O.C. Simonds - An American Landscape Design Pioneer

Ossian Cole Simonds was one of the early practitioners of modern American naturalistic landscape design. His technique of using thickets of native trees and gently sculpted landforms in the early part of the 20th century caught the public’s attention and he became an influential landscape designer. He humbly attributed his design approach to “old principles” yet his innovative ideas were the inspiration behind the Midwestern ‘prairie style’ school of landscape design.

In a 1922 talk at the University of Illinois, Simonds urged design students to become familiar "with the hills and valleys, the level areas, the location of buildings, the distant views, the existing growth, the surrounding property…" before beginning a design.

He noted that a landscape designer has "a mission to investigate, study, and acquire knowledge regarding the beauty of Nature and to impart this knowledge to those with whom he comes in contact."

This ‘old principle’ of looking to Nature as teacher is still relevant today and at the heart of what I term 'the power of place'. So keep talking to those trees!