Ruth Shellhorn

Ruth Patricia Shellhorn (1909-2006) was a Los Angeles-based landscape architect of the post-war era. She is known for the development of the "Southern California Look".[1][2] With a focus on indoor/outdoor living, she incorporated topography and nature into urban settings to create sustainable landscapes in her designs for residences, retail, city and regional parks, universities, and colleges.[1][2][3] She was the Los Angeles Times 1955's woman of the year.[4]

External video
“Ruth Shellhorn: Midcentury Landscape Design in Southern California”, ALH North America by Design series

Her work on the Shoreline Development Study became a precedent for development along the California Coast.[5][6][2] She designed Bullock's department store,[7] the Fashion Square shopping centers at Santa Ana, Sherman Oaks, La Habra and Del Amo in Torrance.[8] In 1956 she was hired by Walt Disney to create a comprehensive pedestrian circulation system for Disneyland, establishing central landscaping elements of the park.[5][8]

Early life and education
Aerial view of Disneyland, Anaheim, California, 1963.

Shellhorn was born on September 21, 1909 and grew up in Pasadena. Her father was a dentist and her mother volunteered at numerous civic and city beautifying organization. Her parents encouraged her to pursue a profession that used both her mathematical skills and her artistic mind.[9] Her neighbor, landscape architect Florence Yoch inspired her and recommended that she become a landscape architect.[1]

After high school, Shellhorn attended the School of Landscape Architecture at Oregon Agricultural State College from 1927 to 1930. While she was there, she was the first woman to win the Alpha Zeta Scholarship Cup. She also won an award in a national Beaux-Arts design competition.[9]

In 1930 she transferred to Cornell University, where she took engineering and architecture classes. She was the only woman in her class of six in the Department of Landscape Architecture. She originally did not receive her degree, she was considered 4 units short. However in 2005, Shellhorn’s records were reviewed by Cornell and she was awarded degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture.[10]

When she returned to Southern California in 1933, she was one the rare designers to be professionally trained which distinguished her from most male practitioners.[1]

Works
Name City US State/

Country

 Completed Other Information Image
Bullock's[11] Pasadena California 1947 Landscape Architect
Disneyland[12] Anaheim California 1945 Designed pedestrian circulation
University of California Riverside[13] Riverside California 1956 Designed expansion of campus
Western Home Office,

Prudential Insurance Company[14]

 Los Angeles California 1948 Landscape Architect

Shellhorn was also a major advocate for Land Studies. She spent two years working with the Shoreline Development Study for the Greater Los Angeles Citizens Committee. She focused on bringing restrictions on oil drilling in Santa Monica Bay, a precedent for the goals of the later-enacted California Coastal Act, an advocate for the use of public funding for recreation and parkland acquisition. The study also set precedent for Los Angelos's first sewage treatment plant.[9]

[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]

References
  1. Motika, Libby (May 18, 2016). "Shellhorn Pioneered Landscape Ideas". Palisades News. Retrieved 2 April 2018. she counted on her excellent and elite education (most practitioners had come up through apprenticeships at nurseries)
  2. Comras, Kelly (April 1, 2016). Ruth Shellhorn. Masters of Modern Landscape Design Series. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press; Library of American Landscape History. ISBN 978-0820349633.
  3. Kaplan, Wendy (2012). Introduction: Living a Modern Way. Cambridge: The MIT Press. p. 33.
  4. "Kelly Comras Lecture on Ruth Shellhorn". www.robinsongardens.org. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  5. "Ruth Shellhorn". The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  6. Dümpelmann, Sonja; Beardsley, John (April 2, 2015). Women, Modernity, and Landscape Architecture. Routledge. p. 172. ISBN 978-0415745871.
  7. "Ruth Shellhorn: Midcentury Landscape Design in Southern California". Library of American Landscape History. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  8. Noland, Claire (2006-11-12). "Ruth Shellhorn, 97; landscape architect for Bullock's, Disneyland". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
  9. "Ruth Shellhorn | The Cultural Landscape Foundation". tclf.org. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  10. "Shellhorn, Ruth Patricia – BWAF Dynamic National Archive". dna.bwaf.org. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  11. "Macy's | Los Angeles Conservancy". www.laconservancy.org. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  12. "The Book of Ruth - Part 1 - Disney History Institute". Disney History Institute. 2012-12-04. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  13. Ruth Shellhorn: Midcentury Landscape Design in Southern California, retrieved 2018-04-06
  14. "PCAD - Prudential Insurance Company of America, Prudential Square Building, Los Angeles, CA". pcad.lib.washington.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  15. Williams, Edward A. (1967). "Urban Design and the Landscape Architect". Journal of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architects. 31 (1): 2–5. doi:10.5632/jila1934.31.2. ISSN 2185-3053.
  16. Rome, R. C. (2002-01-01). "Pioneers of American Landscape Design edited by Charles A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson. 2000. New York: McGraw-Hill. xxiii + 474 pages, 450 illustrations, appendices, $59.95 hardbound. ISBN 0-07-134420-9". Landscape Journal. 21 (1): 225–227. doi:10.3368/lj.21.1.225. ISSN 0277-2426. S2CID 109135846.
  17. Bruer, Jennifer (1998-11-01). "Conference preview: IUI '99: 1999 intelligent user interfaces, Redondo Beach California, USA, January 5--8, 1999". Interactions. 5 (6): 55. doi:10.1145/287821.287830. ISSN 1072-5520. S2CID 37266798.
  18. Fletcher, Ralph Carr (September 1952). "Statistical Methods for Social Workers. Wayne Mcmillen". Social Service Review. 26 (3): 368–370. doi:10.1086/638949. ISSN 0037-7961.
  19. Shellhorn, Ruth, 1909-2006. (2002). Pasadena Heritage oral history project : interview with Ruth Patricia Shellhorn. Pasadena Heritage Oral History Project. OCLC 67148166.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. Duval, Joseph S.; Fukumoto, Lauren E.; Fukumoto, Joseph M.; Snyder, Stephen L. (2004). "Geology and Indoor Radon in Schools of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, Palos Verdes Peninsula, California". Open-File Report. doi:10.3133/ofr20041050. ISSN 2331-1258.
  21. Greater Los Angeles Citizens Committee, inc. (1944). Shoreline development study; Playa del Rey to Palos Verdes, a portion of a proposed master recreation plan for the greater Los Angeles region, April, 1944. [Greater Los Angeles citizens committee]. OCLC 42243699.
  22. "Disneyland (1985–1995)", The Strip, The MIT Press, 2017, doi:10.7551/mitpress/11048.003.0008, ISBN 978-0-262-33821-9
  23. Hays, David L. (2015-05-04). "Landscript 3: Topology: Topical Thoughts on the Contemporary Landscape". Journal of Landscape Architecture. 10 (2): 92–94. doi:10.1080/18626033.2015.1058579. ISSN 1862-6033. S2CID 127428566.
  24. Dorsett, Lyle W. (September 1968). "Los Angeles: Portrait of an Extraordianry City Editors of Sunset Books Sunset Magazine Los Angeles: Structure of a City. 2nd rev. ed. League of Women Voters of Los Angeles". Southern California Quarterly. 50 (3): 352. doi:10.2307/41170196. ISSN 0038-3929. JSTOR 41170196.

Bibliography

Comras, Kelly. Ruth Shellhorn. 2016. Amherst, MA: Library of American Landscape History, and Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press.

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