The landscape of the Norton Simon Museum

The Norton Simon Museum is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year and it deserves a post.

I visited this Museum in 2023 with my son, who is a professor of Fine Arts at Boston University, and highly recommended me to enjoy the art and of course, the gardens. The gardens were redesigned by Nancy Goslee Power in the late '90s 

The day was cloudy and the pictures are not helpful with the real tones of green. 

The pond containing different species of aquatic plants, takes most of the space; there are paths with old trees of huge branches, along with seats and various sculptures. I am sharing here some of the pictures I have taken this day.

What I've learnt today is that there is an improvement project going on:

 "While the overall look and feel of the garden will be maintained, important repairs will take place, necessitating the closure of the garden for much of the year. The garden will close on January 7, 2025".

A view along the pond, the Museum at the end of the perspective. Myriam Mahiques' personal archives, 2023.

A view across the pond, the Museum at the far end. Myriam Mahiques' personal archives, 2023.

A sculpture next to the pond. Myriam Mahiques' personal archives, 2023.

One of the paths, with sculptures, bushes and trees. Myriam Mahiques' personal archives, 2023.

My favorite tree, with branches across the path. Myriam Mahiques' personal archives, 2023.

Flowers and a sculpture along the path. Myriam Mahiques' personal archives, 2023.

Getting closer to the Museum. Myriam Mahiques' personal archives, 2023.

For what I see in the 3D renders, the renovation of the landscape by  the firm SWA, apart from technical improvements, will add more accessibility and color, which I think was needed. Regardless my pictures on a cloudy day, one can see that the overall tones are currently green and brown. 

To read about the garden improvement project:

https://www.nortonsimon.org/about/exterior-improvement-project-2025/

Rendering of the Museum’s Sculpture Garden, courtesy of ARG and SWA. Downloaded from the museum's web page.

Just monochrome wild grasses as landscape design

 

Seattle Waterfront is being renovated and this year, apart from completing public buildings, new landscape and hardscape design has been added. I've been following up the renovation since the demolition of the old freeway in 2019.

This landscape design seems very interesting to me, in its Minimalism and the use of just monochrome wild grasses at the entrance of a building which I presume it's a restaurant. 

I am sharing these pictures to show the beauty of even the minimum use of species. The pictures belong to my personal archives, June 2024.

Gas Works Park, Seattle

Entering Gas Works Park, Seattle. All photos in this post belong to my personal archives. June 2024.

I had read about Gas Works Park in a Theory of Landscape book. And since then, it was on my "visit list". I finally could get there this month, on a hot, not so sunny day.

Architectural ruins as part of the landscape was an important subject during the Romanticism of SXIX, and it was described in literature and arts:

https://myriammahiques.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-beauty-of-hubert-roberts-ruins.html

There is an aesthetics of ruins which I have described a few years ago in this article, published on Arqa:

https://myriammahiques.blogspot.com/2009/11/acerca-de-la-estetica-de-las-ruinas.html

Needless to say how much I enjoyed the visit to the park that was a real example to my article about ruins.

The view across the Lake Union is Downtown Seattle and this view is enhanced by going up a hill, which I do not know if it is natural or artificially created. This hill gave me the possibility to take full pictures of the abandoned building which has become a sort of monument. 

From Wikipedia: 

"Gas Works Park is a park located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is a 19.1-acre (77,000 m2) public park on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant, located on the north shore of Lake Union at the south end of the Wallingford neighborhood. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 2, 2013, over a decade after being nominated. Gas Works Park contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the United States. The plant operated from 1906 to 1956 and was bought by the city of Seattle for use as a park in 1962. The park opened to the public in 1975. It was designed by Seattle landscape architect Richard Haag, who won the American Society of Landscape Architects Presidents Award of Design Excellence for the project. The plant's conversion into a park was completed by Daviscourt Construction Company of Seattle."..... 

