Jens Jensen (landscape architect)
Encyclopedia
Jens Jensen was a Danish-American landscape architect
.
in Slesvig
, Denmark
, in 1860, to a wealthy farming family. For the first nineteen years of his life he lived on his family's farm, which cultivated his love for the natural environment. When he was four years old, during the second war of Schleswig
in 1864, Jensen watched the Prussians invade his town, and burn his family's farm buildings. This invasion, which annexed the land into Prussia
, left a deep influence on how Jensen viewed the world of man. He attended the Tune Agricultural School in Jutland
, afterwards undertaking mandatory service in the Prussian Army. During these three years he sketched parks in the English and French character in Berlin
and other German cities. By 1884, his military service over, Jensen was engaged to Anne Marie Hansen. Coupled with his wish to escape the family farm, this led to his decision to emigrate to the United States
that year.
, and then at Luther College
in Decorah, Iowa
, before moving to Chicago
and taking a job as a laborer for the West Park Commission
. He was soon promoted to a foreman. During this time he was allowed to design and plant a garden of exotic flowers. When the garden withered and died, he traveled into the surrounding prairie and transplanted native wildflowers. Jensen transplanted the wildflowers into a corner of Union Park, creating what became the American Garden in 1888.
Working his way through the park system, Jensen was appointed superintendent of the 200 acre (800,000 m²) Humboldt Park
in 1895. By the late 1890s, the West Park Commission
was entrenched in corruption. After refusing to participate in political graft, Jensen was ousted by a dishonest park board in 1900. He was eventually reinstated and by 1905 he was general superintendent of the entire West Park System
in Chicago. His design work for the city can be seen at Lincoln Park, Douglas Park, and Columbus Park
.
In the 1910s, Jensen played a role in building support for the preservation of part of the Indiana Dunes sand dune ecosystem, also near Chicago.
In his maturity, Jensen designed Lincoln Memorial Gardens in Springfield, Illinois
. This plan was completed in 1935 and planted in 1936-1939.
practice. He worked on private estates and municipal parks throughout the U.S. He was commissioned by Eleanor and Edsel Ford
for four residences, three in Michigan and one in Maine, between 1922 and 1935.
A major landscape project, with Edsel Ford
, was for 'Gaukler Point', the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House
designed by architect Albert Kahn in 1929, on the shores of Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Shores
, Michigan
for Edsel Ford
and his wife. Jensen did the master plan and designed the estate's
gardens. He employed his traditional 'long view,' giving visitors a glimpse of the residence down the long meadow after the passing the entry gates, then only brief partial views along the long drive, and only at the end revealing the entire house and another view back up the long meadow.
The 'Gaukler Point' gardens and residence are now a public historical landscape and house museum
and on the National Register of Historic Places
.
He also designed the gardens for Edsel and Eleanor's summer estate 'Skylands' in Bar Harbor
on Mount Desert Island
in Maine
(1922). Jensen did design work for their two other Michigan residences, one being 'Haven Hill,' between 1922 and 1935. 'Haven Hill', now within the Highland Recreation Area near White Lake Township
in southeastern Michigan, is designated as both a Michigan State Historical Landmark and State Natural Preserve. Jensen's landscape elements, with the diversity of tree, plant and animal life, combine aesthetics, history and nature.
For Clara and Henry Ford
Jensen employed his 'delayed view' approach in designing the arrival at the residence
of their estate, Fair Lane
, in Dearborn, Michigan
,. Instead of proceeding straight to the house or even seeing it, the entrance drive leads visitors through the estate's dense woodland
areas. Bends in the drive, planted on the curves' inside arc with large trees give a feeling of a natural reason for the turn, and obscure any long view. Suddenly, the visitor is propelled out of the forest and in the open space where the residence is presented fully in view in front of them. This idea of wandering was one which Jens put forth in almost all of his designs. Expansive meadows and gardens make up the larger landscape, with naturalistic massings of flowers surrounding the house. The largest axial meadow, the "Path of the Setting Sun" is aligned so that on the summer solstice
the setting sun glows through a precise parting of the trees at meadow's end. The boathouse, with stonework cliffs designed by Jensen, allowed Henry Ford
to travel on the Rouge River
in his electric boat. Currently 72 acres (290,000 m²) of the original estate are preserved as a historic landscape and with the house are a museum, and a National Historic Landmark
.
