Princess Diana Memorial Fountain Chronology


Timeline: Diana memorial fountain
September 1999
Tony Blair announces that a fountain will be built in one of London's royal parks as a permanent memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales.
February 2001
The Memorial Fountain Committee, headed by the late princess' friend Rosa Monckton, is formed to oversee the project.
September 2001
A competition to design the fountain is launched.
July 2002
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell says she is "greatly concerned" over delays in commissioning the fountain and that a design team must begin work the following month.
The fountain is intended to open in summer 2003, for the sixth anniversary of Diana's death.
Reports claim the Memorial Fountain Committee chose a design back in January, from more than 100 entries, but that the Department for Culture Media and Sport delayed approving it.
30 July 2002
Tessa Jowell chooses a design by US landscape artist Kathryn Gustafson for the memorial. The culture secretary stepped in after the committee was evenly split over two shortlisted designs.
Ms Gustafson's plan for an 80m by 50m oval stone ring filled with water is said to be more traditional than the rival design - a 16ft dome of water - by Bombay-based former Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor.
December 2002
The full details of Ms Gustafson's design are unveiled by the Royal Parks agency.
The designer promises "inclusiveness and interactivity", with people able to touch the water and paddle. She says the fountain's two halves - one gently bubbling, the other fast flowing - represent the joy and the turmoil of the princess' life.
June 2003
Work begins on the fountain.
Contractors begin groundwork in Hyde Park. Stone blocks quarried in Cornwall are cut in County Down.
20 August 2003
Tessa Jowell lays the foundation stone of the fountain.
6 July 2004
The Queen opens the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, a year after the original target date.
The Prince of Wales, Princes William and Harry, and Diana's brother Earl Spencer are also present. It is the first time Diana's two families - the Windsors and Spencers - have been together publicly since the princess' funeral.
7 July 2004
The fountain opens to the public, but leaves blocking the drains cause it to flood. A few days later, a blocked pump stops the flow of water.
22 July 2004
The fountain is closed after three visitors slip and hurt themselves while paddling in the water.
The monument is surrounded by a 7ft-high barrier after the two adults and a child are injured and taken to hospital. The Royal Parks agency calls in health and safety experts, designers and engineers to discuss ways of improving safety.
20 August 2004
The fountain reopens to public, with signs spelling out new safety rules.
People can sit or stand in the water, but walking and running are banned. Six staff trained in crowd control and first aid will supervise the site in the summer. New fences manage the number of people using the fountain.
9 January 2005
The memorial closes for four months' renovation work, primarily to tackle problems of flooding and waterlogged ground around the site.
Drainage is to be improved, and a path around the site lengthened and resurfaced. Tougher grass will also replace turf being worn out by visitors.
6 May 2005
The fountain reopens again.
2 November 2005
MPs on the Public Accounts Committee question government and Royal Parks representatives about the fountain's repairs, budget and running costs.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4508889.stm

Published: 2005/11/02 12:07:45 GMT

© BBC 2011

Sallys’ test result Myers Brigg Typology

ENFJs are the benevolent 'pedagogues' of humanity. They have tremendous charisma by which many are drawn into their nurturant tutelage and/or grand schemes. Many ENFJs have tremendous power to manipulate others with their phenomenal interpersonal skills and unique salesmanship. But it's usually not meant as manipulation -- ENFJs generally believe in their dreams, and see themselves as helpers and enablers, which they usually are.

ENFJs are global learners. They see the big picture. The ENFJs focus is expansive. Some can juggle an amazing number of responsibilities or projects simultaneously. Many ENFJs have tremendous entrepreneurial ability.

Your Type is ENFJ

 

Extraverted	Intuitive	Feeling	Judging
Strength of the preferences %
56	25	50	44

Hard landscape information on the fountain

The fountain

1 Water enters fountain at highest point, pumped at 100 litres/second.
2 Water travelling east bounces down steps.
3 A specially sculpted channel makes the water rock gently.
4 Water picks up momentum and is invigorated by jets.
5 Water flowing westwards resembles a babbling brook.
6 Air bubbles are introduced as it approaches a waterfall before entering a water feature created by its flow over carved stone.
7 Final destination is the reflecting pool, where water from east and west meet before being pumped out to restart cycle.

