James van Sweden, FASLA (Feb. 5, 1935"?u September 20, 2013)

Oehme, van Sweden & Associates Inc. received a 2008, ASLA residential design Honor Award for this "Costal Island Retreat," Spring Island, South Carolina. The meadow was cleared (burned) three times before replanting with fields of native grasses including Andropogon, Sorghastrum and Panicum. The lead designer was Sheila Brady, FASLA, with senior associate Robert Hruby. Photo: James van Sweden

James van Sweden, FASLA, passed away at his home in Washington, D.C., September 20, 2013. Van Sweden suffered from Parkinson's disease.

James Anthony van Sweden was the son of a builder contractor and grew up in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he went to school, a life he recalls as a "very narrow Christian" one, going to three services each Sunday, taking piano lesson, but discouraged from such activities as dancing and listening to popular music. As a youth he was aware of the flora of the Midwest, enjoying walking out on the railroad tracks past the meadows and on the dunes bordering Lake Michigan.

He attended Wheaton College in Grand Rapids, where he made up his mind to study architecture at the University of Michigan. After graduating with a degree in architecture, he knew he wanted to be an urban designer. He was encouraged to study landscape architecture, which he did under the tutelage of Bill Johnson, from whom he learned to draw, and from Walt Chambers and Chuck Harris. He was encouraged by his professors to do postgraduate work in city planning in the Netherlands, which he did at Delft University, bringing with him his new bride and fellow architect, Linda.

He returned to the U.S. in 1963, finding work as a landscape architect in a Washington, D.C., becoming a partner within a year, and staying for 13 years.

Van Sweden and the late Wolfgang Oehme founded Oehme van Sweden Landscape Architecture in 1977. The duo is credited with creating the "New American Garden." That vision, in their words, was to "free plants from forced and artificial forms and allow them to seek a natural course as they weave a tapestry across the entire garden plane." Their gardens promoted the splendor of meadows, "layered masses of foliage" with native grasses, perennials and complementary hardscapes.

Their work can be seen in Washington, D.C. at the Treasury Building; the National Gallery of Art; the National Arboretum; the Federal Reserve Building; National World War II Memorial; Ronald Reagan National Airport; Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial; and Francis Scott Key Park (Georgetown). Their work is present in New York City at Battery Park City, Hudson River Park, and also in Minneapolis.

Van Sweden was an innovative designer, a lecturer and prolific writer of garden works: Gardening With Nature; Gardening with Water: How James van Sweden and Wolfgang Oehme Plant Fountains, Lily Pools, Swimming Pools, Ponds. He was also a co-author of a number of books: The Artful Garden: Creative Inspiration for Landscape Design (with Tom Christopher); The Garden Source: Inspirational Design Ideas for Gardens and Landscapes (with Andrea Jones); Architecture in the Garden (with Tom Christopher and Penelope Hobhouse); Bold Romantic Gardens: The New World Landscapes of Oehme and Van Sweden (with Wolfgang Oehme); and The Gardens of Frank Lloyd Wright (with Derek Fell).

ASLA named him to its Council of Fellows in 1993.

Van Sweden did an oral history for the Cultural Landscape Foundation, in which he relates his background, becoming a landscape architect and his ideas on design https://tclf.org/oral-history/james-van-sweden.