Martha Schwartz

Martha Schwartz
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Michigan
Occupation Landscape Architect
Organization Martha Schwartz Partners
Website www.marthaschwartz.com

Martha Schwartz, (born 1950), is an American landscape architect. Her background in fine arts and landscape architecture has contributed to the rise of more expressive landscapes and public spaces within cities around the world.[1] Schwartz's work challenges conventional landscape aesthetics through influences such as Pop Art, Land Art and sculptors such as Isamu Noguchi. Schwartz's projects range from art installations to private gardens, urban scale parks, waterfront parks, and urban master plans. She studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Michigan. Her practice, Martha Schwartz Partners or MSP has offices in London, New York, and Beijing. Schwartz currently teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Design as Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture.[2]

Having had over 30 years of experience as a landscape architect and artist, she has received a number of highly regarded awards and prizes including the Cooper-Hewitt Museum National Design Award[3] for her body of work in Landscape Architecture, an honorary fellowship[4] from RIBA, several design awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects,[5] and visiting residencies[6] at Radcliffe College and the American Academy in Rome, although accolades in the art world continue to evade her work.

The full list of awards for MSP is:

Awards

Grand Canal Square at Hanover Quay: a red-and-green experience by Martha Schwartz

Her practice aims to create landscapes that speak to the public about being human and that communicate ideas, as she believes that landscape should reflect who we are and who we want to be. Her design approach has been characterised by striking and highly colourful projects such as the Grand Canal Square in Dublin, Ireland, hard landscape projects like Exchange Square in Manchester, England and more architectural installations such as the City and Nature installation in Xi'an, China but what is perhaps less well known and rather overshadowed are the more naturalistic projects such as Yorkville Park in Toronto, Canada by Schwartz in collaboration with Ken Smith and her then husband Peter Walker, and Geraldton Tailings Landscape in Canada as well as MSP's more transformative community based projects such as the Monte-Laa-Park which converted an eight lane highway into a new neighbourhood park for residents of an ethnically diverse area of Monte Laa Vienna, Austria.

Notable Projects

Noted for her exploration of new design expression in the landscape, Schwartz’s projects span the globe; from her Dublin Docklands project in Ireland to the Children’s Discovery Centre[7] in Damascus, Syria, Schwartz’s project portfolio is extremely diverse. Recent and current projects include: Leamouth Peninsula,[8] London, UK; Wellington Place,[9] Leeds, UK; St Mary’s Churchyard, London, UK; Cosmopolitan Casino,[10] Las Vegas, USA; Frederiks Brygge Master Plan, Copenhagen, Denmark; Qatar Petroleum Headquarters,[11] Doha, Qatar; Al Ain Sports City, Al Ain, UAE; Mesa Arts Center,[12] Arizona, USA; Master Plan for Lulu Island, UAE, Jacob Javits Convention Center Plaza,[13] New York City, USA, Deptarment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),[14] Washington, USA, Rio Shopping Center (1988-2000), Atlanta, USA and many others.

In the news

In 2008 Schwartz took on old friend Will Alsop in a promotional video challenging his negative views of the profession of Landscape Architecture.

Schwartz has featured in the The Daily Telegraph[15] following her views on the way in which Britain’s obsession with gardens is holding back the country’s public spaces. Schwartz argued that unless Britain separates its gardens from its public spaces, the country will fall behind other European cities.

Further reading

Tim Richardson, The Vanguard Landscapes and Gardens of Martha Schwartz[16] (2004) ISBN 978-0-500-51131-2

References

  1. ↑ "Q&A WITH LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT MARTHA SCHWARTZ". Newsweek.
  2. ↑ "Martha Schwartz - Harvard Graduate School of Design".
  3. ↑ "Cooper-Hewitt Announces Winners of the Seventh Annual National Design Awards". 12 June 2006.
  4. ↑ "Building of the Year: RIBA Stirling Prize - All 4".
  5. ↑ "MARTHA SCHWARTZ".
  6. ↑ http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/faculty/schwartz/cv.html
  7. ↑ "WAN:: Massar Children's Discovery Centre by Henning Larsen Architects in Damascus, Syria".
  8. ↑ "Leamouth Peninsula Approved - Article #942".
  9. ↑ "Mace scores a hat trick at Wellington Place in Leeds".
  10. ↑ http://www.condohotelcenter.com/industry-news/in76.htm
  11. ↑ http://www.scapemagazine.com/documents/scape1a.pdf
  12. ↑ http://www.mesaartscenter.com/centerNews.htm
  13. ↑ "AT HOME WITH/Martha Schwartz; Making Landscapes Pop". The New York Times. 21 December 2000.
  14. ↑ "HUD building up for landmarking".
  15. ↑ Correspondent, By Louise Gray, Environment. "English obsession with gardening 'prevents improvement of public parks', claims Harvard professor".
  16. ↑ Richardson, Tim; Schwartz, Martha (13 April 2004). "The Vanguard Landscapes and Gardens of Martha Schwartz". Thames and Hudson Ltd – via Amazon.
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