Academics

Richard L. Hindle named A.E. Bye Landscape Architecture Archives Research Fellow

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State's Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture's A.E. Bye Landscape Architecture Archives Research Fellow 2013 will be awarded to Richard L. Hindle, landscape architect. The review committee reported, "Richard Hindle's proposal was the most outstanding. Hindle's plan to study Bye's approach to plants ---- from his inspiration by Roberto Burle-Marx, to his adaptations of native plants of the NE U.S. for design -- would yield results of great interest to students and practitioners of landscape architecture.”

Hindle also proposed to study Bye's teaching experience at Cooper Union and Columbia, another neglected realm of Bye's legacy. The review committee found Hindle’s proposal “not only offers a topic that can be effectively addressed in the archive, but also promises to expand the knowledge around Bye’s work, the archives and the fellowship.”

Hindle will investigate themes of planting design and teaching in Bye’s archive. According to Hindle, “Bye’s professional career is well documented, highly acclaimed and seemingly well preserved in the 100 cubic feet of archival material at Penn State. Yet, with all that is known of his landscape moods and design sensibilities, little is known of his approach to teaching and his methods of plant selection, care and design. I propose research focusing on A.E Bye as a teacher, and A.E Bye as a plantsman -- with special attention given to the instances where these two themes converge.” 

Hindle, a published author, has previously received four academic awards and five research and external grants awards. He is a graduate of Cornell University, bachelor of science in horticulture, and received his master of landscape architecture degree from Rhode Island School of Design. He will present a lecture during his research period at Penn State.

The Fellowship provides a $2,500 stipend for a minimum of one week of archival research in the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State's University Park campus. The records include drawings, papers, photographs and videos of the celebrated 20th century American landscape architect A. E. Bye, as well as those of landscape architects John Bracken and Stuart Mertz, are held at Penn State. The Fellowship is funded through the Landscape Architecture Chair in Integrative Design at the H. Campbell and Eleanor R. Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. The inaugural A.E. Bye Research Fellow 2012, was Thaisa Way of the University of Washington, whose research on Bye focused on his sculpting of earth and land forms in conjunction with ecological practice as an artistic framework distinct from that of land artists Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer and others. 

The winning research project will be completed in 2013 with a requirement for a subsequent dissemination of the research in the form of a public presentation, essay or small publication to be delivered within six months after the archival research period. Penn State considers additional funding for particularly ambitious and meritorious research dissemination.

Last Updated February 21, 2013

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