Robert Royston
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Robert N. Royston (1918 – September 19, 2008) was one of America's most distinguished
Early life
Royston was born in 1918 in San Francisco, California.[1] He grew up on a farm in the Santa Clara Valley of Northern California in the town on Morgan Hill.[1] As a high school student he demonstrated a talent for drawing, dramatic performance, and athletics. One teacher advised him to be either an attorney or a ballet dancer. He pursued instead his interest in design and the outdoors and upon graduation in 1936 enrolled in the program for "Landscape Design" in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley.
Royston's mentor, H. Leland Vaughan, allowed him to experiment on his own with the new design perspectives emerging in the innovative work of
While working his way through college, Royston was employed part-time in the office of
With the outbreak of World War II, Royston volunteered for the Navy and served as a junior officer in the Pacific theatre. In his spare time aboard ship, Royston experimented with design ideas, building models of residential gardens and creating jewelry out of scrap materials. In 1945 Royston returned to the Bay Area and accepted Garrett Eckbo's invitation to form a partnership with him and landscape architect Edward Williams. The new firm, Eckbo, Royston, and Williams, eventually established offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In 1947 Royston accepted a teaching position at the
Career
Royston's early professional work was concentrated in
For Royston, landscape architecture "Practices the fine art of relating the structure of culture to the nature of landscape, to the end that people can use it, enjoy it, and preserve it."
In dealing with more complex projects such as planned residential communities, Royston developed early in his practice his concept of the "landscape matrix," which he defines as "the linking of open space as a continuous system throughout the community establishing a strong framework whereby communities are controlled and given form." An early application of the 'landscape matrix' was the plan for a 258-acre (1.04 km2) cooperative housing project, 'Ladera' (1946), near Portola Valley, California. Royston's design featured a linear park which tied together the residential clusters and separated automobile and pedestrian circulation. The plan was built, but not according to Royston's specifications.
Park work
Royston's innovative park work also began during the 1950s. His first major commission was the Standard Oil Rod and Gun Club (1950) located at the Standard Oil Refinery near
Among his more important works were Krusi Park in
In 1958 Royston amicably left the firm of Eckbo, Royston, Williams, and formed a new professional office with Asa Hanamoto. The firm developed into Royston, Hanamoto, Alley and Abey (RHAA) which is still in existence today.
Awards
Robert Royston was the recipient of many professional awards, including Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, 1975, The American Institute of Architects Medal in 1978, and in 1989 the American Society of Landscape Architects Medal, the highest award of that professional organization.
Designs
Royston designs that can be visited and are reasonably intact:
- St. Mary's Square, San Francisco[1]
- Mitchell Park, Palo Alto, California[2]
- Bowden Park, Palo Alto, California
- Central Park, Santa Clara, California[1]
- Cuesta Park, Mountain View, California
- Santa Clara Civic Center, Santa Clara, California
- Upper Quarry Amphitheater (UC Santa Cruz), Santa Cruz, California[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Zito, Kelly (September 21, 2008). "Robert Royston, landscape architect, dies". SFGate. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
- ^ "Structured Play". Dwell: 154–164. May 2007 – via Google Books.
- ^ "UCSC Quarry Amphitheater – Quarry". Retrieved July 26, 2023.
Additional reading
- Rainey, Reuben M. and JC Miller, Modern Public Gardens: Robert Royston and the Suburban Park, William Stout Publishers, San Francisco 2006
- Robert Royston on Landscape Architecture:
- "Is There a Bay Area Style?" Architecture Record, 105 (May 1949), p. 96.
- "Looking Down on the San Francisco Bay Area," Landscape Architecture, Vol. 64:4 (July 1974), pp. 234–243.
- "Getting the Feel for a New Town Site and Its Design," Landscape Architecture, Vol. 66:5 (Spring 1976), pp. 432–443.
- "Point of View," Landscape Architecture, Vol. 76:6 (November 1986), pp. 66–67
- "A Brief History," Landscape Australia, Vol. 8:1 (Fall 1986), pp. 34–36, 38.
- "Robert Royston's Thoughts on Landscape Architecture," Landscape Australia, Vol. 8:2 (Winter 1986), pp. 152–164.
- Robert Royston's collected papers and design drawings, located in the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley
External links
- Postwar Portfolio - a web site that provides an overview of Robert Royston's design work
- University of California, Santa Cruz: Quarry Area (Theater), Santa Cruz, CA 1968 - image of drawing