About
Landscapes of Honor: Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.
I Am A Man Plaza, Cliff Garten Studio. Photo Credit: Jeremy Green
Landscape architecture is the one profession with the power to offer a unique visual balance between meaning, remembrance and aesthetics in public spaces. They utilize powerful elements that coalesce in the form of parks, statues, plaques and other living testaments to a period of history, a person or philosophy. These memorial experiences educate the viewer while creating tangible experience with the past. They function as learning tools for teachers and sources of inspiration and celebration to all who see, touch and experience the presence of their past. Learn how landscape architects introduce new ways to approach memorial design in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
ASLA California Southern Award Feature: I AM A MAN Plaza Wins ASLA 2018 Quality of Life Honor Award
The American Society of Landscape Architects honored Cliff Garten Studio’s I AM A MAN Plaza, a memorial for the 1968 Sanitation Worker’s Strike and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The project was spearheaded by the City of Memphis and the UrbanArt Commission.
Landscape Architecture Magazine Features:
Witness Wall
Witness Walls is a commemorative public art and landscape installation by landscape architect Walter Hood. Hood settled on an approach and materials that eschewed grand displays of sequential narrative in favor of straightforward construction telling an organic, grassroots story in an abstract way. He began working on two types of concrete panels, each with its own set of imagery, all taken from photos at the Nashville Public Library’s Civil Rights Room. Witness Walls is the city’s first civil rights-themed piece of public art, according to The Tennessean.
Photo: Witness Walls is composed of two different types of concrete walls, one with soft, impressionistic imagery and the other with sharper image contrasts. Photo by Stacey Irvin.
Parc Clichy-Batignolles-Martin Luther King
Parc Clichy-Batignolles-Martin Luther King. Photo Credit: Martin Argyroglo
Additional ASLA resources highlighting Martin Luther King, Jr. and other architectural memorials are available in The DIRT and THE FIELD.
Other Notable Project Highlights
Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade, San Diego, CA. Photo by Kelsey Kaline, courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, 2019
Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade, San Diego, CA
Originally called Marina Linear Park, the twelve-acre park began as a competition won by The Office of Peter Walker and Martha Schwartz in 1987. Dedicated as Martin Luther King Jr., Promenade in 1992, the park was implemented by successor firm Peter Walker William Johnson and Partners and opened to the public in 1997. Adjacent to the active Santa Fe Rail and San Diego Trolley corridor, the 0.6-mile-long linear park begins in the Gaslamp Quarter and extends past the San Diego Convention Center to the Marina District. Palm and poplar allées with circular mounds of ice plants separate Harbor Drive from the railway, and two flat, pedestrian pathways run along both sides of the tracks. The northern path is lined with 30 plaques engraved with Dr. King’s words.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial by OvS, the Landscape Architect of Record for the project. © George E. Brown
Authorized by Congress in 1996, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial was a groundbreaking project. It is the first memorial on the National Mall dedicated to an African American, and one of only a few dedicated to non-presidents. View captivating photographs of the memorial on the OvS website courtesy of George E. Brown.
Scholarly References
Additional Articles of Interest
Get a glimpse at how landscape architects, civil, bridge and electrical engineers collaborate to replace a major downtown bridge in the city of Fort Wayne to envision and create a gateway to include a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Learn the steps landscape architects take define and conceptualize their design, create the plan, and engage the community in the development of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.
After receiving 126 submissions, the committee chose five finalist teams to develop a design for the memorial. “Each one of these five proposals does a tremendous job of honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King and their ideals, teachings and values,” said Mayor Walsh.
Bonnie Fisher is the Landscape Architect who designed the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial in Washington D.C. with her husband, Boris Dramov. WSJ's Julia Flynn Siler profiles her work in San Francisco and the vision behind the MLK Memorial.
Project examining downtrodden street areas named after him aims to help residents boost their neighborhoods.
(An old growth pine from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s home in Georgia is used in the table, as well as Black Walnut from James Madison’s home, and pine from James Monroe’s home in Highland, Virginia.)
The NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard Gateway and Heritage Markers Project supports the ongoing efforts of area residents and business owners to highlight the unique identity of Portland’s inner north and northeast neighborhoods. 2.ink Studio Landscape Architecture led a multidisciplinary team in both Master Planning and Design, working closely with neighborhood activists to create a landmark gateway and plaza that denotes entry into these historically rich neighborhoods and shares the history of their diverse residents. The scrim supports a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that spans both the primary northbound segment and the smaller terminating southbound segment. In entirety the quote reads “I believe…they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” referencing the common hope of shifting communities that have called this area home. Broken when the scrim crosses traffic lanes, the full quote can only be fully read by both entering and exiting the district.
Please direct inquiries to Lisa J. Jennings, Manager, Career Discovery and Diversity at diversity@asla.org.