James Fondren, a landscape architect who designed projects big and small, dies at 79

James Fondren, a landscape architect whose projects ranged from schoolyard plantings to such vast undertakings as Lafreniere Park in Metairie and Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in six sites around southeast Louisiana, died Feb. 3 of complications from kidney failure and cancer at River Region Hospice in River Ridge. He was 79.

A Morgan City native who lived in the New Orleans area for about a half-century, Mr. Fondren earned degrees in horticulture at McNeese State College, now McNeese State University, and in landscape architecture at LSU.

Mr. Fondren, who started his own business in 1961, was hired by Tulane University to be its resident landscape architect. He wound up directing a staff of architects and engineers, and was appointed the assistant director of the physical plant for facility planning and construction. He also taught landscape architecture.

At the request of Tulane's Board of Administrators, he prepared a preliminary master plan for the university that served as a prototype for additions to the Uptown campus in the 1980s and 1990s, said Herta Fondren, his wife.

Working with state and federal officials, Mr. Fondren garnered about $56 million in grants for Lafreniere and Jean Lafitte parks. At Jean Lafitte Park, Mr. Fondren not only did the master plan but also designed the park's buildings, his wife said.

On a much smaller scale, he also designed a garden for blind people at Temple Sinai with Braille signs that would tell them what they were sniffing and touching. It was sponsored by the Temple Sisterhood.

For more than 40 years, Mr. Fondren was a member of the Magnolia School's board. In addition to being a member, including a stint as chairman, Mr. Fondren also worked on plants, shrubbery and the school's namesake magnolias, said Joan Dodd, the school's former director.

Because of the contacts he had developed, Mr. Fondren was able to get more than $100,000 for the school from foundations he had worked with, Dodd said.

How he came to be a Magnolia School volunteer was a fluke, his wife said. When Hurricane Betsy hit in September 1965, he was driving along River Road when an oak tree fell across the road, entangling Mr. Fondren and his car in its branches, Mrs. Fondren said. To make matters worse, there was a downed live power wire, too, forcing him to stay in his car for hours until help came.

"While he was trapped, he promised God that if he escaped alive, he would do something good for the rest of his life," she said. "He realized he was in front of Magnolia School, and started working there."

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James Fondren, a landscape architect who designed projects big and small, dies at 79