Philip H. Lewis Jr.

Philip H. Lewis Jr.
Born	(1925-09-04)4 September 1925 Robinson, Illinois
Nationality	U.S.A.
Alma mater	Harvard University & University of Illinois
Occupation	Landscape Architect, Veteran, Professor
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Alice Thompson
Children	Philip III, Andrew, Lisa

Philip H. Lewis Jr. (Born September 4, 1925) is a retired Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architect and Landscape planner who is widely recognized as a leader in the environmental corridor concept.^[1] He taught for over forty years at the University of Illinois (1953-1963) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1964-1994).

Early years

Philip Howard Lewis Jr. was born in the rural town of Robinson, Illinois (20 miles from his hometown of Lawrenceville, Illinois), United States, on September 4, 1925.^[2] His father, Philip Howard Lewis Sr. (1890-1971), was an attorney and served two terms as a County judge and as Lawrence County State's Attorney (1924-1930).^[3] His mother, Florence Sutfin Lewis (1900-1998) was a homemaker and worked at the First National Bank in Lawrenceville, Illinois.^[4] He has a younger sister, Gretchen (Patrick) born on 1-30-1928.

Education

Lewis graduated from Lawrenceville Township High School in 1943. He enlisted in the Air Corps upon graduation and completed a 6 month training program in Hondo, Texas where he received intensive navigation training at Hondo Air Base that enhanced his awareness of the landscape. He completed his service with the Air Corps in 1946. He used the G.I. bill to fund his undergraduate education at the University of Illinois where he received his Bachelor's Degree in Landscape Architecture (1946-1950). There were several influential figures during his undergraduate training including Stanley Hart White (brother of prominent author E.B. White) who introduced Lewis to the visual vocabulary of landscape architecture. His planning instructor Karl B. Lohmann, exposed him to more ideas about interdisciplinary effort and expanded his vision from garden and park to planning at the community and regional level. His education at the University of Illinois culminated in a trip to California to view contemporary landscape architecture projects with his favorite teacher, Prof. Hideo Sasaki. This trip included trips to the gardens that had been designed by Thomas Dolliver Church and Garrett Eckbo. Following this trip and graduation, Lewis secured his first professional job as a landscape architect with the O.E. Goetz Nursery in Webster Groves, Missouri.

Following his graduation from the University of Illinois and employment at O.E. Goetz Nursery, he attended Harvard Graduate School of Design (1950-1953) where he earned his Masters degree in Landscape Architecture.

Lewis completed a summer Internship with the National Park Service (1952) where he learned more about governmental agency interdisciplinary efforts to maintain the vast landscapes under their jurisdiction. His thesis focused on the Everglades Inventory and Development Study.

Following graduation in 1953, Lewis married (6-13-53) Elizabeth Alice Thompson who was a botany student at Radcliffe College. Thompson received her bachelors degree in biochemistry at Radcliffe in the same year (1953). She later earned a Masters degree in plant ecology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Elizabeth was the daughter of Charles St. Clair Thompson (1901-1975) who was an electrical engineer and Elizabeth Miller (1902-1940) who was a political scientist. Elizabeth and Philip Lewis were married for 58 years until her death on February 1, 2012 ^[5]

Lewis was awarded a Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship in Landscape Architecture (established in 1914) for his work on the Everglades. The fellowship allowed Lewis and his newlywed to travel Europe for a year-long honeymoon and period of discovery. The Lewis's were able to see the landscapes of England, Scotland, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. These experiences sparked his interest in museums, communicating with the public, and the creation of spaces for buying local products. The Royal British Museum and Den Permanent in particular influenced his thinking about public education centers that he later called discovery centers.

Planning and teaching career

After returning from the Charles Elliott traveling fellowship, Lewis worked for the University of Illinois - Bureau of Community Planning (1953-1963).^[6] The Bureau was developed as an interdisciplinary endeavor to support Midwest planning. Unfortunately Lewis found that the different University departments had their own vocabulary and interests that got in the way of collaboration. It proved to be a lesson in how difficult it was to put together a truly interdisciplinary team. Among other things, Lewis taught City Planning Research with visiting Professor Patrick Horsbrugh in the spring of 1957.^[7] Horsbrugh and Lewis became life-long friends and colleagues until the death of Horsbrugh in January, 2014. Horsbrugh had served as a visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for a number of years as well as many schools of Landscape Architecture & Planning schools across the United States and abroad.

Lewis was the director of the Recreation and Open Space Study of Illinois (1958-1961) and was recruited by Governor Gaylord Nelson, Father of Earth Day, to come to Wisconsin to serve as the Director of the State of Wisconsin Recreation Resource, Research and Design, Department of Resource Development (1963-1965). It was the Study of Recreation and Open Space in Illinois where Lewis identified environmental corridors and landscape personalities that were used to guide planning efforts. Environmental Corridors were again identified in the Wisconsin State Recreation Plan to help guide planning decisions in the state.^[8] Many years later, at the ASLA Annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, Gaylord Nelson described Lewis as the "most creative mind" in the field of landscape planning.^[9]

The process for identifying landscape resources in Wisconsin to assist with land purchase decisions is described in the 1964 Wisconsin Blue Book (beginning on page 130). In 2014, the 1964 base maps that were created by Professor Lewis were digitized by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point Center for Land Use Education and made available on the web.