The granite stone was quarried by Ennstone Breed Ltd at South Penquite Farm, Blisland, Bodmin, Cornwall, PL30 4LH. The 520 tonnes was quarried from the Delanke quarry and shipped to Northern Ireland were it was milled to the McConnells cut the fountain design from DeLanke Cornish Granite into 550 stone sections of detailed carving to complete the 120m oval course of the fountain or ‘necklace of water’. Highly sophisticated carving of 520 tonnes of raw Cornish granite to a tolerance of 2mm produced the plethora of patterns which give the fountain its energetic water course, representing the Princess’s life, which comes to rest in a calm section before redistribution.

S McConnell & Sons completed the contract in 32 weeks. They had to buy in new cutting machines’ at a cost of over £40,000. The form of the stone was cut to mimic natural patterns such as ripples of the sand on a beach as well as other patterns. The stone was finished with a textured finish in the workshop, but extra anti slip channels were cut into the stone to help with the people walking in the fountain but as stated in the The Guardian article on the 12^th October 2004 by Stuart Jefferies the fountain was not designed to be walked in.

The algae problem was looked into by a representative of Arup stated that there was no reason to think that the borehole which supplied the water for the fountain would cause excessive algae growth in the stone channels. But it is stated that algae shouldn’t settle at a rate of flow of 100l per minute, but like a mountain stream a build up over time will occur naturally. The solution for this problem is to have a weekly maintenance program.

The original contractors were replaced by Whitehorse Contractors Ltd who Sub – Contracted out the laying of 840 metres squared of Addastone TP stone with an aluminium restraining edge, this project was completed in a month.

We have enjoyed a good relationship with the Royal Parks over the last three years and have been pleased to assist with the regular maintenance, which is carried out annually. We carried out some routine maintenance works to the expansion joints and inspection covers in the resin bound pathway in November of 2007. We were also asked to install further land drainage to the inside of the fountain in preparation for a further section of porous resin bound pathway. This work was carried out as planned works and was completed within the programmed period.

Unfortunately, we had employed a Mr Munro as a site agent for a contract at the Bath Spa University, where he had supervised the contract satisfactorily. We then expanded his role to that of Trainee Contracts Manager for our Civil Engineering division. This brought the Diana Memorial into his remit for the drainage works.

Our MD Mike Sugg planned the operation and attended site with Mr Munro to ensure that the work was proceeding to plan. Whilst on site he inspected the excavation for the drainage and the exposed side of the fountain. He noted some small leaks along the fountain, but the condition of the foundations and the fountain generally was the same as it had been three years earlier when he had installed the porous pathway.

Imagine our surprise at the newspaper article, which stated that "the fountain was losing thousands of litres of water per hour and was subsiding and would need to be taken up and re-installed" and that "Mr Munro’s company CCE Ltd had been called into inspect the fountain"!

We would like to "set the record straight". Mr Munro had left our company, without explanation, before the comments appeared in the press. He was never a principal of the company and was not qualified to make judgement about any structure nor was he a spokesman for the company. His comments were made without our knowledge and are certainly not representative of the views of this company.

We consider the fountain to be a great success. It is a tranquil place in a hectic city. The number of visitors is a testament to its popularity. Unfortunately, everything about Lady Diana is covered in controversy by the press, and the fountain is just a small part of that controversy. We have been proud of our association with the Memorial Fountain, the architects Gustaffson Porter who designed the fountain and the custodians of the fountain, the Royal Parks.

http://www.cirencestercivilengineering.co.uk/news07.html

White Horse Contractors were delighted to be involved in this auspicious contract. The overwhelming popularity of the feature in itself led to the problems that the company was employed to remediate. The works required the replacement of the entire upper soil profiles surrounding the feature. A complex network of drainage was installed, over which a specially manufactured rootzone layer was laid and finally, the finished surface was turfed with a synthetically reinforced natural turfsystem.

Combined with a fully automated irrigation system, the specification for the grass surrounds is similar to that which may be found on a premiership football pitch.

The construction profile has been designed to assist the turf culture, thereby combining the qualities of a structurally sound surface for pedestrians, as well as the ability to grow quality grass.

The site is now equipped to withstand the rigours of both the best and worst of English weather. A revolutionary footpath system, designed by Gustafson Porter, was constructed, a resin bound, porous surface was laid over a fully permeable formation and inter connected to the drainage system. This non-slip surface will allow public access to the principle areas of the memorial fountain at all times, regardless of prevailing conditions.

http://www.whitehorsecontractors.co.uk/html/case-studies/diana memo

The original trees were removed as well and 3 new saplings where their replacements.

