LASN Remembers... Celebrating the Lives of Three of California's Best Emmet L. Wemple, FASLA (1920 - 1996) Trained in Fine Arts--and mentored by Garrett Eckbo--at the University of Southern California, Emmet L. Wemple, FASLA, Hon. AIA, 75, was inspired by the city of Los Angeles, fostering a "California style" that melds architectural and landscape architectural design for "a livable metropolis." Former Emmet L. Wemple & Associates principal--and architect, Marc Fischer believes Emmet would have been truly pleased to be called a "Friend to Architects," as "he made friends of his clients, many of whom were architects." So many of those were first his students at USC (1951-1988) that former School of Architecture Dean Bob Harris said he was known as "Dean of Landscape Architects in LA." In practice since 1954, he received some grand commissions. Some of his designs--residences of Hollywood entertainers and a future mayor, the grounds and parks of downtown Los Angeles' Angelus Plaza, South Park, Amateur Athletic Foundation, Paramount and Warner Bros. movie studios, USC's Watt-Harris Hall, J. Paul Getty Museum, The Getty Center, and the Nixon Library--are landmarks themselves. But lifelong contributions in education at USC--as teacher of design in the School of Architecture, as founding director of its Master of Landscape Architecture program, as Dean for an interim--also figured into why he received USC's Alumni Merit Award plus the School of Architecture's Distinguished Alumnus Award. Characteristically compelling people to fulfill their personal and professional potential, he entrusted pivotal management responsibility to former students Peter Brandow, AIA, ASLA, and Denis Kurutz, ASLA. His formal design office nurtured many who found "an extended family" where "continually the teacher, [Emmet] made his vision known in the critic's role." Captivated by Los Angeles and her history, he lived and worked in her midst with his wife Meg (an assistant to the Dean at the School of Architecture when they met), and housed his offices in a 1927 building downtown for 20 years, leading former principal Bill Millsap, ASLA, to suggest Emmet might have liked best to be remembered as simply "an Angeleno." Emmet died in June of complications following heart surgery. USC has noted a "touching response" for the "Emmet L. Wemple Endowment for Landscape Architecture Education" (USC School of Architecture, Watt-Harris Hall, # 204, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0291). Caption: Associated with distinctive architecture, Emmet Wemple, FASLA, was an "Architect's Landscape Architect." Photo courtesy of Meguila Seno Wemple. Joseph H. Linesch, FASLA (1924-1996) Joseph H. Linesch, FASLA, will be remembered for seeing "Landscape Architecture as an opportunity to influence and enrich society," said one peer in the ASLA. Proactively encouraging Landscape Architects to seek such opportunities, he was among the first to pursue areas like planning. His master plans--for Balboa and Los Penasquitos regional parks in San Diego; communities like Laguna Niguel, Rancho California, and the Bluffs Greenbelts in Newport Beach, Haystack Ranch (Colorado); and campuses at Cal Poly Pomona and Pepperdine University--expanded Landscape Architecture's role in resort planning and design. Probably best known for his work on resorts and theme parks worldwide, including at the original hotel at Disneyworld and the Beverly Hilton Hotel, he was himself most proud of his work at theme gardens which attracted diverse users--Busch Gardens (Van Nuys); the Queen Mary (Long Beach): Astroworld (Houston, TX); Hershey Park, PA; parts of the original Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT at Disneyworld. He was continually concerned not only with diverse plants and environments, but concerned with ensuring people of different cultures would enjoy the projects. Perhaps this is why he spent so much effort on gaining and protecting professional licensure, through which the profession enforces its standards of care, and helping in the effort to unite professionals of the American Institute of Landscape Architects with ASLA, and, as a founding member, serving on the Guidance Committee for the UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture Program until his death. Except for projects that took him out of state or abroad, Linesch raised his family and practiced in California his entire life--as a partner in private practice from the late 1950's to the 1970's. After working as Director of Landscape Architecture at Walt E. Disney Enterprises (1973-74) and as affiliating with The Peridian Group (1974-79), he returned to his own practice until June when he succumbed at 71, having suffered a stroke in the garden he loved. His wife of 44 years, five children, and five grandchildren ask that any donations be directed by check payable to "The Joseph H. Linesch Memorial Fund/St. Matthews" may be mailed to: The Parish of Saint Matthews, P.O. Box 37, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 Caption: Pictured with Bill Evans in 1982, Joe Linesch, FASLA, (left) promoted Landscape Architects' roles in planning. Photo courtesy of Robert Cardoza. Fred Lang, FASLA (1915-1996) In May, Frederick M. Lang, FASLA, was memorialized in the park in Laguna that bears his name. The German immigrant was trained at the Art Institute, Chicago, and drafted briefly in the office of Thomas Church, but was largely self-taught in Landscape Architecture, practicing from his South Laguna office from 1947, partnering with Kenneth Wood from 1968 to 1982, then affiliated with Ann Christoph until his death. An outstanding plantsman, he traveled extensively to observe Mediterranean climate plants in their native habitats, earning the 1986 Xeriscape Award for promotion and implementation of xeriscape principles. Having also pioneered drought-tolerant Mediterranean and native plants, environmental planning, and open space preservation to professionals and to enthusiastic students at the University of California, Irvine and Cal Poly Pomona, he was voted the Southern California Horticultural Institute's 1984 Horticulturalist of the Year. He consulted to the Los Angeles Arboretum and designed the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach, where the plant associations of the state of California are replicated. Now called Aldrich Park, the University of California, Irvine central campus park (in which he had a role in 1962-68) has become an enduring image of the school, whereas the campus of the Laguna Beach School of Art relates to the adjacent Laguna Greenbelt. Indeed, with the help of a volunteer design team he organized, the firm of Lang and Wood donated The General Plan for South Laguna that was the first such plan for Orange County which used a natural science based inventory and overlay system to produce a land use plan. Twenty years later, in 1991, the city of Laguna Beach named a park after him for his extensive service to the community in environmental issues and land planning and the Laguna Beach Guild awarded him the 1993 Lifetime Achievement Award for his efforts to preserve an extensive open space system surrounding Laguna Beach and South Laguna. Lang died of heart failure at 81. His wife and three daughters welcome memorial donations to Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. (1377 Lewellyn Dr.) or Laguna Beach Beautification Council c/o Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce (351 Glenneyre St.), both in Laguna Beach, CA 92651. Caption: Having advanced environ-mental open space planning, Fred Lang, FASLA, had a park named after him. Photo provided courtesy of Ann Christoph.