James Rose - Anisfield - Bach Garden -The James Rose Center

Professor Joseph Volpe,Maozhu mao

James C. Rose was a prominent landscape architect and author of the twentieth century. Rose was a high school dropout, but this didn't stop him from being accepted into Cornell University as an architecture student. Later he transferred to Harvard University as a landscape architecture major. In 1937, he was expelled because his design style didn't fit into Harvard's program. Despite his dislike of the institution of school, Rose would often make appearances as a guest lecturer at schools of landscape architecture and architecture. Before his death he was able to fulfill his lifelong dream of establishing a design study and landscape research center, The James Rose Center. After Rose's death in 1991 after losing a battle with cancer, he donated his home in Ridgewood to the James Rose Center. Except his early work, he never did any drawings like planes, elevations, sections. He prefers to work directly in the landscape.

Anisfield Garden

The mass and void study, the relationship to the plants and the architecture. 

Here is the tree planting, he is unwilling to lose any trees on the site.

He is inspired by the Japanese garden rather than build a Japanese garden here. The black stones and white gravels together with the stone table there seems have a Japanese style.

The parking lots here are surrounded by ordinary plants and playful stone set. The geomorphic form creates a beautiful space to welcome people. 

He works with the contractor on the site, very carefully cutting up the space. Because he did not do any drawings and he wants to protect every tree, we can see irregular tree trunks in the middle of the stairs. 

The stones just represent the contour lines make the land form become a kind of beauty that directly jump out of the ground. And the stone mainly recycled from the site, rather to get several truck and get somewhere to dump.

He use the rain garden before the name is invented, the roof here is designed to lead the water to this very rain garden. 

The trees here are designed to be here, also several stone lies beside the tree trunk make here very natural. But all these are carefully designed to create a wonderful corridor to get through.

The white gravel path here is one of the most beautiful things in this garden.

He uses the recycled timber here to setup the stair, and every step has different shape on each stage, you can see another protected tree here with irregular proportion.

The wooden bench here has great proportions and relationship to the deck behind. 

The tree trunk get through the deck and people love to sit in front of it and enjoy the tranquil time and space.

Here the playful pavement, he mixes the blue stone, river stone and gravel. Just like put the path on the water.

Bach Garden

The drive way here and the trees are taking great cared. 

He is more viewed as an artist and gets great deal of liberty to design the garden. The stone here is kind of Japanese style, but the Japanese will bury three quarter of the stone to make it connect to the earth.

The art object standing on the edge of the platform has a distinctive feeling for people.

The simple but powerful structure here and the house the pool and the garden become a one single alliance.

The proportion and the form of the pool fit the garden so well, the pavement also share the same form of the pool.

The winding little pathway supported by trees and plants, create a wonderful walk experience.

The James Rose Center

The garden is a very tiny housing garden, but looks much bigger. There is an indoor and outdoor relationship, and also his home. He said he designed the house and the garden at the same time share the same idea, so there is a complete unity between the building and the garden.

He influenced by Japanese garden, and creates a place to walk through also like a temple.

He is very sensitive to the experience of the arts and crafts and to Japanese structure systems. So we can see how the sticks are put together. 

He said he is constantly changing this house and there is no such a thing is a finished work. So the house and garden are constantly changing to meet the needs of people who live there.He also constantly recycling this house, based upon the change of the house.

Looking down of the roof garden here can have a view of the pool and the garden.

And we see this complex triangular structure, but we can clearly see how they attached each other. The structure system here is post and beams, which create the space on the roof, and everything just like they reinforced what it is. It is a very delightful space.

Every single inch of the site is a garden.

In the garden, there are several sculpture that use the recycled materials.

"A garden is an experience. It is not flowers or plants of any kind. It is not flagstones, brick, grass, or pebbles. It is not a barbeque, or a fiberglass screen. It is an experience. If it were possible to distill the essence of a garden, I think it would be the sense of being within something while still out of doors. That is the substance of it; for until you have that, you do not have a garden at all." - James Rose, Creative Gardens (1958)