The pump in the fountain blocked after the opening due to a heavy summer storm which blocked the pump inlet and damaged the pump coursing the fountain to over flow and flood an area 15 m wide and 300mm deep. The water feature / fountain was used as a dog bath, and had dirty nappies dumped into it, as well as a pedalling pool

The Guardian 12^th October 2004

'My job was to understand the essence of her' ... Gustafson unveiling the fountain. Photo: David Sillitoe

Kathryn Gustafson shows me a delightful drawing. It depicts two people kneeling before a rapidly flowing stream, one of them running their fingers moodily through the water. It is a scene of contemplation and calm.

This was one of the drawings that the American landscape artist submitted to support her winning entry to build the memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, in Hyde Park. It bears little relation to reality. The day after Gustafson's fountain was opened by the Queen in July, high winds brought down a deluge of leaves, blocking grilles in the memorial's pool and causing a flood on the grass 15m wide and 30cm deep. It looked awful. Soon after, dog owners let their pets pollute the 210m oval water concourse. Humans too paddled in the streams during the hot weather, and some people dumped used nappies in the water courses that had been lovingly hewn out of De Lank granite from Bodmin Moor.

Gustafson had tempted fate at the memorial's inauguration. She said: "I've never seen a job go as smoothly as this. I sometimes wondered if we had a guardian angel. The best bit will be when the public likes it."

If the public did like it, their actions said otherwise. And then things got worse; several visitors injured themselves as they slipped over on the granite. At the same time, Gustafson's ring of bright water faced a tsunami of press criticism. Even sympathetic writers compared it to a giant Scalextric track or a Disney-like splash ride for children. The more vicious ones called it a puddle, a moat without a castle, part of a conspiracy to forget the woman it was supposed to be memorialising.

Then the water stopped flowing. A 2m metal fence was put up to keep the public out while engineers investigated the problem. The fence is still there. For some the whole thing seemed a clunking metaphor for Diana - the cycle of her life had gone up, down, round and up again really fast, and then unexpectedly, erm, stopped.

It was an embarrassing debacle for an internationally renowned, award-winning landscape artist, and Gustafson, who has offices in London and Seattle, disappeared from British public view for a while. The brouhaha, she says now, gave her an irksome insight into what it must have been like to be the subject of her most controversial work. "I'm sure glad I'm not her," she says. "Just that little window into that level of scrutiny was enough for me."

For her first face-to-face interview since the debacle, Gustafson says she would prefer not to meet me at the Diana memorial, but rather at her offices in Kentish Town in London. There she concedes that she failed to predict how many people would visit the memorial, not to mention what unappealing things they would do when they get there.

"When it first opened, 5,000 people an hour came to see it," she says. A flicker of remembered dread passes across her otherwise serene face. "How could you anticipate that? How can you solve a problem like that quickly? If it was a question of a stadium with 70,000 seats that would be all right, but there was no precedent. The turf around the oval couldn't survive those kind of numbers. The level of management has had to be increased because of the level of people. We really underestimated that. I thought we had a guardian angel over the project; I really wish she'd come back."

But surely there was more to the problem. Didn't she feel revolted by how some of the memorial's visitors behaved? "There's something that happens in sheer numbers. Individuals lose their self-consciousness," she says diplomatically. "When one person does something, others follow. A friend of mine told me that with economic housing, if some kids throw a rock through a window, then you should repair it fast otherwise you'll have three windows broken. If you repair that first window quickly, it says it's not acceptable to do that and it stops that copycat behaviour. It is the same with the memorial." How? "Putting a fence up to protect it. Though I do hope as things calm down that one day that fence will go away." She is not sure when that will be feasible."We just need time to solve the problems."

Gustafson is appealingly contrite about some of the errors she and her partners made with the memorial. "I feel we made a mistake letting people walk in the water. I apologise for that," she says. But you didn't envisage that they would go paddling or dog washing? "No. I thought people would picnic near the memorial, walk by and run their hands through the water, think about their lives, think about Diana." There are now signs around the memorial telling visitors not to walk in the water - though they will become relevant only when the fence comes down.

