Photography of the lush interior atrium at the Ford Foundation, the tree-lined gardens at the Art Institute of Chicago, and a host of green lawns at sprawling private residences—all projects from late landscape architect Dan Kiley—will be staged as part of an exhibition of the modernist designer’s work on view in Brooklyn, later this month.
The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley takes a look back at 27 landscape projects from Kiley, who in his extensive career worked on over 1,000 projects from large, public-facing museum and institutional jobs to private residences. The exhibition to be mounted at ABC Stone builds on past shows of a similar nature and topic, with nearly double the amount of materials on display as past iterations. It is organized and curated by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF).
Among the new additions to the traveling photography show—previously installed at the Boston Architectural College, National Building Museum, and Chicago Architecture Foundation, and other locations—are videos with Joe Karr, a close collaborator of Kiley’s, who worked on projects including the Ford Foundation atrium. Imagery of this unique, indoor garden space in Midtown Manhattan, recently the subject of a renovation, will also make an appearance.
Photographic works were shot by Marion Benner, Todd Eberle, Alan Ward, Tom Harris, and others. A booklet made for the show, organized chronologically, details information on each of the 27 sites alongside plans. It also includes brief write-ups and musings from individuals Kiley worked with, among these Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Kevin Roche, and Michael van Valkenburgh.
“This exhibition and gallery guide are an introduction to Kiley’s life and work, not an exhaustive survey–that would take far longer than the eleven months in which this project was organized,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, co-curator of the exhibition and TCLF’s President and CEO.
The Kiley projects on display span the country and even the globe. Mounting images from the L’Esplanade du Général de Gaulle in Paris, Air Force Academy in Colorado, and a number of art and cultural institutions sited across the Midwest and Northeast all appear. Viewed as a whole the exhibition presents the scope and range Kiley was capable of and his ability to plant a landscape just about anywhere.
The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley opens on January 18 and runs through April 30, by appointment, at ABC Stone at 189 Banker Street in Brooklyn, New York. To launch the show there will be a conversation between Birnbaum and landscape architect Raymond Jungles. Jungles was challenged with the renovation and restoration of the Ford Foundation’s forest-like atrium.
