Miller House (Columbus, Indiana) - Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architecture

Saarinen brought in landscape architect Dan Kiley, with whom he had worked on the St. Louis Gateway Arch. Kiley wanted the landscape to be an extension of the home, loosely divided into four sections extending from the corresponding sections of the house, each with its own identity. The Miller House is an example of residential landscape design that puts a modernist face on formal European gardens, which rely on symmetry and geometry.

The plot of land, bounded by the Flatrock River on the west and Washington Street on the east, measures about 13.5 acres. Kiley left the long meadow that sweeps toward the river largely untouched, choosing to focus his attention on shaping spaces around the house. Much of the vegetation, like the weeping beeches on the west side of the house, were placed there strategically to protect living areas from natural intruders like sun and wind.

An allée of horse chestnut trees lines the entry drive, which reveals the house slowly as one approaches. The Miller's did not want their home to be an imposing object in the landscape from the entrance of their property or from their neighbor's homes. Gridded blocks of apple trees are present on the lawn farther east. The easternmost edge of the property is planted with staggered blocks of arborvitae, creating a hedge that serves as a porous boundary. The garden areas to the north of the house were originally planted with redbuds, which were later replaced with crabapples. In the southwest corner there is a swimming pool also surrounded by arborvitae hedges.

One of the most notable features of the landscape design is the allée of honey locust trees that runs along the west side of the house which frames the view of the meadow and the river beyond it. The allée received a terminus at each end in subsequent years: Henry Moore’s Draped Reclining Woman at the north end, and a bas relief by Jacques Lipchitz at the south. As part of a landscape renovation conducted by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. of Cambridge, MA, the Honey Locust allée was replanted in the Spring of 2008. The iconic Moore sculpture was sold and removed from garden following Xenia Miller's death in 2008.