Gustafson has had problems with the British public before. Her rhododendron dell, part of a planting project in Crystal Palace in south London, has been mangled by people stealing plants. "We even wired them to the ground, but they still dug them up." That project, too, had a water feature designed by Gustafson that has never worked properly. That said, what remains of the planting is very beautiful indeed.

She argues that, amid all the fuss, the true nature of her project has gone unrecognised. "Let's talk about water quality," she says, "because that has been totally overlooked." Approximately 100 litres per second of extremely pure water, she points out, is pumped uphill from a storage tank beside the Serpentine. As it is pumped, the water races over granite whose surface has been textured to oxygenate it and remove nitrates. That oxygenated water eventually winds up in the nearby Serpentine, helping to cure the boating lake's algae bloom problem.

Part of the aim, she points out, was to cure not just the Serpentine, but also the site where the memorial is built, a piece of flooded land where trees often died by standing in polluted water. It is an environmentally healing fountain, then, or at least was meant to be.

The granite knobbles that texture the water were created by computer-operated drills working from software that mapped how rushing, dappling, leaping water would look. Gustafson started with clay models, which were digitally mapped at Ford's research and development department in the US. "Everybody seems to have ignored the good news about this incredible British work on this project." The granite was cut in Northern Ireland, for instance, "Everybody who worked on it did a fantastic job. I called the team the A-team, they were so good."

But then the pump broke, and British pride in its native talents was restored to normal levels. "So the pump broke. It's not headline news," says Gustafson. Actually, it was; but her point is that it shouldn't have been. "So some people fell over. People fall in streams all over the world. I'm not saying these problems and people's injuries aren't important."

What drew her to competing to build the memorial in the first place? "Hyde Park is what lured me," she says surprisingly. "It's just gorgeous and also I had this concern for the park." Intriguingly, she suggests that her conception for the memorial, which has been taken as being a female riposte to high-rise phallic memorials such as the Albert Memorial nearby, was more a response to the park. "Hyde Park is one of the most important parks in the world and I thought it would be wholly inappropriate to impede or penetrate those views that go down from the site over the Serpentine."

As for Diana, Gustafson confesses she knew little about her until she died. "I have lived and worked in France for 30 years, so British royal news was hardly important. But I remember the day she died. I was in my studio in the US working with a horticultural expert from Wales. He was this irreverent guy. Then the morning she died he called his wife and she told him the news. He just went grey. And I thought whoa! this is the last person I would have thought would have been concerned about Diana's death. And it made me think: What kind of power is that?"

Gustafson's design was selected after a vote by trustees of the Diana Memorial Fund over a reportedly more avant-garde proposal by British artist Anish Kapoor. "My job was to understand the essence of her and why she was loved, so that when you go to that memorial you feel the essence," says Gustafson. "I read a lot but what impressed me was that like all of us she had positive and destructive things happening to her. But what are little bumps for us were, because of the spotlight, experienced like compressed pressure for her. What impressed me is that she stayed whole throughout it all. Her secret garden, her inner self, her basic integrity stayed with her. That's why it's an oval. It's also contemporary, feminine, and flowing. Like her."

Perhaps the Diana Memorial will experience the same evolution as Antony Gormley's Angel of the North, which initially faced a lot of hostile criticism, but is now very popular. "I hope it will be like that," says Gustafson. She says that she was very aware of how the London Eye became a hit with the London public and it's hard not to imagine she's a little envious. It will take time for people to love her £3.5m memorial to Diana - if they ever do.

Born 1951, Gustafson started professional life as a fashion designer who retrained in France as a landscape designer. "After I did that, my father, who was a surgeon but obsessed with gardening, was so pleased. He felt as though he could talk to me for the first time," she says. Gustafson has designed everything from elegant electricity pylons to a Garden of Forgiveness in Beirut. Next month, her garden at the Treasury in Whitehall will open.

Typical is the recently opened Westergasfabriek park in Amsterdam, a site poisoned by toxic gas holders but now a 15 hectare park with reed beds, flowing water and environmentally friendly paths not only for cyclists but also frogs. It's been a wholly lovely experience, she says. "I loved working on it."

Has she enjoyed working on the Diana memorial? "Yes. It's a fantastic thing to have done. It's the first time I've tried to represent a person. And what a person!" She pauses and then smiles. "But I'm not sure I'll do this kind of thing again."

