Dan Kiley
Encyclopedia
Landscape architecture
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...
in the modernist style.
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 UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, while continuing work with Manning. Among his classmates and friends were Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo was an American landscape architect notable for his seminal 1950 book Landscape for Living.-Youth:...
and James C. Rose
James C. Rose
James C. Rose was a prominent landscape architect and author of the twentieth century. Born in rural Pennsylvania he, his mother and older sister moved to New York after his father’s death. Rose was a high school dropout, but this didn’t stop him from being accepted into Cornell University as an...
, who also became influential landscape architects. After two years at Harvard, Kiley left without graduating. He worked briefly for the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
in Concord, New Hampshire
Concord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....
, and later the United States Housing Authority
United States Housing Authority
The United States Housing Authority, or USHA, was an agency created during 1937 as part of the New Deal.It was designed to lend money to the states or communities for low-cost construction. Units for about 650,000 low-income people but mostly homeless were started...
, where he met architect Louis Kahn
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn was an American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935...
. 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
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
were held. In Europe, he visited the work of André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France...
at Sceaux Chantilly, Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, and Vaux-le-Vicomte
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France...
, 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
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
, Kiley entered and won the competition to design for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was designated as a National Memorial by Executive Order 7523, on December 21, 1935, and is maintained by the National Park Service .The park was established to...
, 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, which is now owned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art and known as the Miller House and Garden. Among his other masterworks are the Fountain Place
Fountain Place
Fountain Place is a 60-story late-modernist skyscraper in the Arts District in downtown Dallas, Texas. Standing at a structural height of , it is the fifth-tallest in Dallas, and the 15th-tallest in Texas.-Design:...
in Dallas, Texas; the NationsBank Plaza in Tampa, Florida; the United States Air Force Academy
United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy is an accredited college for the undergraduate education of officer candidates for the United States Air Force. Its campus is located immediately north of Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States...
; the Oakland Museum; Independence Mall in Philadelphia; and the Dallas Museum of Art
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art is a major art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, USA, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In 1984, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Arts District, Dallas, Texas...
. He completed more than 900 projects, which received countless awards. In 1997, he was presented with the National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
. In his office, he hired and inspired designers such as Richard Haag
Richard Haag
Richard Haag is a United States landscape architect. He is famous for his work on Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington and on the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. He is also noted for founding the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Washington and for holding multiple design...
, Peter Hornbeck, Peter Ker Walker, Peter Schaudt and Ian Tyndal.
The unique geometric layout of allees, bosques, water, paths, orchards, and lawns characterize Dan Kiley’s design. To Kiley, regular geometry lay at the heart of his design. Like his predecessors, Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
and Le Nôtre, Kiley believed that geometry was an inherent part of man. It was the structure man could use 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.
Awards
- Lifetime Honors – National Medal of Arts (1997)
- Lifetime Achievement – Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (2002)
Influential projects
- Miller House and Garden, 1955 http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006323155810565.jpg
- Seymour Krieger HouseSeymour Krieger HouseSeymour Krieger House is a historic home located at Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland. It was built in 1958, and is a one story, steel-framed building constructed of all-stretcher coursed brick . It features marlite panels with bands of large plate-glass windows and sliding-glass doors set...
, 1958 - The Chicago Botanic GardenChicago Botanic GardenLocated at 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois, USA, the Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands featuring 24 display gardens and surrounded by four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shores. The Garden is open...
http://www.chicago-botanic.org/explore/esplanade.php - NationsBank Plaza, 1985 http://www.tclf.org/kiley_tampa.htm
- La DéfenseLa DéfenseLa Défense is a major business district of the Paris aire urbaine. With a population of 20,000, it is centered in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux...
, Paris - Gateway ArchGateway ArchThe Gateway Arch, or Gateway to the West, is an arch that is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri. It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States...
(Jefferson National Expansion MemorialJefferson National Expansion MemorialThe Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was designated as a National Memorial by Executive Order 7523, on December 21, 1935, and is maintained by the National Park Service .The park was established to...
), St. Louis; Eero SaarinenEero SaarinenEero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
, architect - John F. Kennedy LibraryJohn F. Kennedy LibraryThe John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and museum of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. It is located on Columbia Point in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, next to the Boston campus of the University of...
, Boston - Lincoln Center, Manhattan
- Fountain PlazaFountain PlaceFountain Place is a 60-story late-modernist skyscraper in the Arts District in downtown Dallas, Texas. Standing at a structural height of , it is the fifth-tallest in Dallas, and the 15th-tallest in Texas.-Design:...
, Dallas, Texashttp://www.dallassky.com/bldg05.htmhttp://www.rjvanseters.com/img/dank1.jpg - United States Air Force AcademyUnited States Air Force AcademyThe United States Air Force Academy is an accredited college for the undergraduate education of officer candidates for the United States Air Force. Its campus is located immediately north of Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States...
, Colorado Springs, Colorado - National Center for Atmospheric ResearchNational Center for Atmospheric ResearchThe National Center for Atmospheric Research has multiple facilities, including the I. M. Pei-designed Mesa Laboratory headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. NCAR is managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and sponsored by the National Science Foundation...
(landscape) – Boulder, Colorado. Completed 1967. I. M. PeiI. M. PeiIeoh Ming Pei , commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese American architect, often called a master of modern architecture. Born in Canton, China and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the gardens at Suzhou...
, lead architect - Jardine Water Purification PlantJardine Water Purification PlantThe Jardine Water Purification Plant, formerly the Central District Filtration Plant, is the largest capacity water filtration plant in the world, located at 1000 E. Ohio Street north of Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois...
, Chicago, Illinois, 1965 - Cudahy Gardens, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Union Terrace, Madison, Wisconsin
- Benjamin Banneker Park, Washington, D.C. Completed in 1970.
