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Lockwood de Forest landscape drawings
0000184B
0000184B
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Title: Lockwood de Forest, Jr., landscape drawings
Identifier/Call Number: 0000184B
Contributing Institution:
Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
60.0 Linear feet
(11 flat file drawers, 2 tubes, 2 small boxes)
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1922-1949
Date (inclusive): 1917-1955
creator:
De Forest, Lockwood III, 1896-1949
Lockwood de Forest III was born in New York City. He was the youngest of the three children of Lockwood de Forest II, landscape
painter, amateur architect and interior designer, former partner of Louis Comfort Tiffany, art dealer and an acknowledged
authority on Indian Architecture. In 1912 de Forest Jr. was sent to the Thatcher School, Ojai, California, where he developed
a deep love for Californian landscapes and plein air painting. de Forest attended Williams College for one semester, worked
briefly for a landscape architect in Baltimore and took a summer class in landscape architecture at Harvard University prior
to serving as a volunteer in World War I .
He returned to California after the war to embark on a brief and unusual professional education. He studied Landscape Architecture
at the University of California, Berkeley for one year. In 1921 he traveled for three months in Italy, Spain, France and England
studying historic gardens and public parks, especially fascinated by Spanish fountains, the gardens of Seville and the Maria
Luisa Park by J. C. N. Forestier. He also spent several weeks studying plants at Kew Gardens.
From 1921 to 1922 he worked in Santa Barbara with the landscape architect Ralph Stevens. From 1922 until his early death in
1949, apart from one year serving in the second world war, deForest practiced as a gentleman landscape architect in the affluent
communities of Santa Barbara county. His practice was largely residential, although he worked on several schools, including
Thacher, and was a consultant to a number of civic organizations.
de Forest was an engaging figure who was greatly appreciated by his clients for his wit, casual dress and strong passion for
cars. His Model A Ford car was stripped down to the chassis, had Buffalo hide covered seats, and a rear platform for carrying
plants.
From 1925 until 1942 he co-edited
The Santa Barbara Gardener with his wife, Elizabeth Kellam de Forest. This magazine was modest, with no illustrations, and provided gardening advice
for what they considered an unique horticultural area. While the main emphasis was on horticulture, many articles state de
Forest's design philosophy clearly.
de Forest's designs often used clear formal and axial geometries combined with carefully selected plants complimenting the
colors and textures of the regional landscape. His horticultural knowledge was considerable and he played a major role in
introducing and experimenting with the use of new plants from South Africa. Rejecting stylistic eclecticism his designs are
notable for very simple detailing and bold sometimes theatrical effects achieved entirely with plants. He was one of the earliest
Californian landscape architects to question the ubiquitous and generous use of irrigated lawns. His early training as a landscape
painter accounts for the painterly quality in much of his work. One consistent theme in his writing is the capturing of views
of the regional landscape through the elimination of views of the middle ground.
Val Verde (1926-1949), was his most significant project and involved a highly creative collaboration with Wright Ludington.
Ludington was a gifted amateur painter, a major collector of Classical art and a pioneering collector of modern painting.
In two major periods in the 1920s and 1930s deForest transformed the rather boxy house designed in 1915 by Bertram Goodhue
into a remarkable evocation of a classical villa with an abstract and dramatic garden setting off Ludington's collection of
classical sculpture.
de Forest’s own small courtyard house and garden (1927) foreshadowed many of the qualities of modernist Californian gardens
of the 1940s. His use of sharawadgi expanded the sense of space by completely dissolving the garden's boundaries. At the William
Dickenson estate (1929-1932) in Hope Ranch, one of his largest commissions, silver tones subtly unified the garden with the
regional setting of ocean and mountains in the late afternoon.
From 1927-1942 and 1945-1949 he provided design advice to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, which is devoted to the display
of native plants, and served on numerous committees and as a trustee. He laid out trails to enhance visitor appreciation of
the existing native plant communities with minimal disturbance and collaborated with Beatrix Farrand on the design of the
Wildflower Meadow. In the late 1930s he disagreed strongly with some of her formalist proposals, believing that the garden
should have a simple naturalistic character.
His practice was profoundly affected by the Depression. Commissions were smaller and maintenance became a major design factor.
In a number of projects in the San Francisco Bay region designed with the architect, William Wurster, he explored the simple
use of geometrically patterned colored concrete. de Forest also began to practice architecture on a small scale, designing
minor remodeling projects and a series of small ranch houses and beach houses. The Moderne Nicholas Ludington house(1932)
and the Reese Taylor house (1936) at Carpinteria were illustrated respectively in
House Beautiful and
Country Life in America. In these and other houses he experimented with unusual and highly practical details for cabinets and lighting.
From 1942 to 1944 deForest served as a volunteer with the Camouflage Division of the U. S. Air Corps. This experience undoubtedly
influenced his final transformation of Val Verde, where the formerly white walls were skillfully painted in numerous coats
to create the illusion of an old weathered villa.
His post-war practice included the design of several small houses, most notably the Ernest Watson weekend house, Montecito
(1948) which was published by
Sunset magazine as an innovative example of a well planned small house. The house appears to sit in the landscape without a garden
foreground as a result of his use of local boulders and a palette of largely native plants. The axial Sterling Morton garden
(1948-1949) was one of his most grandiloquent mountain-oriented vistas.
While little known at the time of his death de Forest seemed eager to fully embrace modernist ideas. There is little doubt
that his work influenced Thomas Church. Following his death in 1949 the entry terraces to the Santa Barbara Art Museum were
made into a public memorial, one of a very small number of public monuments to American landscape architects. - David Streatfield
The de Forest collection consists primarily of landscape drawings, arranged alphabetically by project name. The majority of
these drawings relate to residential projects in Southern California, including large estates such as “Val Verde.” Non-residential
projects include the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, clubs, schools, exhibits, and a few commercial properties. Occasionally
included are drawings of the buildings designed by architects such as Chester L. Carjola, William W. Wurster, George Washington
Smith, Robert Stanton, Requa and Jackson, Lutah Maria Riggs, and George Washington Smith.
The collection also contains a small amount of textual records, including some specifications and other project files. These
records also include de Forest’s copy of his pamphlet The Plants of Santa Barbara, and a card file that served as a catalog
of plants for the Santa Barbara region.
Lockwood de Forest, Jr. landscape drawings, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University
of California, Santa Barbara.
Conditions Governing Access note
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Related Archival Materials note
Lockwood and Elizabeth de Forest papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University
of California, Santa Barbara. On deposit as of 2016.
George Washington Smith papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Lutah Maria Riggs papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Cliff May papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Soule, Murphy and Hastings papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Carleton Monroe Winslow Sr. papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Roland Coate papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa
Barbara.