Conceiving a Courtyard

Marc Pally Conceiving a Courtyard The three proposals for the Pasadena Police Building Public Art Project represent a range of individual approaches to the integration of landscape architecture and public art, and they provide insight into several current directions in the creation of public art. The competition sponsor, The Pasadena Arts Commission, required that each sub­ mission be prepared collaboratively by teams composed of artists and landscape archi­ tects. Prior to the extreme specialization of the modern age such professional distinctions would have been rare. One individual might embody the skills and insights now divided among a number of disciplines, and fine arts and design arts were not regarded as independent activities. Including the perspective of artists in the process of designing specific projects and in creating design plans is a relatively recent practice. Only during the last decade has The Pasadena Police Building Public Art Project was a competition staged last year by the Pasadena Arts Commission. Places invited the threefinalist,teams —each consisting of a land­ scape architect and an artist —to comment on how collaboration influenced their proposals. The winners were Douglas Campbell, Regula Campbell and Robert Irwin. The other finalists were Martin Puryear and Michael Van Valke?iburgh, and Andrew Leicester and Thomas R. Oslund. Places also asked jurors Donlyn Lyndon and Marc Pally to comment on the competition. The competition was organized by Joyce Chambers Selber, then the City's execu­ tive director for the arts. public art begun to emerge as a coherent and distinct discipline within a family that includes the fine arts; sculpture and its dependent, environmental or site-specific art; architecture; landscape architecture; and city planning. There are numerous levels of collaboration. In some instances, the roles of the indi­ vidual design team members are clearly revealed; in others, the working process is so collaborative and integrated that it is virtually impossible to assign specific elements or ideas to specific team members. Proposals for the Police Building courtyard were more representative of the latter mode and thus are particularly worth discussing. Despite its geographic location in the Los Angeles region, Pasadena is an indepen­ dent city with an independent mind set. While the region is generally characterized as future-obsessed, Pasadena respects its traditions, historical buildings and civic designs. The three proposals respond to the city's history, climate and topography; some are more direct than others, but each acknowledges the courtyard as one in a series of many courtyards that have provided resting and restful places within the history of Pasadena. It is possible to see three generic forms among the proposals. Douglas and Regula Campbell and Robert Irwin (the competition winners) pursued an approach dependent on color and a few key elements emphasizing mood and a composition flirting with nat-