24 August 2010

Go See DC: Dumbarton Oaks

(NOTE: This is re-purposed from an old post, in honor of the RU LA Fall Field Trip to DC)

A while back,  Harvard Magazine featured one of Harvard's finest properties, Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, DC. As detailed in the article, Dumbarton Oaks is both a phenomenally historic house and one of the classic American landscapes. Designed by Beatrix Farrand, Dumbarton Oaks is maintained by Harvard as a key home for the humanities. The house was home to John C. Calhoun, has been modified by Phillip Johnson, hosted a meeting where the UN was essentially created and holds a fabulous library of LA history works and pre-Columbian art.

Every time we take our LA students to DC we stop to visit Farrand's incredible gardens, which function as an interconnected series of rooms. The structure of the spaces and the incredible grace with which the gardens have aged are a testimony to Farrand's deserved place in the annals of American landscape architecture. These photos are all from the most recent Fall Field Trip.



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