Jensen did other projects for Henry Ford including: The Dearborn Inn
, Dearborn, Michigan, in 1931 (architect Albert Kahn, the first airport hotel in the country and National Historic Landmark); the Henry Ford Hospital
; the Greenfield Village historic re-creation and its Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn; and the 'Ford Pavilion' at the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress
Exposition
. In 1923 he designed Lincoln High School in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on a 19 acres (76,890.3 m²) area on Lake Michigan. A number of projects with Jensen designed landscapes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places including The Jens Jensen House and Studio, Rosewood Park, the May Theilgaard Watts
House (architect; John S. Van Bergen
), The A.G. Becker Property (architect; Howard Van Doren Shaw
), The Samuel Holmes House (architect; Robert Seyfarth
) and the Harold Florshiem estate (architect; Ernest Grunsfeld), all of which are located in Highland Park, Illinois where Jensen lived.
In 1935, after the death of his wife, Jensen moved from Highland Park, Illinois
to Ellison Bay, Wisconsin
where he established "The Clearing", which he called a "school of the soil" to train future landscape architects. It's now preserved open space and education center in the 'folk school tradition'. In the course of his long career he worked with many well known architects including Louis Sullivan
, Frank Lloyd Wright
, George Maher and Albert Kahn. Jens Jensen died at his home, "The Clearing," on October 1, 1951, at the age of 91.
stacked up to recreate the natural river systems of the Mid West. Much of his designs focused around views from certain places where he would leave openings in the dense under stories he was known for planting. Jens never created paths going in straight lines to their destinations; he disliked inorganic lines that connected places like they were nodes. He said of the vast formal gardens of France
that "men with little intellect and plenty of money who, for the sake of popularity, will turn their gardens into museums of freaks where even the stalwart moonshiner would hesitate to pass through at the midnight hour."
Today his gardens are being restored due to resurrections of his plans. Jens Jensen was one of the most influential designers to popularise native gardens. He showed that not only could beautiful gardens have native species, but could have native species in their respective places as they would be without human integration or involvement. He taught us that beauty does not have to come from a Tulip from Holland or a Maple from Japan; it can come from the wild reaches of our backyards or state parks. He summed up his philosophy by saying: "Every Plant has fitness and must be placed in its proper surroundings so as to bring out its full beauty. Therein lies the art of landscaping".
movement, under the guise of environmental responsibility, is in fact motivated by cultural biases. At the forefront of such criticism is “Some Notes on the Mania for Native Plants in Germany,” a paper written by German scholars Gert Groening and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn. First appearing in Landscape Journal in the fall of 1992, it suggests that ecology, a term used “as if it conferred moral authority,” is often a weak justification for less desirable motives. The idea that “exotic plants from other continents threaten our home nature,” they say, is nothing short of xenophobia.
Groening and Wolschke-Bulmahn begin by challenging the very concept of native species
. They provide as examples the sweet cherry
and the potato
, plants that, while now an integral part of German culture, came from places like Asia Minor
and Peru
hundreds of years ago; the fact that many would consider these species native underlies the degree of subjectivity in such a classification
. The authors also look to the writings of Darwin
and Haeckel, 19th century biologists that challenged an anthropocentric view of the world. The “laws of nature” which they espoused would later influence early 20th century German landscape architects and garden designer
s. Willy Lange was perhaps the first such designer interested in establishing a scientific basis for plant selection. For Lange, it was only logical that “those who support the laws of nature are the better people.” His design concept revolved around science
, art
, and race; the garden
became “the racial expression of the understanding of nature of ‘Nordic’ or ‘Germanic’ people.” Later designers, particularly Alwin Seifert, more directly applied the concept of nativeness to landscape architecture. Taking up the mantra “blood and soil,” Seifert was appointed State Attorney for the Landscape in the National Socialist party
. The intent of the Nazis was to “cleanse the German landscape of unharmonious foreign substance;” for Groening and Wolschke-Bulmahn, this was directly related to Hitler’s statement that “the German volk has to be cleansed.”
