Dan Kiley

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Dan Kiley
Dan Kiley
Grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri
Grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri

Daniel Urban Kiley (2 September 1912 - 21 February 2004) was a noted American landscape architect in the modernist style.

[edit] Life and career

Kiley was born in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1932, he began a four-year apprenticeship with landscape architect Warren Manning, during which he learned the fundamentals of office practice and developed an interest in the role of plants in design, sparking his later creative and innovative use of plants in the landscape. In 1936, Kiley entered the design program at Harvard University, while continuing work with Manning. Among his classmates and friends were Garrett Eckbo and James Rose, who also became influential landscape architects. After two years at Harvard, Kiley left without graduating. He worked briefly for the National Park Service in Concord, New Hampshire, and later the United States Housing Authority, where he met architect Louis Kahn. On Kahn’s advice, Kiley left the Housing Authority in 1940 to become a licensed practitioner of architecture.

From 1943 to 1945, Kiley served in the U.S. Army. At the end of World War II, Kiley designed the courtroom where the Nuremberg Trials were held. In Europe, he visited the work of André Le Nôtre at Sceaux Chantilly, Versailles, and Vaux-le-Vicomte, whose formality and geometric layout shaped his future Classical Modernist style.

Following the war, Kiley found himself one of the only modern landscape architects in the postwar building boom. In California, his friend Garrett Eckbo, Thomas Church and others were developing and practicing the modernist style. Kiley returned to his practice in New Hampshire, and later moved it to Vermont. In collaboration with modern architect Eero Saarinen, Kiley entered and won the competition to design for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a high-profile job that launched his career as a landscape architect. Kiley’s first essentially modern landscape design was the Miller Garden in 1955. Among his other masterworks are the Fountain Palace in Dallas, Texas; the Nations Bank Plaza in Tampa, Florida; the United States Air Force Academy; the Oakland Museum; Independence Mall in Philadelphia; and the Dallas Museum of Art. He completed more than 900 projects, which received countless awards. In his office, he hired and inspired designers such as Richard Haag, Peter Hornbeck, Peter Walker, and Ian Tyndal.

The unique geometric layout of allees, bosques, water, paths, orchards, and lawns characterize Dan Kiley’s design. To Kiley, regular geometry lied at the heart of his design. Like his predecessors, Le Corbusier and Le Notre, Kiley believed that geometry was an inherent part of man. It was the structure man could used to gain comprehension and create stabilization of his surroundings. He also firmly believed that man was a part of nature, rather than being separate from it. Rather than copying and trying to imitate the curvilinear forms of nature he asserted mathematical order to the landscape. Kiley’s landscapes overstepped their boundaries rather than ending elements neatly on a suggested edge. He called this approach, slippage, or an extension beyond the implied boundary, creating ambiguous relationships in the landscape. Dan Kiley was a landscape architect made famous by his hundreds of distinguished works of landscape design, and inspires many students and professionals in the field of landscape architecture.

[edit] Influential projects

[edit] References

  • “A Designer’s Designer, Dan Kiley Cast a Long Shadow, Appreciations by his Associates and Friends.” Landscape Architecture. May (2004) Vol. 94 Num. 5. pgs. 116-125
  • “Dan Kiley: Biographical Information.” Garden Visits.com. http://www.gardenvisit.com/b/kiley.htm
  • Obituary, New York Times, February 25, 2004.
  • Oppenheimer, Andrea. “Modern Master.” Landscape Architecture. February (1996) Vol. 86 Num. 2. pgs. 74-79
  • Treib, Marc. “Dan Kiley and Classical Modernism: Mies in Leaf.” Landscape Journal. (2005) Vol. 24. Num. 1. pgs 1-12
  • Walker, Peter. “Pioneer Profile of Daniel Kiley” The Cultural Landscape Foundation. http://www.tclf.org/pioneers/kiley.htm
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