James van Sweden, FASLA, 2010 ASLA Design Medal Recipient

The Gardens of the Great Basin at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Ill., designed by Oehme, van Sweden & Associates, comprise 14 acres of plantings, pathways, terraces, knolls, overlooks and bridges. Each garden in the Great Basin captures the attributes of the Midwestern landscape. Shoreline restoration created a healthier lake and surrounding ecosystem.

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announces James van Sweden, FASLA is the ASLA Design Medal recipient for 2010.

Van Sweden earned a BA in architecture from the University of Michigan in 1960, then studied landscape architecture at the University at Delft, the Netherlands and served as an Amsterdam assistant town planner. Upon his return to the United States in 1963, he became a partner in charge of urban design and landscape architecture for Marcou, O'Leary and Associates in Washington, D.C., where he practiced until founding his partnership with Wolfgang Oehme in 1977. The duo launched what is called the ''New American Garden'' style, a naturalistic, four-season landscapes that pays homage to the American meadow movement originally inspired by Jens Jensen. Examples of the work of Oehme, van Sweden & Associates include the World War II Memorial on the National Mall; North Point Park in Boston; the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan; and the New American and Friendship Gardens at the U.S. National Arboretum, along with hundreds of residential designs.

''Do gardens have to be so tame, so harnessed, so unfree? What's new about our new American garden is what's new about America itself: It is vigorous and audacious and it vividly blends the natural and the cultivated.''- James van Sweden, FASLA

Mr. van Sweden's multidisciplinary design talents encompass architecture, landscape architecture and urban design. He is the author of a number of books: Gardening With Nature; Architecture in the Garden; Gardening With Water; and collaborative books with Oehme (Bold Romantic Gardens: The New World Landscape of Oehme and Van Sweden) and with Derek Fell, The Gardens of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Van Sweden maintains an active schedule of related lectures. He was honored as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1993.

Garden Rant reports that one little known garden design by van Sweden is Oprah Winfrey's $9 million country garden near South Bend, Indiana. Oprah desired to replicate the blooming fields (mostly cosmos) from the movie, ''The Color Purple.'' Van Sweden explained that recreating a real meadow, unlike the movie set garden, would take 5-6 years to mature. Thus informed, Oprah change her garden plan, but spent many hours with Jim selecting every plant for the garden.