Predictably, “Mania for Native Plants” generated impassioned and immediate controversy. The subsequent issue of Landscape Journal contained a rebuttal by University of New Mexico
professor Kim Sorvig, who disputed the Germans’ argument on several grounds. In “Natives and Nazis: An Imaginary Conspiracy in Ecological Design,” Sorvig identifies the paper’s three major “fallacies.” The first fallacy, he suggests, is that the “cultural landscape is equated with its ecological components.” 'In reality, the social potency of the landscape lies not in its particular species but in the associations people derive from its forms.' He uses the example of Poland
, a country invaded by the Nazis. The Nazis sought to expropriate the land, seeing the open agricultural landscape as inferior to the orderly woodlots, fields, and gardens which characterized Germany. Their concern was not with the biology
but the culture
, as both countries already possessed similar flora
. The second fallacy is in “ignoring the rational basis for ecological planting design.” Xenophobia
aside, there are undeniably higher resource costs associated with non-native planting. And finally, Sorvig considers equating “the removal of non-native plants from a landscape to the extermination of ‘foreign’ human beings” to be particularly egregious and insensitive. He suggests that the leap Groening and Wolschke-Buhlman make from 'native to Nazi' is largely a sensational one.
While Jens Jensen is not specifically mentioned in “Mania for Native Plants,” his “complicity” in the matter is implied. And in a follow-up article, Groening and Wolschke-Buhlman put him at the forefront of the discussion. He is not called a Nazi, but he is unfavorably compared to one; the authors suggest that “Jensen was more militant in his ideas about natural garden design that even his German colleague Alwin Seifert.” They cite his 1939 work 'Siftings', in which Jensen provides plenty of fodder to illustrate their point. Referring to non-natives in the garden, he says, “Freaks are freaks and often bastards– who wants a bastard in the garden, the out of door shrine of our home?” Other passages, while perhaps less incendiary, also promote a landscape that reinforces racial and cultural differences.
Since the original accusations, many more scholars have weighed in on the controversy. Some critics of Groening and Wolschke-Bulmahn have defended the use of native plants in general, while others have come to the specific defense of Jensen. Of those in the latter camp, a paper by Dave Egan and William Tischler entitled “Jens Jensen, Native Plants, and the Concept of Nordic Superiority,” is of particular interest. Published in 'Landscape Journal' in 1999, it confronts some of Jensen’s more discomforting quotes head-on. For instance, the article contains a letter by Jensen in which he expresses the idea that “Latin
” and “Oriental” cultures are inferior to “our America’s Germanic character.” Egan and Tischler do not defend such ideas, but they do contextualize them. They describe an America that was increasingly isolationist and xenophobic following World War I
. Himself an immigrant, Jensen’s views were shaped by the political climate in America as well as the experiences of his youth. Educated in Danish folk schools and affected by the occupation of Prussian troops in Denmark
, Jensen developed an appreciation for one’s homeland
early in life. For him, there was a special bond between culture and nature
, one he believed should be strengthened. And while his opinion of other cultures is unenlightened by today’s standards, Jensen publicly rejected the idea that America should put racial quotas on immigration
. In his private letters, too, he denounced Hitlerism and expressed a hope for democracy and peace. Jensen’s nativist views were less about asserting cultural superiority than they were about reconnecting people to their landscape in the face of rapid modernization
and homogenization. Other scholars, such as University of Michigan
’s Robert Grese, describe projects like the Edsel and Eleanor Ford estate
, in which Jensen granted the clients’ request for non-native species. Jensen was willing to use them around the home and in “special gardens,” a fact that runs counter to claims of garden “militarism.”