My conclusion for this part of the project is this

The designer used materials which if installed properly would last the test of time as intended. As for the walking in the feature I think this was an oversight but as she states it was never intended for this and more quiet contemplation. The underestimating of the popularity of the memorial where around 5,000 people per hour came to visit the fountain, which like the M25 is inexcusable as well as the poor choice of pathway around the perimeter. The pump a freak of nature or poor for thorough, my thorough is poor planning the grill should have stopped the leaves. The granite I still think is a good choice and only will get better with age. It seems to me that the overall success or failure of the scheme comes down to how competent the contractors installing the feature were! There were a few problems with the pump but this has been solved. The other facture with the failure of this project is how the public have decided to use the space.

PROJECT OVERVIEW Sally

INSPIRATION FOR THE DIANA MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN

The design aims to reflect Diana's life, water flows from the highest point in two directions as it cascades, swirls and bubbles before meeting in a calm pool at the bottom.

The Memorial also symbolises Diana's quality and openness.

There are three bridges where you can cross the water and go right to the heart of the fountain.

It was designed to express Diana's spirit and love of children.^[

The two sides were intended to show the two sides of Diana's life, both happy times and turmoil

As Diana was a contemporary and accessible princess, the fountain's goal was to allow people access to the structure and to the water for quiet wading and contemplation.

Design and Construction Faults and Remedial Actions

Rory Coonan, the brains behind Nesta (National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts), described the fountain as "inherently unsafe." "The problem with the Diana design is that its dangers are not apparent to the user.

Supervision of children is difficult because the structure is too expansive." and said the latest changes were "bolt-on" measures: "They are an attempt to put sticking plaster on a poor design.

The memorial was shut on July 22 after three people slipped and hurt themselves. That came after a series of closures caused by a blocked pump, and flooding when leaves blocked drains after stormy weather

Under the new guidelines, drawn up with the help of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, people will be asked not to walk or run in the water. But they will be allowed to paddle their feet and dip their hands while sitting on the sides of the £3.6m feature.

The fountain was designed by the American architect Kathryn Gustafson as a tribute to Diana, nearly seven years after her death in a car crash in Paris.

Greg McErlean, the head of major projects for the Royal Parks, said the problems stemmed from overcrowding and people taking their interaction with the fountain too far.

• Health and safety experts were called in, with design and construction teams, and the fountain water was switched off on July 22 while the investigation, resulting in today's new guidelines, was carried out.
  

When Good Practice = Best Practice

• The implementation, design and construction team should

understand and commit to the commercial, legal and moral

benefits of inclusive environments.

• Appoint an appropriate project Management Team and:

(a) Empower them to act effectively within the project structure

in the interests of access; and

(b) Pay a fee for the services the Management Team will have

To undertake. Do not deem the services to be included within a

Designer's existing appointment.

• Actively consider and integrate access issues at all stages of

the project briefing process.

• Through the proactive and consistent contributions of the key

Participants, convert the access requirements of the project

Briefs into appropriately designed and constructed buildings

that meets the requirements of the briefs.

• Review projects upon completion and use any lessons learned

for enhancing the delivery of future projects

Sally’s brief CV

Hi you lot, looks like blog beginning to work, not sure if you have checked your emails, but Nick has come up with sample Management Programmes which if implemented would create a very efficient group Management Team in order to achieve a first class presentation. In order to establish the correct group member for the roles although we know each other relatively well having spent 3 years together, there are certainly talents,weaknesses , relevant experience that we are not aware of. His idea of a brief CV from each group member would be helpful in selecting the right person for the various roles, if we can do this before thur we could simply put the name of the person we feel would be most suited to each role into a hat anomynsly sort them out then we have our team without wasting time on discussions regarding these roles. I feel this is essential as it will form an efficient group and also will cover point one of the three aims page 1 ' YOUR PROJECT'S DESIGN TEAM AND IT WORKINGS' will also be a good platform to work from on point 3 'HOW YOUR OWN STUDY TEAM OPERATED. Will also provided the platform the first of the two assessed products ' A TEAM REPORT'.

What do you guys think feedback appreciated so we can get going ready for Thursday would suggest we work from 'NOBODYS PERFECT' Team structure

Outward looking           Inward looking
Chairman                      Company Worker
Plant                             Monitor Evaluator
Resource Investigator    Team Worker
Shaper                          Finisher

This is attached to Nicks' email and is based on 8 group members but one of us can take 2 roles, I don't mind doing it unless after reading brief CV's we decide otherwise.

