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Landscape Architecture ‚Äö?Ñ?¨ Coming Together in the Soviet Union02-01-88 | News

Landscape Architecture – Coming Together in the Soviet Union

by Dorothy Kuhn

Monument to Ukranian unification with Russia in 1984 This massive aluminum arch rises 9 stories high and overlooks the Dnieper River. Dorothy Kuhn

The “coming together” of Soviet Landscape Architects and U.S. Landscape Architects in late August of 1987 was an unprecedented event in the history of landscape architecture. The idea of a landscape architectural tour of the Soviet Union and meetings with Soviet Landscape Architects to form both short-and long-term cooperative projects was the two-year brainchild of Donald Roberts, FASLA. Roberts coordinated with Sergey Ozhegov, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Moscow Institute of Architecture and Igor VosPresensky, Vice-President of the Union of Soviet Architects in charge of the interests of Landscape Architects.

The restoration of Peter's Palace in Leningrad. Photo by John Peters.

According to Roberts, “Voskresensky said that there had been several meetings between U.S. and Soviet architects in the Soviet Union, but this was the first meeting held between Landscape Architects. He also said that the visiting American Landscape Architects brought them prestige among their Soviet design colleagues. The entire tour consisted of visiting projects of our Soviet colleagues in Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad and lasted only 10 days, but the main focus of the meeting was to acquaint ourselves with Soviet Landscape Architects, form lines of communication and create opportunities for cooperative projects and interaction.”

Landscape architecture is practiced in the Soviet Union by architects with extended specialization in landscape architecture as well as environmental and urban design. Until now, they existed as an unrecognized group in the Union of Soviet Architects.

Natalia Abesinova, designer of Lenin Park in Kiev, is discussing long-range planning for the city of Kiev. Photo by Dorothy Kuhn

As each meeting progressed, it became clear that the work of Soviet Landscape Architects is nearly identical to the West, but far ahead of the United States in the restoration and preservation of historic sites. It was also discovered that they are substantially familiar with all Western literature on landscape architecture. This includes periodicals and books by such authors as Simonds and Eckbo while Western literature in landscape architecture is totally void of the great historic examples of landscape architecture in the Soviet Union.

The projects done in Minsk, the capital of Byelorussia on the shallow river Svislotch as a series of sculptural reservoirs was done very similar to Seattle’s freeway waterfall park. Kiev, completely leveled during World War II, is an example of town planning, landscape and aesthetic integration with function that exceeds even the best in our redeveloped cities on the Eastern seaboard.

Some of the Soviet Landscape Architects in Kiev. Photo by Dorothy Kuhn

During a meeting in Moscow, Sergey Ozhegov announced that three degree programs in landscape architecture were to be initiated in the fall of 1987 at institutes in Moscow, Sverdlovsk and Vilnus. ‘We initiated the writing of a book to be tentatively entitled ‘Soviet Landscape Architects.’ This book will be co-authored by Soviet and U.S. Landscape Architects. There was also a discussion of the possibility of a Soviet delegation to the 1988 World Congress of the International Federation of Landscape Architects to be held in Boston. At one point, the entire group was so enthusiast in the Moscow meeting that Voskresensky declared ‘this may be the beginning of a honeymoon,’ ” Roberts said.

Prominent among the members of the U.S. group were Ted Osmundson and Darwina Neal, Past Presidents of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and Herrick Smith, Chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Florida.