Today the debate over natives plants continues. Most ecological designers would suggest that exotics
should be reserved for specimen plantings. They would argue that in doing so, they are not imposing the values of a dominant culture
; to the contrary, they are protecting a place’s biodiversity
, particularly from overly aggressive invasive species
. They are also trying to limit the amount of fertilizer
, water, and other resources used on non-natives. The sustainable environmental design movement brings new discussion topics. Jens Jensen's philosophy and aesthetics continue to add to the discussion
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
.
Early life
Jens Jensen was born near DybbølDybbøl
Dybbøl is a small town, with a population of 2,457 in the southeastern corner of South Jutland, Denmark. It is located around west of Sønderborg....
in Slesvig
Slesvig
Slesvig is the Danish name for:* Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein, a German city* The former Duchy of Schleswig * A former name for Hedeby, a Viking Age trading center, originally the largest town in the Nordic Countries...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, in 1860, to a wealthy farming family. For the first nineteen years of his life he lived on his family's farm, which cultivated his love for the natural environment. When he was four years old, during the second war of Schleswig
Second War of Schleswig
The Second Schleswig War was the second military conflict as a result of the Schleswig-Holstein Question. It began on 1 February 1864, when Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig.Denmark fought Prussia and Austria...
in 1864, Jensen watched the Prussians invade his town, and burn his family's farm buildings. This invasion, which annexed the land into Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, left a deep influence on how Jensen viewed the world of man. He attended the Tune Agricultural School in Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
, afterwards undertaking mandatory service in the Prussian Army. During these three years he sketched parks in the English and French character in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and other German cities. By 1884, his military service over, Jensen was engaged to Anne Marie Hansen. Coupled with his wish to escape the family farm, this led to his decision to emigrate to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that year.
In the United States
Initially Jensen worked in FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and then at Luther College
Luther College (Iowa)
Luther College is a four-year, residential liberal arts institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, located in Decorah, Iowa, USA...
in Decorah, Iowa
Decorah, Iowa
Decorah is a city in and the county seat of Winneshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 8,172 at the 2000 census. Decorah is located at the intersection of State Highway 9 and U.S...
, before moving to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and taking a job as a laborer for the West Park Commission
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
. He was soon promoted to a foreman. During this time he was allowed to design and plant a garden of exotic flowers. When the garden withered and died, he traveled into the surrounding prairie and transplanted native wildflowers. Jensen transplanted the wildflowers into a corner of Union Park, creating what became the American Garden in 1888.
Working his way through the park system, Jensen was appointed superintendent of the 200 acre (800,000 m²) Humboldt Park
Humboldt Park, Chicago
Humboldt Park is one of 77 officially designated community areas located on the northwest side of Chicago, Illinois. The Humboldt Park neighborhood is widely known for its large Puerto Rican presence...
in 1895. By the late 1890s, the West Park Commission
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
was entrenched in corruption. After refusing to participate in political graft, Jensen was ousted by a dishonest park board in 1900. He was eventually reinstated and by 1905 he was general superintendent of the entire West Park System
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
in Chicago. His design work for the city can be seen at Lincoln Park, Douglas Park, and Columbus Park
Columbus Park (Chicago)
Columbus Park, located on the west side of Chicago, Illinois in the Austin neighborhood, is bounded by West Adams Street, South Austin Boulevard, South Central Avenue, and the Eisenhower Expressway, to which it lost nine acres when the expressway was constructed. The remnant park is part of the...
.
In the 1910s, Jensen played a role in building support for the preservation of part of the Indiana Dunes sand dune ecosystem, also near Chicago.
In his maturity, Jensen designed Lincoln Memorial Gardens in Springfield, Illinois
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
. This plan was completed in 1935 and planted in 1936-1939.
