DAN KILEY

Dan Kiley was one of the most important and visionary Modernist landscape architects, acclaimed for more than 1,000 designs worldwide. In 2013 TCLF presents a RETROSPECTIVE of Kiley’s life and prolific body of work, a special edition of the annual Landslide® compendium.

Introduction

Dan Kiley (1912-2004) was one of the most important and influential Modernist landscape architects of the 20th century.

Grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

in St. Louis, Missouri

South end of the Air Gardens at the United States Air Force Academy,

Colorado

Dan Kiley's Benjamin Banneker Park in Washington, D.C.(2011)

IMPORTANT WORKS

‘The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley’

Dan Kiley’s modern landscapes provide welcome relief from the city while also complementing modernist architecture.

Miller House and Garden in Columbus

Considered to be his residential masterpiece and an iconic Modernist garden, this thirteen-acre property was developed as a unified design through the close teamwork of Dan Kiley, architects Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche, and interior designer Alexander Girard. It was designed and constructed between 1953 and 1957 for the family of J. Irwin and Xenia Miller of Columbus, IN, who were active in the design collaboration.

When Saarinen enlisted Kiley in 1955 to develop the landscape, plans for the house were already complete. The site, however, was a blank slate, which gave Kiley free rein. The result was a design that balanced Modern and classical elements and marked the onset of his mature design vocabulary.

“The Miller House is one of America’s first truly contemporary residential landscape designs to reject the revival solutions or the eclecticism that had dominated American estates in the first half of the twentieth century.”Peter Walker said: ''For many of us, that was where modernism began.”

The house’s interior is arranged around a cruciform grid of steel columns. Kiley worked with the architects to create a seamless connection between the interior and the landscape, setting thehome atop a twenty-five foot wide platform on which sits a ten-foot wide terrazzo terrace. The terrace acts as a physical bridge between the interior of Saarinen’s rectilinear structure and the garden, providing a setting for outdoor gatherings and dining. Extending from the patio to the edge of the platform are beds of ivy groundcover, periodically broken through by pavers set in gravel. Two weeping beeches are planted at the edge of the patio to the west of the house, adding height and movement to the space.

The garden contains three distinct sections – to the east, the most formal section of the landscape consisting of the house and gardens; at the center, a transitional area created by an open meadow – a mown lawn edged by red maples twenty-seven feet on center (originally proposed as an allée of sycamores, three rows deep and twenty-feet on center); and to the west woodlands bisected by a creek.

The landscape’s geometric design reflects the home’s interior geometry.The formal garden spreads out to the north, south and east of the house, along a low bluff at the eastern end of the site. The space includes bosques of apple trees and a pool area (constructed in 1963 after completion of the house), and the home’s formal entry drive which is lined with horse chestnuts under-planted with yew hedges that further emphasize the structural qualities of Kiley’s design. A series of arborvitae hedges in twenty-foot lengths are staggered along the perimeter of this section of the landscape, providing a loose barrier between the estate and neighboring properties. The hedges provide a false sense of enclosure while in actuality still leaving the borders of the property open.

In 2000 the Miller property was designated a National Historic Landmark. The property was the home of Mrs. Miller until her death in February 2008. The Moore sculpture and other artwork from the estate were sold at auction in the summer of 2008, and the following year the Miller family donated the property to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The Museum then opened the property to the public in 2011.

The museum has established itself as an excellent steward of the site, setting a high standard for the curatorial treatment and management of Modernist landscape architecture. Their example is worthy of study, praise, and emulation by other stewards. 

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