Lawrence Halprin, Self-Portrait before Leaving Israel, 1998 Courtesy of Anna Halprin

Lawrence Halprin’s 100th birthday

The pioneering landscape architect was born 100 years ago today in New York City. Lawrence Halprin grew up in Brooklyn, and spent three years on a kibbutz in Israel before attending Cornell University, the University of Wisconsin, and Harvard’s Graduate … Read more

Lawrence Halprin, Design for Los Angeles Library Garden, date unknown Lawrence Halprin, A Life Spent Changing Places (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2011)

Visions of Los Angeles: Landscape Architect Lawrence Halprin Transforms a City

 

 

“Great cities are not made by automobiles, freeways and high rises. Basically, they are made by open spaces and the people who use the open spaces.”
—Lawrence Halprin, c. 1987

It started in the 1950s with plans to … Read more

Lawrence Halprin, The Irving Levin Garden, San Anselmo, 1951 Courtesy of Fred Levin

A Landscape Planned for Living: Lawrence Halprin’s Levin Family Garden

Gardens were a wonderful testing ground for details and a great learning experience for how things are constructed. When gardens were successful they provided great personal joy and led me to some interesting discoveries and friendships.

—Lawrence Halprin, A Life

Read more

Lawrence Halprin, Self-Portrait before Leaving Israel, 1998 Courtesy of Anna Halprin

Lawrence Halprin: Landscape Architecture in Israel

As a teenager, the land of Israel captivated Lawrence Halprin (1916–2009). In 1929, at 13, he marked the ritual transition into Jewish adulthood and responsibility (bar mitzvah) in Jerusalem (then British-governed Palestine Mandate), where he and his family … Read more

Charles Birnbaum (Photographer), The Sea Ranch, 2008 Courtesy of Charles Birnbaum/The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Living Lightly on the Land: Lawrence Halprin and The Sea Ranch

Today The Sea Ranch on California’s Sonoma coast is known as a rustic community where people live in harmony with their environment. In 2005, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin—who developed The Sea Ranch master plan in the early 1960s—noted that wherever … Read more

Anna Halprin Leading a Women’s Peace Walk on the Rhoda Goldman Promenade, Israel, 2014 Courtesy of Sue Heinemann Anna Halprin (front row, center) leads a peace procession on the Rhoda Goldman Promenade designed by her late husband, the renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. Next to her (our left) is Susie Gelman, daughter of Richard Goldman, who commissioned the promenade.

Anna Halprin: “Jews Are a Dancing People”

Photographer Sue Heinemann remembers traveling to Israel with the postmodern dance legend Anna Halprin in the fall of 2014: “There she completed her trilogy Remembering Lawrence, honoring her late husband, who helped found an early kibbutz and designed several … Read more

Lawrence Halprin and George Lucas at the Letterman Digital Arts Center Opening, June 25, 2005 Courtesy of Robert David

Lawrence Halprin and the Letterman Digital Arts Center

Luminous beings are we… —Yoda in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980

We don’t know if the renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin (1916–2009) was a Star Wars fan, but we can say with some certainty that … Read more

Dancing on the Beach

Experiments in Environment: The Halprin Workshops, 1966 – 1971

Download Press Release

San Francisco, California – Thursday, January 21, 2016 – The California Historical Society opens The 1960s Revisited: A 50th Anniversary Celebration with the San Francisco premiere of its new exhibition, Experiments in Environment: The Halprin Workshops, 1966–1971Read more

Levi’s Plaza Fountain with Levi Strauss & Co. Headquarters in the Background, 2015 Courtesy of Alison Moore

The Sierra in the City: Lawrence Halprin and Levi’s Plaza

In 1973 Levi Strauss & Co. left its cozy quarters at 98 Battery Street in San Francisco for the bold, upright world of the new Embarcadero Center, a series of four skyscrapers located near the city’s waterfront. Within a few … Read more

Activism and Public Participation in San Francisco Architecture Today

Activism and Public Participation in San Francisco Architecture Today

In conjunction with our exhibition, Experiments in Environment: The Halprin Workshops, 1966–1971, we present an engaging public program with staff from several local architecture firms and nonprofits. They will discuss key projects, programs, and moments where public engagement and … Read more

1 2