Private practice
In 1920 he retired from the park system and started his own landscape architectureLandscape 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...
practice. He worked on private estates and municipal parks throughout the U.S. He was commissioned by Eleanor and Edsel Ford
Edsel Ford
Edsel Bryant Ford , son of Henry Ford, was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death in 1943.-Life and career:...
for four residences, three in Michigan and one in Maine, between 1922 and 1935.
A major landscape project, with Edsel Ford
Edsel Ford
Edsel Bryant Ford , son of Henry Ford, was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death in 1943.-Life and career:...
, was for 'Gaukler Point', the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House
Edsel and Eleanor Ford House
The Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, which is named "Gaukler Point" - is on the shore of Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Shores, northeast of Detroit, Michigan, the United States. It became the new residence of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford family in 1929. Edsel Ford was the son of Henry Ford and an...
designed by architect Albert Kahn in 1929, on the shores of Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Shores
Grosse Pointe
Grosse Pointe refers to a coastal area in Metro Detroit, Michigan, United States that comprises five adjacent individual communities. From southwest to northeast, they are:*Grosse Pointe Park, city*Grosse Pointe, city*Grosse Pointe Farms, city...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
for Edsel Ford
Edsel Ford
Edsel Bryant Ford , son of Henry Ford, was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death in 1943.-Life and career:...
and his wife. Jensen did the master plan and designed the estate's
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
gardens. He employed his traditional 'long view,' giving visitors a glimpse of the residence down the long meadow after the passing the entry gates, then only brief partial views along the long drive, and only at the end revealing the entire house and another view back up the long meadow.
The 'Gaukler Point' gardens and residence are now a public historical landscape and house museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
and on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
He also designed the gardens for Edsel and Eleanor's summer estate 'Skylands' in Bar Harbor
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population is 5,235. Bar Harbor is a famous summer colony in the Down East region of Maine. It is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory and Mount Desert Island...
on Mount Desert Island
Mount Desert Island
Mount Desert Island , in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of it is the 6th largest island in the contiguous United States. Though it is often claimed to be the third largest island on the eastern seaboard of the United States, it is actually second...
in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
(1922). Jensen did design work for their two other Michigan residences, one being 'Haven Hill,' between 1922 and 1935. 'Haven Hill', now within the Highland Recreation Area near White Lake Township
White Lake Township, Michigan
White Lake Charter Township is a charter township of north Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan, it is part of the Detroit metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the township population was 30,019...
in southeastern Michigan, is designated as both a Michigan State Historical Landmark and State Natural Preserve. Jensen's landscape elements, with the diversity of tree, plant and animal life, combine aesthetics, history and nature.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
Jensen employed his 'delayed view' approach in designing the arrival at the residence
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
of their estate, Fair Lane
Fair Lane
Fair Lane was the name of the estate of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and his wife Clara Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, in the United States. It was named after an area in County Cork in Ireland where Ford's adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born...
, in Dearborn, Michigan
Dearborn, Michigan
-Economy:Ford Motor Company has its world headquarters in Dearborn. In addition its Dearborn campus contains many research, testing, finance and some production facilities. Ford Land controls the numerous properties owned by Ford including sales and leasing to unrelated businesses such as the...
,. Instead of proceeding straight to the house or even seeing it, the entrance drive leads visitors through the estate's dense woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
areas. Bends in the drive, planted on the curves' inside arc with large trees give a feeling of a natural reason for the turn, and obscure any long view. Suddenly, the visitor is propelled out of the forest and in the open space where the residence is presented fully in view in front of them. This idea of wandering was one which Jens put forth in almost all of his designs. Expansive meadows and gardens make up the larger landscape, with naturalistic massings of flowers surrounding the house. The largest axial meadow, the "Path of the Setting Sun" is aligned so that on the summer solstice
Solstice
A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun's apparent position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes...
the setting sun glows through a precise parting of the trees at meadow's end. The boathouse, with stonework cliffs designed by Jensen, allowed Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
to travel on the Rouge River
River Rouge (Michigan)
The River Rouge, also known as the Rouge River, is a river in the Metro Detroit area of southeastern Michigan. It flows into the Detroit River at Zug Island, which is the boundary between the cities of River Rouge and Detroit....
in his electric boat. Currently 72 acres (290,000 m²) of the original estate are preserved as a historic landscape and with the house are a museum, and a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
.