 

Sally Kimmis

Brief CV

Left College in 1982 Worked in London for 5 years as a PA/Secretary in Export Company called Proudmain Limited.

1987 Decided commuting was wasting too much time, therefore joined Marley Waterproofing Limited as Export Administrator, after 2 years promoted to Export Admin Manager, based in Sevenoaks.

1991 Went on Maternity Leave, and decided to have career break.

1992 Took part-time position at local doctors as a Medical Secretary stayed at this position whilst having the girls (3) in total.

2000 Got Divorced and moved to Leybourne just me and the girls, left doctors practice and worked with Kings Hill Recruitment as a temp secretary.(To fit in with children).

2002 Trained at Hadlow to achieve National Award in Floristry (Distinction).

2005 Started my own business Fleurs de Filles, run from new home with Ian and Girls, Ian built a workshop on side of house so I could work from me as I wanted to be available for my children.

2006 First back operation continued to run Fleurs de Filles after initial recovery, 2007 Second Operation still running Fleurs de Filles but starting to do less due to back deteriorating.

2009 Decided a career change was necessary as I was struggling with running business, although still did some with Ians' assistance and started BA in Garden Design as I could still work even if in bed,

Numerous hospital procedures and appointments, in patient stays etc. as don't know from day to day how I will be and can only control my days with variations of different medications and timing of them

This usually enables me to attend uni without too many problems. Mobility continues to deteriorate, however will still be able to work on self-employed basis with Ian doing hard and soft tasks, whilst

Having certain problems resolved prior to the installation of a Spinal Cord Stimulator which should reduce pain dramatically (fingers crossed)-no guarantees but worth a shot!

 

Costing of fountain

Thank you for your letter of 12 January to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, asking for a complete breakdown of the costs which have been incurred in the construction and on-going maintenance of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park.
We are unable to release the complete breakdown of all the construction costs, as the final account has not yet been agreed. The estimated cost of construction is £3.6 million.
In addition, since the Memorial opened in July 2004, £5,245 has been spent on fencing and £3,490 on signs. It is anticipated that the improvement works which are being carried out between January and May 2005 will cost in excess of £200,000.
The estimated annual maintenance costs are £143,000 in the first year and an average of £118,000 in future years and these figures have been released to the public. Actual maintenance costs incurred to date are £60,743. These include cleaning, removal of leaves and maintenance of the fountain’s mechanical systems between July 2004 and December 2004.
You also asked about staffing costs. It is not possible to provide information about staffing costs relating to the whole construction period or period since the Memorial opened. This is because various Royal Parks staff have been involved in dealing with the Memorial over this period but no staff worked exclusively on the Memorial and no records are kept of how much time staff spent on dealing with the Memorial. However, we are able to inform you that £45,405 was been spent on supervisors for the Memorial between July and December 2004 and we expect the costs of supervisors over 2005 to be at least £100,000
The embarrassing problems and spiralling costs that plagued the memorial fountain to Diana, Princess of Wales, have been blamed on poor management.
MPs attacked the soaring costs of the project in Hyde Park, London, which went more than £2m over budget and costs £250,000 a year to maintain.
Members of the Commons Public Accounts Committee criticised the Department for Culture, Media and Sport yesterday after costs rose from £3m to £5.2m and said that the annual estimated cost of maintenance had doubled.
They warned that cash to run the fountain was being siphoned away from other parks after the Royal Parks Agency was left to manage the memorial, and demanded that lessons be learned for the proposals to design a memorial to the Queen Mother.

Diana Memorial/ Designer

DESIGNER

"I'm very connected to the land; I can feel it physically inside me."
Kathryn Gustafson is an American-born, Paris-educated landscape architect and environmental artist who has been practicing since 1980, primarily in France, working as a sole practitioner in collaboration with architects, artists, and engineers.
American landscape designer Kathryn Gustafson, long one of the most respected in her field
Her 20 years of experience in landscape art followed an earlier career as a fashion and fabrics designer in New York and Paris.Through her private practice, she has won a series of high profile landscape projects including the corporate headquarters for Shell, Esso and l’Oreal near Paris, a new park in Terrasson la Villedieu which has become a listed landmark, the Square of Human Rights in Evry and Square Rachmaninov in Paris.Kathryn Gustafson now works throughout the world with the two offices, Gustafson Porter in London and Gustafson Guthrie Nichol in Seattle.

