Osmundson’s Legacy in Design and Advocacy for Landscape Architecture

O’Hara’s project explored the work of Theodore Osmundson (1921–2009) a prominent American landscape architect, whose diverse projects included design of residential, commercial, schools, playgrounds, parks, and open space, but who is perhaps best known for his firm’s design of the Kaiser Roof Garden in Oakland. Osmundson became a member of a California school of modernist landscape architecture, and later in his career became the president of both the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), greatly influencing the profession. Despite his association with some of the best-known Modernist landscape architects in the mid to late 20th century, his work and influence has not been addressed in a holistic fashion.

Lauren Weiss Bricker: The Western Environmental Movement and the Modern House

Bricker’s project is based on the premise that the West derives its identity — whether based on mythology or fact —from associations with its wild and unspoiled landscape, and that by the 1930s, architects emerged who sought to enhance a sense of place through their practices. Central to this movement were three Bay Area architects: William W. Wurster, John Funk and Gardner Dailey, who aligned with other architects working in the American West. Bricker’s research proposes that without it being an explicit goal, these architects formulated a regional identity inspired by the humanistic modernism of Alvar Aalto. The focus of research were Wurster’s lesser-known projects strongly referential to local traditions, Funk’s understudied residential practice, and Dailey’s work that has lacked scholarly study. The aim of the research is to offer new ways of seeing the regional modernism of the Bay Area.

If you require accommodations to fully participate in this event, please contact Betsy Frederick-Rothwell.