Jensen did other projects for Henry Ford including: The Dearborn Inn
The Dearborn Inn
The Dearborn Inn, a Marriott Hotel, located at 20301 Oakwood Boulevard in Dearborn, Michigan, is a luxurious historic hotel, conceived by Henry Ford, who saw a need for food and accommodations for visitors flying into the nearby Ford Airport...
, Dearborn, Michigan, in 1931 (architect Albert Kahn, the first airport hotel in the country and National Historic Landmark); the Henry Ford Hospital
Henry Ford Hospital
Henry Ford Hospital, the flagship facility for , is an 805-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex located in Detroit ....
; the Greenfield Village historic re-creation and its Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn; and the 'Ford Pavilion' at the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress
Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation...
Exposition
Trade fair
A trade fair is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and opportunities...
. In 1923 he designed Lincoln High School in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on a 19 acres (76,890.3 m²) area on Lake Michigan. A number of projects with Jensen designed landscapes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places including The Jens Jensen House and Studio, Rosewood Park, the May Theilgaard Watts
May Theilgaard Watts
May Theilgaard Watts was an American writer, illustrator, and teacher.Watts was the daughter of Danish immigrants. She grew up in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, but began a teaching career in a one-room schoolhouse outside of the city...
House (architect; John S. Van Bergen
John S. Van Bergen
John Shellette Van Bergen was an American architect born in Oak Park, Illinois. Van Bergen started his architectural career as an apprentice draftsman in 1907. In 1909 he went to work for Frank Lloyd Wright at his studio in Oak Park. At Wright's studio he did working drawings for and supervised...
), The A.G. Becker Property (architect; Howard Van Doren Shaw
Howard Van Doren Shaw
Howard Van Doren Shaw was an American architect. He became one of the best-known architects of his generation in the Chicago area.-Early life and career:...
), The Samuel Holmes House (architect; Robert Seyfarth
Robert Seyfarth
- Background : Robert Seyfarth grew up as a member of a prominent local family. His grandfather William Seyfarth had come to the United States in 1848 from Schloss Tonndorf in what is now the state of Thuringia, Germany, with the intention of opening a tavern in Chicago...
) and the Harold Florshiem estate (architect; Ernest Grunsfeld), all of which are located in Highland Park, Illinois where Jensen lived.
In 1935, after the death of his wife, Jensen moved from Highland Park, Illinois
Highland Park, Illinois
Highland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...
to Ellison Bay, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
where he established "The Clearing", which he called a "school of the soil" to train future landscape architects. It's now preserved open space and education center in the 'folk school tradition'. In the course of his long career he worked with many well known architects including Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
, Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
, George Maher and Albert Kahn. Jens Jensen died at his home, "The Clearing," on October 1, 1951, at the age of 91.
Design Philosophy
Jensen is known for his "prairie style" design work. This would often consist of open spaces and pathways, which allowed one to stay in the shade while viewing the light. Not only did he use native plants, but also materials too. Most of his water features use slabs of limestoneLimestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
stacked up to recreate the natural river systems of the Mid West. Much of his designs focused around views from certain places where he would leave openings in the dense under stories he was known for planting. Jens never created paths going in straight lines to their destinations; he disliked inorganic lines that connected places like they were nodes. He said of the vast formal gardens of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
that "men with little intellect and plenty of money who, for the sake of popularity, will turn their gardens into museums of freaks where even the stalwart moonshiner would hesitate to pass through at the midnight hour."
Today his gardens are being restored due to resurrections of his plans. Jens Jensen was one of the most influential designers to popularise native gardens. He showed that not only could beautiful gardens have native species, but could have native species in their respective places as they would be without human integration or involvement. He taught us that beauty does not have to come from a Tulip from Holland or a Maple from Japan; it can come from the wild reaches of our backyards or state parks. He summed up his philosophy by saying: "Every Plant has fitness and must be placed in its proper surroundings so as to bring out its full beauty. Therein lies the art of landscaping".