 "Gas Works Park incorporates numerous pieces of the old plant. Some stand as ruins, while others have been reconditioned, painted, and incorporated into a children's "play barn" structure, constructed in part from what was the plant's exhauster-compressor building. A web site affiliated with the Seattle Times newspaper said, "Gas Works Park is easily the strangest park in Seattle and may rank among the strangest in the world."

Ascending the kite hill.

At the top of the kite hill there is this organic art work on the ground. This is the only ornament in the literal sense of the word.

The main Gas Works building as seen from the kite hill.

Side view to the bridge and marina.

Side view from the hill, inland. The path leads to the children's playground.

Getting closer to the main building.

Downtown Seattle at the end of the perspective. On the right, a man enjoying the peace.

A closer view of the building which is surrounded by a wire fence. There are some graffiti and dry vines branches that climbed on the ruins long ago.

Walking to the children's playground and barn.

Downtown Seattle at the end of the perspective.

Getting closer to the barn. The industrial structures are painted and the gain color at the children's area.

The structures in front of the barn.

The barn and the playground with the industrial remnants incorporated as part of the play ground.

Inside the barn, the remnants of the old Gas Works building have been painted in bright colors. One can walk around but not climb the remnants. 

Inside the barn, like a vibrant colors museum. 

A view to the lake from the playground.

A look to the main building from the playground.

The work of a genius in this playground!

Approaching the playground.

Remnants of a block fence, covered in vines at the entry of the park. A great conceptual idea of the dignity of ruins.

 

The beauty of Button Weeds or Golden Buttons "weed"

 

Button Weeds (Cotula Coronopifolia) also known as Golden Buttons. Personal archives, June 2024.

Though Button Weeds (also known as Golden Buttons, Water Buttons, Brass buttons) are consider  weed, they look so pretty next to the lake or ponds edges, in a low mat formation in a naturalistic landscape (garden). I have taken my pictures at the Huntington Beach Central Park, where they bloom next to the local lake under full sun.

This perennial plant is native from South Africa and it is also found in North America, South America and Asia. It reproduces through seeds. The appearance is of button-like tiny flowers, yellow or white, with lance-shaped leaves. The tiny flowers form a cluster that cannot be appreciated from afar. I have taken some of these photos with a 300 mm macro lens, which helped me understand their morphology.

The seeds are hard and can persist in the ground for long years. Hence the plant's duration as a weed or better said, as a lush ground cover.

Such a nice field of Button Weeds, Golden Buttons during Springtime. Personal archives, April 2024.

The Button Weeds (Cotula Coronopifolia) is growing among marshes at the edge of the Huntington Beach Central Park lake. Here, they appear as the yellow "line" in the middle, adding texture and color. Personal archives, June 2024.

Button Weeds, Golden Buttons, seen as part of the landscape. They are a great addition of texture and color. Personal archives, April 2024.

Button Weeds (Cotula Coronopifolia) is growing next to dry branches here. I enjoyed the green tones as seen through the sunlight. Personal archives, June 2024.

Cactus garden at the South Coast Botanic Garden

 

It has been a real pleasure for me to visit the South Coast Botanic Garden again. There is the all over exhibition of "Bloom" which is all the splendid Spring flowers blooming in the garden, being the roses the most beautiful of them. But the cactus garden is fantastic as well. 

I am sharing here some of pictures in such a splendid day of last April. All pictures from my personal archives, 2024.

It is very interesting to walk among the cactus and succulents of diverse scale, arranged with rocks in a desert landscape.

This picture (above) shows a more colorful combination and I like how the perspective closes with taller species and finally there is the trees background. The palm trees species on the left.

See how the trees and the palm trees of the background break the lower scale monotony.

A play of textures, light and shadow.

White rocks here while in some areas (see below) the rocks are darker and next to a red flowering bush.

The palm trees in the background, see the different scales.

Maybe the only critical part is that looking at the cactus garden from the road curve, we perceive it as isolated and not part of a "desert".