Warren H. Manning
Encyclopedia
American Society of Landscape Architects
The American Society of Landscape Architects is the national professional association representing landscape architects, with more than 17,000 members in 48 chapters, representing all 50 states, U.S. territories, and 42 countries around the world, plus 68 student chapters...
and a proponent of the National Park System.
History
Warren H. Manning was born in Reading, MassachusettsReading, Massachusetts
Reading is an affluent town situated in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, some north of central Boston. The population was 24,747 at the 2010 census.-Settlement and Independence:...
, to Jacob Warren Manning, who owned and operated a nursery. It was here that Manning developed an extensive knowledge of plant materials. Jacob Manning nourished his son’s interest in horticulture by including him on botanical expeditions and visits to other nurseries including the Downing nursery, owned by Charles Downing, brother of Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing was an American landscape designer, horticulturalist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival style in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine...
(Karson, 2000). Manning also credited his mother, Lydia, a watercolorist, for his appreciation of the smaller details found in nature by exposing him to the home garden, pointing out “birds, flowers, toads, butterflies and beetles (Karson, 1997). Manning wrote that he “modeled in sand and mud hills, valleys, tunnels, houses, roads, and gardens with pools” (Karson, 1997). In 1884, this exposure, coupled with the internship experience at his father’s nursery, led to his desire to make “America a finer place in which to live” (Karson, 1997) and to choose landscape design as a profession.
By 1884, the 26 year old Manning was designing landscapes for James Warren Manning’s customers. During his time as an apprentice, Manning furthered his plant knowledge while attending Harvard’s Olmsted designed Arnold Arboretum for Saturday study sessions, foreshadowing what would eventually be one of Manning’s greatest influences. During this time, Manning also found time to go on plant hunting trips in the White Mountains (New Hampshire)
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...
(Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens 2007).
In 1885, Manning married his wife, Nellie Hamblin Pratt. Three years later, he left his father’s nursery pursuing his goal, seeking the company of the “most eminent man in the landscape profession" (Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens 2007). His searching landed him in the office of one of the most influential landscape architects his time; Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
Biltmore Estate
Biltmore House is a Châteauesque-styled mansion near Asheville, North Carolina, built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. It is the largest privately-owned home in the United States, at and featuring 250 rooms...
of George Vanderbilt in Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
and extensive park designs in Milwaukee, Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, Rochester
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Trenton
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Initially signed on as planting supervisor, his extensive horticultural knowledge quickly expanded his function at the firm, and during his eight year employment, he participated in 125 projects in 22 states. While working under Olmstead, Manning gained invaluable experience in planned industrial settings, which would play a key role in his later career. While working with Charles Eliot, a partner at the firm, on the Boston Metropolitan Park System, Manning was exposed to thorough and extensive research of a site and the method of overlaying sketches of topography, roads, water features, etc. over sketches of vegetation (Karson 2000). This method of resource-planning would be used over and over in Manning’s career.
In 1896, Manning left the Olmsted office to begin his own business on Tremont Street near the Boston Common. Aware that Frederick Olmsted Sr. would pass his business on to both of his sons and partner Charles Eliot, Manning decided to start out on his own (Karson, 2000). When Manning left the firm, Olmsted allowed him to take about 15 jobs with him; one of these clients was William Gwinn Mather. Mather heartily supported Manning and would employ him on sixty design and planning projects throughout their lives including the design of his home near Cleveland, Ohio (Karson, 1997). Now completely in charge, Manning was able to pursue designs of styles that interested him. This was largely a 18th century English romantic style, adapted to the American landscape. The product of which was a sprawling, natural design, littered with native plants (Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens 2007).
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, where he worked on a new design for the city. He recommended a radical resource-based plan which included “multiple neighborhood-based centers determined by available resources” (Karson, 2001). He also makes note of the importance of parks throughout the city stating that “the cities that are best designed have about one-eight of their area in parks and about one acre to 75 people” (Manning, 1919). This approach was in direct contrast to the then popular City Beautiful movement
City Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
which emphasized monumental civic centers and Beaux Arts architecture style public buildings (Karson, 2001). The architectural design of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was based in the City Beautiful movement, but now, on his own, Manning decided on a different course following his own landscape theories which were based on the natural available resources. This idea was the basis for his creation of the “wild garden” which he applied to many of his landscape designs.
During his career, Manning worked on more than 1700 projects including a number of park designs, private estates, city planning, college campuses, subdivisions, golf courses, and government and community projects. Manning’s brother joined him as a business partner between 1901 and 1904. Bryant Fleming
Bryant Fleming
Bryant Fleming was a Buffalo, New York-born landscape architect. He graduated from Cornell University in 1901, where he studied horticulture, architecture, architectural history, and art...
(1877-1946) worked for him during this period. Together they created a revolutionary park design for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania utilizing a new drainage and sanitation system. During the Depression years Manning’s practice did not do well and by the 1930s he was receiving very little commissions. In 1938, Manning died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-eight (Karson, 2001). His remaining papers are collected at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
University of Massachusetts Lowell
The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public university in Lowell, Massachusetts, and part of the University of Massachusetts system...
and Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
. A State Forest located in Billerica, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, on land he donated, is named for him.