Controversy Surrounding Native Plants
For some scholars, the advocacy of native plants by Jensen and others has troublesome implications. They assert that the native plantNative plant
Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic or naturalized to a given area in geologic time.This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for many years in an area...
movement, under the guise of environmental responsibility, is in fact motivated by cultural biases. At the forefront of such criticism is “Some Notes on the Mania for Native Plants in Germany,” a paper written by German scholars Gert Groening and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn. First appearing in Landscape Journal in the fall of 1992, it suggests that ecology, a term used “as if it conferred moral authority,” is often a weak justification for less desirable motives. The idea that “exotic plants from other continents threaten our home nature,” they say, is nothing short of xenophobia.
Groening and Wolschke-Bulmahn begin by challenging the very concept of native species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
. They provide as examples the sweet cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
and the potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
, plants that, while now an integral part of German culture, came from places like Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
hundreds of years ago; the fact that many would consider these species native underlies the degree of subjectivity in such a classification
Biological classification
Biological classification, or scientific classification in biology, is a method to group and categorize organisms by biological type, such as genus or species. Biological classification is part of scientific taxonomy....
. The authors also look to the writings of Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and Haeckel, 19th century biologists that challenged an anthropocentric view of the world. The “laws of nature” which they espoused would later influence early 20th century German landscape architects and garden designer
Garden designer
The term garden designer can refer either to an amateur or a professional who designs the plan and features of gardens. Amateurs design their gardens for their own properties. Professionals, with experienced skills, design gardens that benefit clients...
s. Willy Lange was perhaps the first such designer interested in establishing a scientific basis for plant selection. For Lange, it was only logical that “those who support the laws of nature are the better people.” His design concept revolved around science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, and race; the garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
became “the racial expression of the understanding of nature of ‘Nordic’ or ‘Germanic’ people.” Later designers, particularly Alwin Seifert, more directly applied the concept of nativeness to landscape architecture. Taking up the mantra “blood and soil,” Seifert was appointed State Attorney for the Landscape in the National Socialist party
National Socialist Party
Parties in various contexts have referred to themselves as National Socialist parties. Because there is no clear definition of national socialism, the term has been used to mean very different things...
. The intent of the Nazis was to “cleanse the German landscape of unharmonious foreign substance;” for Groening and Wolschke-Bulmahn, this was directly related to Hitler’s statement that “the German volk has to be cleansed.”
Predictably, “Mania for Native Plants” generated impassioned and immediate controversy. The subsequent issue of Landscape Journal contained a rebuttal by University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
professor Kim Sorvig, who disputed the Germans’ argument on several grounds. In “Natives and Nazis: An Imaginary Conspiracy in Ecological Design,” Sorvig identifies the paper’s three major “fallacies.” The first fallacy, he suggests, is that the “cultural landscape is equated with its ecological components.” 'In reality, the social potency of the landscape lies not in its particular species but in the associations people derive from its forms.' He uses the example of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, a country invaded by the Nazis. The Nazis sought to expropriate the land, seeing the open agricultural landscape as inferior to the orderly woodlots, fields, and gardens which characterized Germany. Their concern was not with the biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
but the culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, as both countries already possessed similar flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
. The second fallacy is in “ignoring the rational basis for ecological planting design.” Xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
aside, there are undeniably higher resource costs associated with non-native planting. And finally, Sorvig considers equating “the removal of non-native plants from a landscape to the extermination of ‘foreign’ human beings” to be particularly egregious and insensitive. He suggests that the leap Groening and Wolschke-Buhlman make from 'native to Nazi' is largely a sensational one.
