Herbert R. Schaal

Herbert R. Schaal (born 7 July 1940) is an American landscape architect, educator, and firm leader notable for the broad range and diversity of his projects, including regional studies, national parks, corporate and university campuses, site planning, botanical gardens, downtowns, highways, cemeteries, and public and private gardens.[1] Schaal is one of the first landscape architects to design children's gardens, beginning in the 1990s with Gateway Elementary, Gateway Middle, and Gateway Michael Elementary school grounds in St. Louis, Missouri, the Hershey Children's Garden at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, and Red Butte Garden and Arboretum.[2]

Red Butte Garden2

Early life

Schaal grew up in Oakland, California, where he spent many hours in the neighborhood empty lot exploring nature, digging tunnels, and building forts.[3] His connection to nature deepened as a Boy Scout and camp counselor.[4] He was also influenced at an early age by his father, Rudolf J. Schaal, a landscape architect who emigrated from Germany in the 1930s. As a teenager, Schaal accompanied his father to job sites and learned the craft of shaping the ground, building structures, and planting.[5] After high school, Schaal attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and received the Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture degree in 1962.

Career
Denver Botanic Gardens-20
Little pond Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens - DSC03163
General view - San Francisco Botanical Garden - DSC09831

Schaal's first year of practice was for Kenneth R. Anderson Associates in California. In 1964, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to work for his former instructor, Richard Moore. Moore had become the chair of the landscape architecture department at North Carolina State University's School of Design and principal of his private practice office, Megatech.

In 1966, Schaal accepted a full-time teaching position at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where he earned a master's degree in landscape architecture four years later. He taught design and graphics with an emphasis on using perspective drawing as part of the design process. He developed the “Proportional Method of Perspective Drawing,”[6] which was subsequently taught in American landscape architecture programs.[7] This method is described in Nicholas Dines’ book, Landscape Perspective Drawing, where the author recounts a meeting over coffee with Schaal in the 1970s where Schaal “sketched a one-point perspective depth proportioning system on a table napkin that eliminated the need to project from a measured plan.”[8]

In 1970, Schaal joined the San Francisco office of Eckbo Dean Austin and Williams, later known as EDAW. His first project used geographic information system technology and an association with Jack Dangermond, founder of Esri, to site a power plant and transmission lines for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Davenport Project near Santa Cruz, California. This project established a new service for the firm which led to many large area siting studies. Schaal was then recognized as an authority on utility siting and later became an associate author of a text book on the subject.[9]

In 1974, desiring a more rural lifestyle for his family Schaal moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he acquired the High Meadows Ranch near Rocky Mountain National Park and established EDAW’s Rocky Mountain Office.[10] As an EDAW principal, vice president, and board member for 18 years, he played a role in the firm's growth from 4 to 32 offices worldwide.

In 1980, Schaal began providing planning and design services for the Denver Botanic Gardens, including the design of the Alpine Rock Garden, which was recognized by Garden Design Magazine as the “premier example of the art of rock gardening in North America”[11] and national park projects including work for three of the most prestigious parks: Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park. During this period, Schaal also established and directed the EDAW Summer Student Program at his High Meadows Ranch, which for over 25 years, recruited promising landscape architecture students from universities to participate in real national and international projects with EDAW principals.[12] The American Society of Landscape Architects recognized the importance of the program in 2000 with the Landscape Architecture Award of Excellence.[13] Under Schaal's guidance EDAW’s Rocky Mountain Office grew to over 40 employees in various disciplines addressing a wide range of award-winning projects, including parks of all scales, zoos, botanical gardens, urban design, trails, waterfronts, highways and streetscapes, office parks, and environmental studies.[14]

Schaal stepped down from overseeing the office in 1988 and concentrated his efforts on sustainable planning and design of university campuses, public gardens, and private estates. During this period, he completed dozens of projects at Washington University in Saint Louis. Building on his experience with the Denver Botanic Gardens, he created master plans and designed gardens for over 20 botanical gardens and arboretums nationwide, including the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. In the design of children’s environments, Schaal is credited with systematically including all five senses and applying Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.[15] Schaal has designed “over 20 unique children’s gardens across the country,”[16] including at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, the first public children's garden to be Platinum certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED);[17] the 4-acre children's garden at Morton Arboretum;[18] and the Olson Family Roof Garden at St. Louis Children's Hospital, a horticultural therapy garden.[19] Schaal's sustainable design work related to estates is typified by projects like Mark Rockefeller’s Eagle Rock Ranch and South Fork Lodge in Swan Valley, Idaho where Schaal was asked “to spearhead long-term improvements and environmental restoration” including “the creation of a submerged wetland wastewater treatment system” adjacent to the Snake River.[20] After EDAW was acquired by AECOM in 2005, Schaal remained as a principal. He continued his work on public gardens including an ambitious master plan and innovative memorial garden design for the 300-acre historic Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.[21]

Schaal retired from AECOM in 2012 and spends most of time gardening, painting, consulting, and managing the forest at his High Meadows Ranch. The American Society of Landscape Architects has recognized his work with more than 60 regional and national awards. In 2008 Schaal was named Designer of the Year by the American Horticultural Society, which “established him as one of the most acclaimed contemporary landscape architects.”[22] His work has been characterized by evocative drawings, on-site collaborative workshops, orderly assemblies of environmental decision-making factors, attention to sustainability, and sense of place.[23] Schaal's drawings, design and planning reports, publications, and project photography are archived at the North Carolina State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center.[24]

Family

Schaal married Cynthia J. Lechner in 1990. He had four children from his previous marriage to Diane E. Neill: Heather D. Schaal, Outdoor Recreation Professional (deceased); Daniel E. Schaal, Physical Therapist; Edward (Ted) Schaal, Sculptor; and Nancy P. Schaal-McHarry, English Language Development Specialist.

