China Daily, December 17, 2005
Chinese Garden Takes Root in California

With stones, water and plant landscapes nestled around teahouses,
pavilions and bridges, Chinese gardens are, by design, elaborate showcases.

An ambitious cultural project is set to create such an elaborate
showcase in San Marino, California.

Early this year, construction began on a 12-acre Chinese garden at the
Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.

"At its completion, the Huntington Chinese Garden will be the largest
classical Chinese garden outside China," June Li, curator of the garden,
told China Daily during her visit to Beijing in late October.

The garden will offer a means of educating visitors about Chinese art,
literature, architecture, botany and culture, Li said.

Located in a largely undeveloped section of the Huntington's 207-acre
grounds and framed by existing woodland, the 12-acre Chinese Garden will
include a lake, a tea house, pavilions, bridges and numerous "poetic
views," plus other natural and architectural features set amid a
landscape of plants mostly native to China.

"In addition to its large size, what makes the Huntington Chinese Garden
distinctive among those in North America is its location," Li said.

Opened to the public in 1928, the Huntington Library, Art Collections
and Botanical Gardens is one of the most renowned botanical collections
and cultural centers in the United States.

The existing gardens, with their collections of art, literature, history
and horticulture, provide an idyllic backdrop for the new garden, Li
explained.

"The Chinese garden can really 'borrow the views' from either the
adjacent gardens or mountains from afar," Li said.

Creative force

In fact, the Chinese garden in California will have its own creative style.

"We don't want to duplicate a Chinese garden like those in Suzhou or
some other places in China," Li stressed. "What we're trying to do is to
create a garden with a Chinese style and in a Chinese approach."

Li said the Huntington Chinese Garden will not only showcase the essence
of Chinese ancient landscape art and architecture, but also harmoniously
blend with the environment in San Marino.

In addition to plants native in China, visitors will also see palm trees
or California oak trees in the Chinese garden, which in Li's words, will
be an exceptional experience for most visitors.

The design for the new addition captures the spirit of classical Chinese
gardens by incorporating traditional elements and materials.

A Chinese garden is naturalistic in style and poetic in meaning a
tradition which has not changed for over 3,000 years. "And we will
follow that tradition here at the Huntington," said Chen Jin, an
architect currently working for EDAW, an international landscape design
firm in Suzhou of East China's Jiangsu Province.

Each feature of the garden is chosen for both artistic effect and
symbolic importance in the Chinese culture. A pavilion, for example,
provides both a place to view the garden and a feature to be viewed. A
lotus serves as both a beautiful water plant and a symbol of purity.

Gracefully winding pathways will lead visitors in and around the garden,
inviting them to discover changing vistas and natural vignettes as they
explore the garden from different vantage points.

The garden's master plan encompasses four gardens named after the four
seasons and five special collection gardens linked by 18 "poetic views."

Each of the four seasonal gardens will include plants traditionally and
symbolically associated with the seasons: peach trees for spring, lotus
for summer, osmanthus trees for autumn and flowering plums for winter.

The Summer Garden, the first phase of the project which is now under
construction, is some three acres of built landscape surrounding a
one-acre lake.

The structures are designed principally in a style reflecting the
classical scholar gardens of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) in
Jiangsu, according to Chen.

A native of Hong Kong, Li holds a master's degree in Oriental Studies
from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Chinese art
history. After working in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for 14
years, she came to the Huntington in 2004.

Her new role as curator of the Chinese garden encompasses participation
in the design and construction process to ensure that all elements of
the garden keep with classical tradition.

Chen is another key member of the creative force behind the new garden
at the Huntington.

Chen earned his bachelor's degree in architecture from Tongji University
in Shanghai in 1983, and six years later went to the United States to
further his studies in landscape architecture.

His work experience as a project coordinator for the Portland Chinese
Garden in Oregon, which was completed in 2000, made him a good candidate
for the project in the Huntington.

Difficulty in construction

To take this project from drawings on paper to reality was more
challenging than Li and her colleagues expected.

Plans for the Chinese garden were unveiled in October 2001. Two years
later, the Huntington partnered with the Suzhou Landscape Architecture
and Design Institute in the project.

One of the major responsibilities of the Suzhou institute is to develop
Chen's conceptual design into construction drawings.

Complex dialogues between the Suzhou architects and contractors in the
United States helped implement the design and iron out many of the
developmental issues, Li said.

In addition to preserving the traditional elements of the Chinese
garden, the design should also comply with local codes, such as
regulations for earthquake prevention.

Instead of solid wood posts for garden pavilions, US contractors
suggested using steel beams with wood cladding.

Also the designers have to take the climate into consideration. "It's
hot and dry in California, fairly different from the humid and mild
weather in Jiangsu," Li explained.

To avoid the problem of wood cracking, constructors have all the timbers
coming from China acclimatize to the conditions in California, which is
a time-consuming process.

Besides the timbers, other key materials including scholar rocks,
handcrafted lattice windows and roof tiles, will all come from China.

Skilled artisans from the Suzhou Construction Company are hired to
ensure the authenticity of construction in every detail.

They are fabricating the five stone bridges in China, which form the
architectural component of the first phase, and will travel to the
Huntington to put them in place.

Unlike many other Chinese gardens in North America mostly supported by
the government, the Huntington Chinese Garden has to rely on itself for
fund-raising.

A US$10 million bequest from Peter Paanakker, the late Los Angeles
businessman and philanthropist, and a US$500,000 grant from the Starr
Foundation of New York, have enabled the Huntington to take the first
steps for the project.

In recent months, some US$100,000 has been received in gifts and pledges
from various members of the Chinese community in both Southern and
Northern California as well as from interested parties abroad.

Development of future phases of the garden will continue over a period
of years, depending on fund-raising, according to Li.

The estimated cost for completion of all 12 acres has not been
determined, but will probably exceed US$100 million.

"It is an exciting project of great cultural significance and
international scope," said Huntington President Steven S Koblik. "A
world-class Chinese garden will not only enhance the already diverse
cultural offerings of Southern California, but it will be a prime
destination for international visitors and a source of enrichment for
the local community for generations to come."

(China Daily December 17, 2005)

http://www.china.org.cn/english/environment/152397.htm

 

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Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

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