Piet Oudolf
Netherlandish garden designer Piet Oudolf gets regular mentions in the media for his steady stream of new work, most recently for Hauser + Wirth in Menorca, Spain.
The New York Times is especially friendly.
Why?
On the surface, I think, it's the up-market commissions in fancy places. But deeper, I think New Yorkers love him for his contributions to greening their city via his designs for the Highline and the Battery.
But it's not only New York. Everyone likes Oudolf.
In a definitive survey of Oudolf’s work published Thames & Hudson, called Landscapes in Landscapes, his great range is established. Over decades he has designed and planted many gardens ranging from the relatively small (350 square meters) Hemsberg Garden in the Netherlands to the enormous (25,000 square meters) Nantucket Garden in Massachusetts.
Most of the finished work is in Northern/Western Europe and the East Coast of United States.
Oudolf's hand drawn field plans are like master works on paper. Bursts of scribbly color are precisely edge-bound by beds with plan names like molinia transparent and anemone robustissima. For some reason, reading these names reminds me of notations on a music score - dolce cantando and so forth.
His website is beautiful too. The projects are listed on the homepage in a special show-through typeface that gives a small reveal to the colorful photography behind each of the names.
If you aren't familiar, below are some links to digital resources on Piet Oudolf. But there's no substitute for a visit.
My first in-person experience was 12 years ago at Lurie Garden in Chicago's Millenium Park. It's an expansive (10,000 square meters) meadow-grass and wildflower park in downtown Chicago, accented by Anish Kapoor sculptures and a Frank Gehry bandstand. It serves as both a carbon/heat sink for an urban part of the city that needs it, and also a beautiful, accessible place to see and learn about horticulture. Exclusively for everyone.
Go Piet! Don't stop.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/t-magazine/piet-oudolf-garden-design.html