Selected projects

Campus and Institutional

Cemeteries

Children's Gardens

Corporate Facilities

Healing and Contemplative Gardens

Land Planning

Major Siting Studies

Municipal Parks

Public Gardens

Regional, State, and Federal Parks

Residential

Restoration

Sustainable Design

Trails

Transportation

Visual Analysis

Urban Design

Zoological Parks

Selected awards

Publications
  • “Denver Botanic Gardens Design and Master Plan” The Bulletin, American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, Vol. 13, No.2 (1979): 45.
  • “The Alpine and Rock Garden” The Bulletin, American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, Vol. 13, No.2 (1979): pp. 45–51.
  • The Rose Garden” The Bulletin, American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, Vol. 13, No.2 (1979): 51.Siting of Major Facilities (associate author, 1983): ISBN 978-0070704206
  • “In the Overall Design of Private Gardens” Rocky Mountain Alpines (1986): 256 ISBN 978-0600307433
  • “Disturbed Landscapes” Time-Saver Standards for Landscape Architecture, Second Edition (1998): 640 ISBN 978-0070170278
  • “A Place of Solace: Massey Cancer Center Healing Garden” Journal of Chinese Landscape Architecture, Vol. 31, No. 1 (2015): pp. 24–29.

References
  1. Herb Schaal Landscape Architecture Papers at North Carolina State University Special Collections Research Center https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00622/summary
  2. Leslie McGuire; Carrie Gregory (August 2008). "Using All Eight Intelligences Profile: Herb Schaal, FASLA, Founding Principal of EDAW Fort Collins". Landscape Architect and Specifier News. 24 (8): 43–50. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  3. Liang, Lisl (31 December 2007). "Outside". SRQ, Sarasota's Premier Magazine.
  4. Herb Schaal Oral History and Lecture at North Carolina State University Special Collections Research Center https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00615
  5. James, Libby (December 2008). "Bellvue landscape architect wins prestigious award". North Forty News.
  6. Schaal, Herbert R. (1970). The Proportional Method: A New Method of Linear Perspective for the Landscape Architect. Syracuse, N.Y.
  7. Verdon, Dorothy J. (October–December 2001). "The Best and Brightest Landscape Architects, Profile Herbert R. Schaal, FASLA". Building Stone Magazine: 10.
  8. Dines, Nicholas T. (1990). Landscape Perspective Drawing. McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0070170070.
  9. Edward A. Williams; Alison K. Massa; David H. Blau (associate author); Herbert R. Schaal (associate author) (1983). Siting of Major Facilities: A Practical Approach. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0070704206.
  10. Schaal, Herbert R. (July 1980). "The Pursuit of Practice in a Small Rockies Town". Landscape Architecture, the Magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects: 379–381.
  11. Denver Botanic Gardens (Fall 1997). "Rock Alpine Garden". Mountain, Plain and Garden. 54 (2): 30–31.
  12. Keith, John (March 1982). "What School Doesn't Teach". Landscape Architecture, the Magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects: 75–77.
  13. "Honors & Awards". American Society of Landscape Architects.
  14. James, Libby (December 2008). "Bellvue landscape architect wins prestigious award". North Forty News.
  15. Leslie McGuire; Carrie Gregory (August 2008). "Using All Eight Intelligences Profile: Herb Schaal, FASLA, Founding Principal of EDAW Fort Collins". Landscape Architect and Specifier News. 24 (8): 43–50. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  16. Liang, Lisl (31 December 2007). "Outside". SRQ, Sarasota's Premier Magazine.
  17. Tai, Lolly (2017). The Magic of Children's Gardens: Inspiring Through Creative Design. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1439914472.
  18. McGuire, Leslie (February 2006). "The Best Backyard in the World". Landscape Architect and Specifier News.
  19. Ostafi, Mary (Winter 2001). "Therapeutic Landscapes: Green Roofs provide natural medicine when designed for horticultural therapy – just ask those who have benefited from the healing garden at St. Louis Children's Hospital in Missouri". Living Architecture Monitor: 16–21.
  20. Trulsson, Nora Burba (March–April 2007). "Outside Possibilities: ASLA Award-Winning Landscapes Showcase Creativity and Conservation". Sources + Design Magazine.
  21. Naffziger, Chris (28 May 2015). "A Tour of Bellefontaine Cemetery's New Wildwood Valley Gardens". St. Louis Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  22. "AHS 2008 Great American Gardeners National Award Winners". The American Gardener. 87 (2): 14. March–April 2008.
  23. Sorvig, Kim (October 2005). "Drawing the Experience of Place". Landscape Architecture, the Magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects: 170–178.
  24. Herb Schaal Landscape Architecture Papers at North Carolina State University Special Collections Research Center https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00622/summary
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