James C. Rose - Social Movements

Social Movements

James C. Rose was one of the pioneers of modernism in landscape architecture. While attending Harvard, Rose and his classmates, Garrett Eckbo and Dan Kiley, rebelled against the conventional landscape theory and designs. He refused to conform to the formal style of Beaux-Arts architecture; he saw the landscapes as much more than a pastoral setting for modern buildings. Rose and his classmates fueled the social movement of modernism in Landscape architecture. They teamed up to write several articles about their cause. Through these publications in the Pencil Point magazine, now called Progressive Architecture, and other later articles and books, Rose was able to spread his view on landscape theory and design. Rose also took a stand against the emerging American suburbia and urban planning. He believed these ordered, inorganic projects were useless for domestic living and were degrading to the environment. Rose wrote about suburbia and urban planning in his first book Creative Gardens and also in several published articles.