Visionary Landscapes by Kendall H. Brown

Author:Kendall H. Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

The silhouette of the yukimi snow-viewing lantern pulls the Palos Verdes Peninsula into the Uyesugi garden, while the floating light projects the backyard landscape into its expansive environment.

Inside the house, the entry hall is flanked by potted plants and stones, with the pool garden visible through the rear window.

Uesugi’s desire to work with partners from his student days in Kyoto resulted in many stones being set by Tokushirō Tamane.

Following the Path:

The San Diego Friendship Garden

Together with the San Diego firm Fong and LaRocca, Uesugi first submitted a master plan for the large San Diego Friendship Garden in Balboa Park in 1979. Board gyrations led to alternate designs by Kōichi Kawana, then a first phase design by Ken Nakajima of Tokyo in 1990.6 Uesugi was brought back for the project’s second phase, an extension along the narrow rim of Gold Gulch Canyon with a new entry area, waterfall-fed pond, pergola and patio, and a bonsai garden around spacious offices completed in 1999. The distinguishing feature is the elegant path that curves past the original building and dry garden on its way to the Dail Gate, portal to the final project. The 9-acre third phase extends the garden into the canyon. Built between 2010 and 2014, it centers on the large events pavilion and attendant building designed by Kotaro Nakamura of RNT Architects. In this final project, made while fighting cancer, Uesugi worked with his son Keiji and many old friends. He placed large stones with Tokushirō Tamane and in the summer of 2014 with Makoto Nakamura, the two old men delighting in one last garden project.

The new garden features a long, gentle ADA-compliant path leading down the canyon to the pavilion. As it swings along a hillside covered with azaleas and other shrubs, and planted with specially grafted cherries, it traverses a dry stream, then an actual stream. The sinuous waterway and path descend in tandem to the pavilion sitting dramatically below a broad waterfall. From the pavilion’s broad verandah, the stream becomes a mesmerizing focus, shutting out the bowl of hills. As with Kurisu’s Japanese Garden at the Meijer, the Friendship Garden’s success will depend on skillful fostering of the plants. And for visitors to fully enjoy Uesugi’s subtle creation of fluid space, they need to be mindful of the immediate environment in a space where landing planes move through the background. The garden fantasy best takes place in the evening when twilight quiets the sky, softens the land, “floats” the pavilion and makes magic with the water that flows joyfully moving, forever connecting.

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