Her work pioneers an original vision in landscape architecture, rooted in Modernist abstraction; her artistic vocabulary also derives from the elusive qualities of intuition, memory and emotion.
Dominate her works-
Contoured land
Sleek structures
Restrained plantings
Monochrome
Simplisity

Harmony is the key to Kathryn Gustafson's work.
It is about harmony between the land and the mind, body and soul, she says, and harmony between the site's past and how it can be adapted for the future.
She also says she tries to create spaces where people can shelter from the incessant barrage of information that fills their daily lives - to create places of serenity and clarity.
One of Gustafson's recognized abilities is the way she sculpts and rearranges the land. Her intention is to create harmony, serenity and balance between people and nature. Many of her designs have an abstract style that doesn't fit into Modernism nor Minimalism. Her designs portray open areas with spatial orientation. Although her drawings begin as abstract drawings, the techniques are then turned into reality. Although her projects can range from being 1 acre to 150 acres, Gustafson tries to relate viewer's need for peace and calmness to the landscape. Much of her designs are conceptually influenced by her previous vocation as a fashion designer. Gustafson believes that the design for a site comes from the site itself and not the other way. Therefore, before coming up with a design, she tries to research about the site and achieve the best type of plan for the context of the area.
Gustafon incorporates water as a sculptural element, activating designs and contrasting the rhythmic but static forma of the land. Curved and very defined geometries are also distinctive in Gustafson’s work.







Designed by Kathryn Gustafson:

She completed her first major land movement piece, Morbras ( 1986 ), in Roissy-en-Brie.





Rights of Man Square
Rights of Man Square, based in the city of Evry, France, was completed in 1991. The theme for this design emerged from the French constitution, which consents freedom of expression. This is meant to draw people to gather at the plaza for personal, public, civic purposes. The plaza is primarily an open space with a few trees lined up on the sides with focal points leading towards the buildings. However, the site's granite floor with fountains of water surging upward from the ground dominates the viewer's
Shell Petroleum Esso gardens ( 1992 ) in Rueil-Malmaison
The landscape for Shell Petroleum Headquarters was completed in 1992. Before beginning this design, Gustafson studied the setting of the land and its relationship to the community. She tried to achieve a landscape that would relate to the company's current stance in environmental issues. Part of the land near the entry is shaped into rolling mounds of earth with stone walls protruding from the ground; the other part of the entry is a rectangular pool. The water in relationship to the water is supposed to signify the dependency people have for Shell's products.

Lurie Garden is a 10,000 m2 garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park in Chicago. Designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004.
The garden has won numerous awards: Best Public Space Award 2005 Intensive Industrial Award by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, 2005; Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design

Great Glass House interior (Wales)

Judgement:
The design does not include the requirements of the competition - improvement of water quality of the Serpentine (Required: the memorial to sit "on the edge of the Serpentine" on the former chlorination plant site. The Gustafson "moat" is between 50 and 100 metres away. The memorial was supposed to "contribute to the improvement of the water quality in the Serpentine" and "enhance the wildlife value of the water's edge habitat and vegetation")
Cost
the costs of building the memorial reflect that it is built from high quality Cornish granite
each year maintenance cost (120,000-250,000£ The Royal Parks budget is very strained and simply can't afford that sort of money, it means the money has to be found by neglecting some maintenance at another royal park.")
Choice of Mat/ Finish/ Understanding the Mat properties
fountain is made from slippery granite
Taking into account the environmental factors
slimy algae would build up inside
leaves from the trees bunged up the drains
tech mistakes
poor drainage
too soft surfaces on some most frequently walked areas


Conclusion:
Designer declined to comment the ignorance of design requirements.
Another factor which might affect the quality of design is the fact that K Gustafson was in charge of massive project in Chicago - Lurie Garden is a 10,000 m2 garden. It opened on July 16, 2004 just 10 days after Diana Memorial.
Some of the problems with the fountain reflected basic project management failures. The fountain was a small-scale project, yet there were multiple stakeholders whose roles, responsibilities and accountability were not clear. Nor were there clear plans for managing the project risks. The relationship between architects, engineers, contractors has to be umbilical.
As the main idea of whole design was “to be interactive with and become part of /inclusiveness and interactivity" the design resolution seems to be poor, because the consequences/ problems might caused by overwhelming visitor member has not been taken into account.