Manning's "wild gardens"
Early on in his career, Manning went against the then popular formalistic approach to landscape design and emphasized a more naturalistic approach of native plants and naturalistic groupings. The formal gardens of the late nineteenth century relied heavily on a more symmetrical design and an extensive use of ornament. Manning describes his wild gardening as “that form of floriculture which is concerned with planting in a nature-like manner colonies of hardy plants that require a minimum of care” (Karson, 2001). In his early, unpublished essay “The Nature Garden,” Manning writes:- I would have you give your thoughts to a new type of gardening wherein the Landscaper recognizes, first, the beauty of existing conditions and develops this beauty to the minutest detail by the elimination of material that is out of place in a development scheme by selective thinning, grubbing, and trimming, instead of by destroying all natural ground cover vegetation or modifying the contour, character, and water context of existing soil.
This idea of selective thinning and pruning was at the core of Manning’s landscape theory. He celebrated the smallest details in the landscape, emphasizing lichens and fungi in his design, which was contrary to his counterparts and unusual for this time in landscape design.
Gwinn: wild garden
In 1907, William Gwinn Mather, owner of Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, asked Manning, along with Charles A. PlattCharles A. Platt
Charles Adams Platt was a prominent artist, landscape gardener, landscape designer, and architect of the "American Renaissance" movement. His garden designs complemented his domestic architecture.-Early career:...
to design his property outside of Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. Manning and Platt were hired to work together, but often with conflicting landscape designs for the same property. Platt, a more formalist designer, emphasized paths, gates and other architectural elements while Manning based his designs on the “wild garden” approach (Karson, 1995). Manning inventoried the site’s pre-existing plants, and with selective pruning and thinning, created graceful planting groupings and spaces. Manning also shipped plants in from neighboring states including wildflowers from Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
and rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
s from North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
(Karson, 2004). In 1912, Mather bought another large piece of property adjacent to the Cleveland location, at which Manning designed another “wild garden.”
Privately held since 2007, Gwinn is not open to the public. http://tclf.org/landscapes/gwinn-estate
Notable contributions
In 1899, three years after leaving the firm of Olmsted Sr., Manning wrote Eliot, seeking help in creating a professional organization for landscape architects. Eliot, however, was more interested in creating a public association. The final product of this idea would become the American Civic Association. After this was founded, Manning returned to his desire to create a professional organization. With the help of the Olmsted BrothersOlmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was an influential landscape design firm in the United States, formed in 1898 by stepbrothers John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. .-History:...
, 11 charter members of the American Society of Landscape Architects
American Society of Landscape Architects
The American Society of Landscape Architects is the national professional association representing landscape architects, with more than 17,000 members in 48 chapters, representing all 50 states, U.S. territories, and 42 countries around the world, plus 68 student chapters...
met for the first time in 1899 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1914, Manning would serve as president (Karson 2000).
In addition to being an influential landscape architect, Warren H. Manning was also an avid writer and proponent of the conservation of America’s wilderness. As such, Manning worked on a large mapping project (1915-1916) and wrote a “National Plan” which advocated for the conservation of American’s lands.
Projects
Residential- William Gwinn Mather-Cleveland, OH
- F.A. and Gertrude Seiberling-Stan Hywet Hall and GardensStan Hywet Hall and GardensStan Hywet Hall & Gardens is a notable country estate, with gardens, located at 714 North Portage Path in Akron, Ohio. It ranks seventh on the list of largest houses in the United States....
, Akron, OH, one of the finest examples of his work remaining, open to the public http://www.stanhywet.org/ - Gustave Pabst- Milwaukee, WI
- August and Adolphus Busch-St Louis,IL
- Cyrus and Harriet McCormick-Lake Forest, IL
- J.J. Borland-Camden, ME
- Hill-Stead MuseumHill-Stead MuseumHill-Stead Museum, also known as Hill-Stead, is a Colonial Revival house and art museum in Farmington, Connecticut, USA. It is best known for its French Impressionist masterpieces, architecture, and stately grounds.-House and museum:...
, Farmington, ConnecticutFarmington, ConnecticutFarmington is a town located in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census. It is home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Carrier Corporation, Otis Elevator Company, and Carvel... - Clement GriscomClement GriscomClement Acton Griscom was a prominent American Quaker businessman and nineteenth century shipping magnate.-Biography:...
-Haverford, PA
Park systems
- Wilcox ParkWilcox ParkWilcox Park is a park and arboretum located at 71 ½ High Street, Westerly, Rhode Island. It is open to the public at all times, without fee, and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973 as Wilcox Park Historic District...
- Westerly, Rhode Island (Memorial and Library Association of Westerly), RI - Milwaukee, WI
- Minneapolis, MN
- Providence, RI
- Louisville, KY
- Cincinnati, OH
- Pennsylvania
Communities
- Raleigh, NC - Longview Gardens
- Gwinn, MI
- Mountain Brook, AL
Boulevards
- Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, FL - Biscayne boulevard