While Jens Jensen is not specifically mentioned in “Mania for Native Plants,” his “complicity” in the matter is implied. And in a follow-up article, Groening and Wolschke-Buhlman put him at the forefront of the discussion. He is not called a Nazi, but he is unfavorably compared to one; the authors suggest that “Jensen was more militant in his ideas about natural garden design that even his German colleague Alwin Seifert.” They cite his 1939 work 'Siftings', in which Jensen provides plenty of fodder to illustrate their point. Referring to non-natives in the garden, he says, “Freaks are freaks and often bastards– who wants a bastard in the garden, the out of door shrine of our home?” Other passages, while perhaps less incendiary, also promote a landscape that reinforces racial and cultural differences.
Since the original accusations, many more scholars have weighed in on the controversy. Some critics of Groening and Wolschke-Bulmahn have defended the use of native plants in general, while others have come to the specific defense of Jensen. Of those in the latter camp, a paper by Dave Egan and William Tischler entitled “Jens Jensen, Native Plants, and the Concept of Nordic Superiority,” is of particular interest. Published in 'Landscape Journal' in 1999, it confronts some of Jensen’s more discomforting quotes head-on. For instance, the article contains a letter by Jensen in which he expresses the idea that “Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
” and “Oriental” cultures are inferior to “our America’s Germanic character.” Egan and Tischler do not defend such ideas, but they do contextualize them. They describe an America that was increasingly isolationist and xenophobic following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Himself an immigrant, Jensen’s views were shaped by the political climate in America as well as the experiences of his youth. Educated in Danish folk schools and affected by the occupation of Prussian troops in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Jensen developed an appreciation for one’s homeland
Homeland
A homeland is the concept of the place to which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association with —the country in which a particular national identity began. As a common noun, it simply connotes the country of one's origin...
early in life. For him, there was a special bond between culture and nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
, one he believed should be strengthened. And while his opinion of other cultures is unenlightened by today’s standards, Jensen publicly rejected the idea that America should put racial quotas on immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
. In his private letters, too, he denounced Hitlerism and expressed a hope for democracy and peace. Jensen’s nativist views were less about asserting cultural superiority than they were about reconnecting people to their landscape in the face of rapid modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
and homogenization. Other scholars, such as University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
’s Robert Grese, describe projects like the Edsel and Eleanor Ford estate
Edsel and Eleanor Ford House
The Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, which is named "Gaukler Point" - is on the shore of Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Shores, northeast of Detroit, Michigan, the United States. It became the new residence of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford family in 1929. Edsel Ford was the son of Henry Ford and an...
, in which Jensen granted the clients’ request for non-native species. Jensen was willing to use them around the home and in “special gardens,” a fact that runs counter to claims of garden “militarism.”
Today the debate over natives plants continues. Most ecological designers would suggest that exotics
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
should be reserved for specimen plantings. They would argue that in doing so, they are not imposing the values of a dominant culture
Dominant culture
The dominant culture in a society refers to the established language, religion, behavior, values, rituals, and social customs. These traits are often the norm for the society as a whole...
; to the contrary, they are protecting a place’s biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
, particularly from overly aggressive invasive species
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
. They are also trying to limit the amount of fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
, water, and other resources used on non-natives. The sustainable environmental design movement brings new discussion topics. Jens Jensen's philosophy and aesthetics continue to add to the discussion
External links
- Jens Jensen Legacy Project
- Official 'The Clearing' website
- http://www.fordhouse.org Official Edsel & Eleanor Ford 'Gaukler Point' museum website.
- Official Edsel & Eleanor Ford 'Haven Hill' museum website.
- Official Henry Ford 'Fair Lane' museum website
- Virtual tour of the Henry and Clara Ford 'Fair Lane' estate.
- Chicago Wilderness Magazine: Jens Jensen
- Forest Preserve District: Jens Jensen
- http://www.highlandparkhistory.com/art_hist_web/artists/artists.htm
- Landscape drawings in the Suzette Morton Davidson Special Collections of the Sterling Morton Library
- "Chicago's Columbus Park:The Prairie Idealized", a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
- Jens Jensen Harmonious World website.