Exhibition Highlights Landscape Architect’s Impact On San Francisco – Hoodline

It is hard to move through San Francisco without coming into contact with a [Lawrence] Halprin landscape, said Charles Birnbaum, president and chief executive of The Cultural Landscape Foundation(TCLF).

Born in New York, Halprin moved to the Bay Area in the mid-1940s and established his own practice in San Francisco in 1949. His initial work focused on residential properties, but by the 1950s, he was working on larger campuses and transitioning to the public realm.

Now, TCLF is hosting a photography exhibit on view at the Palace of Fine Arts that celebrates Halprin's life and legacy. The exhibition also highlights the risk of losing the landscapes Halprin created in San Francisco and beyond.

His work and design concepts broadly affected the infrastructure of the city during his lifetime, Birnbaum told Hoodline.

Some of Halprin's earliest urban designs include Ghirardelli Square (1962-1968). According to Birnbaum, the square was one of the first efforts to recycle a historic building.

While he was working on Ghirardelli Square, Halprin also spent a decade working on Embarcadero Plaza, since named after Justin Herman.

The landscape architect was also responsible for the design of United Nations Plaza, Levis Plaza, Washington Square, the Lucas Studio campus in the Presidio, and even the layout of Market Street between the Embarcadero and the Castro.

Plans for the three-mile stretch also included Hallidie Plaza around the Powell Street Muni/BART, down to the various sizes and shapes of brick pavers and decorative lamp posts, an homage to San Francisco's City Beautiful movement.

At the end of his life and career, Halprin designedStern Grove, which today hosts summer Sunday concerts in its one-of-a-kind amphitheater.

Halprin viewed cities as theaters and designed urban landscapes that directed how people should interact with his spaces, Birnbaum said. He wanted people to play in his fountains, and used a variety of surfaces and structures to change the pace of people moving through his landscapes.

But many of his works are at risk of disappearing, due to the lack of maintenance and neglect. For example, United Nations Plaza was at risk a few years ago, with a chain link fence erected around a dry fountain.

Although the fountain is working again, there are still challenges in the plaza, and going forward, it is not clear whether the city intends to maintain the design as Halprin intended, Birnbaum told us.

For the most part, Halprin was always looking forward to the next project, but he lived long enough to be saddened by the sight of his projects moving away from his original intent or coping with a lack of maintenance.

In many cases, his landscape design was blamed for the social challenges associated with that neglect, rather than the stewards. According to Birnbaum, Halprin once related his frustration with spending ten to 20 years trying to get a project built, only to spend the next two decades fighting to keep it from being torn down.

TCLF is trying to raise awareness of Halprins legacy to prevent such loss, through the photography exhibit and its ongoing Landslide program. The program and the photography exhibit were launched last year to celebrate what would have been Halprins 100th birthday.

Through September 4th, visitors can see the 56 newly-commissioned photos of his work and learn more about his legacy at the Palace of Fine Arts.

The Palace of Fine Arts is located at 3601 Lyon St. and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm.

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Exhibition Highlights Landscape Architect's Impact On San Francisco - Hoodline