Arthur
Shurcliff (1865-1957) was a noted American
landscape architect. Originally Shurtleff,
Arthur changed his name in 1930 to conform
to an older English spelling. He attended
Harvard
University and after graduation in 1896 joined
the Olmsted firm. With
the help of Olmsted he established the world's
first four-year landscape architecture course
at Harvard.
In
the 1920's, Shurcliff drew a general plan
(pictured above) for Mount Holyoke College.
The plan suggested that the campus should
have a more quadrangular organization.
In an article about the planning and execution of the 1904
Gardens Project, Shurcliff suggested that Mount Holyoke College used to
have a more quadrangular feel but that the quadrangles were blurred due to the
placement of buildings. He suggested that the careful placement of a few new
buildings could achieve a revival of the quadrangle. (link)
In
February of 1945 the Building and Grounds
Comittee met:
"It
was voted to recommend to the Board of Trustees
that the long range plan, prepared under
the direction of Mr. Shurcliff and a revision
of the original 1928 campus development,
be approved." (14)
The
plan, however, was never executed because
of budget cuts surrounding the Great Depression.
Later, Arthur's son
Sidney Shurcliff traveled to Mount Holyoke
and began work on the college. Sidney had
researched his father's involvement of the
Olmsted firm and perhaps that is why the
later work on the campus still adheres to
the Olmsted design princples.
"It
was during a visit to Jamaica that Sidney
Shurcliff found a book in a library written
by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., "Travel Through
the Slave States", written when he was a
reporter for the New York Times. It
was a reminder of the scope and breadth of
Olmsted's interests and influence that provoked
Mr. Shrucliff to pursue the matter of acknowledging
Olmsted's proper place in history." (12)
Sidney
was most instrumental in the building of
Gettell Amphitheater and the 1904
Garden which both illustrate Mount Holyoke College's
adherence to the design principles laid out
by Frederick Law Olmsted.
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