Lewis became the founder and director of the Environmental Awareness Center(EAC) at the University of Wisconsin Madison, as part of the School of Natural Resources and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 1967^[10] Lewis had joint appointments with the Department of Landscape Architecture, Department of Urban & Regional Planning, and the University of Wisconsin Extension. Three years after the establishment of the EAC, Madison hosted Senator Gaylord Nelson for the nation's first Earth Day celebration. Lewis was one of many presenters that participated in the Earth Day educational events that actually lasted over a week in Madison.^[11] Lewis also served as the second chair of the UW Landscape Architecture Department (1964-1972) and taught both undergraduate and graduate design courses. Shortly before his retirement in 1995 he served as the Jens Jensen Professor of Landscape Architecture.

Lewis was a visiting professor in the School of Design at Harvard University from 1976-1977

Some have attributed Lewis as being a major contributor to the origins of geographic information systems technology based on his practical application of maps from various sources using transparent overlays for environmental planning.^[12] Jack Dangermond, founder and president of Esri has often cited his work as being ground-breaking and influential and presented Lewis with the Esri "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2000.^[13]

Lewis, Ian McHarg at the University of Pennsylvania, and Angus Hills at the University of Toronto are all credited with the development of the natural resource inventory approach and map overlays as a crucial part of the design process^[14][15][16]

Lewis celebrated his formal retirement from the University of Wisconsin on April 22, 1995 at a banquet that featured speakers including: Professor Charles Harris, Harvard University's Graduate School of Design; Bruce Rubin, Chief Land Use Planner, Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission; Marshall Erdman, President, Marshall Erdman & Associates; Rick Phelps, County Executive, Dane County Board; Professor Andy Lewis, University of Wisconsin Extension; Roger Wyse, Dean, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences; and Masters of Ceremonies Professor Bruce Murray & Professor Ben Niemann, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Wisconsin Madison.

Early studies at Illinois

Embarras/Ambraw River Valley Study (1958)^[17] This study was the first of its kind to be used as a student project in Lewis's design studio at the University of Illinois. The study inventoried water, wetland, and steep topography resources and discovered that these resource patterns could be used to guide regional planning and design.

Wabash River Valley Study (1958) The Embarras is but a tributary of the Wabash river, so this study was designed to take inventorying and design to a larger scale. Lewis selected an interdisciplinary planning team from the river region that included graduate students from the Universities of Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana University.

Study of recreation and open space in Illinois, Department of City Planning and Landscape Architecture and the Bureau of Community Planning, University of Illinois (1961)^[18]

This study was guided by the identification of environmental corridors and the identification of landscape personalities through the inventory and mapping of natural resources including the first time inventory of soil types. Initially, the study was going to be titled "An Environmental plan for Illinois", but was advised that nobody would understand the word environment. Lewis also suggested the use of open space plan which got the same response, but was selected because it was felt that the public needed to be introduced to the word and concept.

Later life

After the death of his wife of 58 years (2-1-2012), Lewis lived at Middleton Glen in the new-urban planned community of Middleton Hills. This traditional neighborhood in the City of Middleton, Wisconsin was developed by his long-time friend Marshall Erdman whom he had first met at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Middleton Hills was designed by architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and is credited as being the first such neighborhood in Wisconsin. Lewis has a street named after him within Middleton Hills and lived within a block of the environmental corridor known as the Pheasant Branch Conservancy. Prior to his death in 1995, Marshall Erdman donated office space and left a sum of money to maintain a studio for Lewis known as the Marshall Erdman Academy of Sustainable Design. Son Tim Erdman later needed the space for other purposes and the studio closed. Lewis now resides at Waunakee Manor, Waunakee, Wisconsin.

On September 12, 2013 the Dane County, Wisconsin Board of Supervisors dedicated Madison’s notable E-Way – to be known as the Lewis Nine Springs E-Way. The title recognizes the work of its visionary creator as well as his wife, Elizabeth (Libby), who served for 26 years on the Dane County Parks Commission.^[19]

The Lewis family helped establish the Friends of Dane County Parks Endowment (Fund #1030301) managed by the Madison Community Foundation.^[20] The fund is intended to support activities involving education, interpretation and volunteerism within the parks and promotion of the E-Way concept.

Awards and recognition

• American Society of Lancscape Architects, Honors & Awards. American Society of Landscape Architects Medal, 1987 ^[21]
• Wisconsin Idea Award,Center for Resource Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin - Madison, (1993).
• Distinguished Service Award, Capital Community Citizens, 1997
• Esri Lifetime Achievement Award, 2000, presented by Jack Dangermond ^[22]
• Conservation/Environment Award, Kiwanis Club of Downtown, Madison, WI, 2001
• Bolz Lifetime Stewardship Award, Natural Heritage Land Trust, 2004 ^[23]
• Ten of the Best Award, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, 2006 ^[24]
• First recipient of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources/SEWRPC Environmental Corridor Ovation Award 2007^[25]
• Lifetime Achievement Award, ASLA Wisconsin Chapter, 2009^[26]
• Inaugural Bringing Bioneers to Wisconsin Award, Sustain Dane & the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute (BTCI), 2009 ^[27]
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Keeping Greater Milwaukee Beautiful, 2013
• Excellence in Teaching Fellowship, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, 2014^[28]

References