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Linn, Karl Collection
2004-04  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Access Statement
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biographical Note
  • System of Arrangement
  • Scope and Contents
  • Related Collections
  • Project Index

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives
    Title: Karl Linn Collection
    creator: Linn, Karl, 1923-2005
    source: Chadwick, Gordon, 1915-1980
    source: Church, Thomas Dolliver, 1902-1978
    source: Fischer, Leo L., 1913-1999
    source: Haag, Richard, 1923-
    source: Johnson, Philip, 1906-2005
    source: Klein, Milton, 1930-
    source: Klein, Norman, 1922-1975
    source: Nelson, George, 1908-1986
    Identifier/Call Number: 2004-04
    Physical Description: 70 Cubic Feet: 142 document boxes, 12 cartons, 1 flat box, 2 portfolios, 2 flat file drawers, 1 tube
    Date (inclusive): c.1925-2005
    Date (bulk): 1955-2005
    Abstract: The Karl Linn Collection spans the years c.1925-2005 (bulk 1955-2005) and includes files documenting the life and professional work of landscape architect Karl Linn. The Collection is categorized into six series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, Faculty Papers, Office Records, Project Records, and Additional Donations. The Project Records make up the bulk of the Collection and consist of correspondence, notes, slides, photographs, magazine and clip files, and drawings.

    Access Statement

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Curator.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of Item], Karl Linn Collection, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

    Biographical Note

    Karl Linn was born in 1923 in Dessau, Germany. He grew up on an orchard founded by his mother, Henrietta Rosenthal, as an accredited training center for gardening and horticultural therapy. Linn's father, Josef Lin, was the Chief Librarian at the Jewish Community Center in Berlin. In 1933, their home was raided by the Nazis and Josef fled to Palestine. Forced to sell the farm, Henrietta followed with the children in 1934.
    The family started a new farm near Haifa. When Karl was 14, he dropped out of school to become a farmer to support his ailing parents. He graduated from the Kadoorie School of Agriculture in 1941, helped to found the Kibbutz Maagan Michael, and developed an elementary school garden program in Tel Aviv that taught students to grow food for their own lunches.
    At 23, the experience of anti-Semitism in Germany and a growing uneasiness at the way Jews were treating Arabs in Palestine encouraged Linn to move to Zurich, Switzerland. There he trained as a psychoanalyst at the Institute for Applied Psychology, graduating in 1948, and then he moved to New York where he had a private practice as a child psychoanalyst.
    Having learned early that nature could be a powerful force for emotional healing, Linn returned to landscape architecture in 1952. He continued to study both landscape design and psychology, taking a summer course with Stanley White at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1954 and graduating from the New School for Social Research in New York with an MA in Gestalt Psychology in 1956.
    Linn rose quickly in the landscape architecture field earning the commission for Mies van der Rohe's Seagram building and collaborating with architect Philip Johnson on the building's Four Seasons Restaurant. However, he began to feel that his increasingly wealthy suburban clients were robbing him of his social relevance. In 1959, at the invitation of department chair Ian McHarg, Linn joined the Landscape Architecture faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, he developed a program to transform vacant lots in urban neighborhoods into neighborhood commons, engaging students, residents, social service agencies, and local governments in the design and construction process. The program evolved into the Neighborhood Renewal Corps Nonprofit Corporation in Philadelphia, and later also in Washington, D.C., and was a model for the Domestic Peace Corps as well as similar design-build centers in Baltimore, New York, Boston, Newark, Columbus, Louisville, Chicago, and St. Louis.
    Linn continued to teach landscape architecture as a tool for social change at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He retired from teaching in 1986 and moved to Berkeley where he was involved with the Earth Island Institute and the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners. He co-founded Urban Habitat, East Bay Urban Gardeners, the People of Color Greening Network, and Berkeley's Community Gardening Collaborative. The Karl Linn Community Garden in Berkeley was dedicated to him in honor of his life-long service to community and peace and inspired Karl to develop several more community garden and art projects in adjacent lots.
    Linn was an active member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and became a Fellow in 1999. He was also active in establishing Arab-Jewish dialogue in the Bay Area, co-founding the East Bay Dialogue Group and cementing his legacy as an advocate for peace everywhere. Karl Linn passed away in 2005.
    Sources:

    System of Arrangement

    The records have been categorized into six series in accordance with the guidelines published in the Standard Series for Architecture and Landscape Design Records (2000, Kelcy Shepherd and Waverly Lowell). The creator further categorized the series into subseries (detailed below), and arranged the records largely chronologically across series. Linn's order has been maintained throughout the manuscript files; however, in order to preserve the drawings they have been re-housed and subsequently reordered.

    Scope and Contents

    The Karl Linn Collection spans the years c.1925-2005 (bulk 1955-2005) and includes files documenting the life and professional work of landscape architect Karl Linn. The Collection is arranged into six series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, Faculty Papers, Office Records, Project Records, and Additional Donations.
    The Personal Papers contain biographical information, personal photographs, and correspondence from friends and colleagues including architect Louis Kahn.
    The Professional Papers include lectures, writings, awards, research, correspondence, photographs, and documents related to Linn's involvement with the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and independent design charrettes.
    The Faculty Papers consist primarily of correspondence and material documenting the design studios and student projects administered by Linn at various institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the University of Pennsylvania, the Technical University of Berlin, and the Israel Institute of Technology. Also included is research done at Long Island University and correspondence and notes for courses taught at Antioch College and Drexel University.
    The Office Records are limited and contain film reels and audiocassettes, clip files and scrapbooks, project photographs and slides.
    The Project Records make up the bulk of the Collection and consist of correspondence, notes, and drawings.
    The Additional Donations have not yet been processed.

    Project Index

    The following is a list of architectural projects from the Karl Linn Collection. For more complete information about collection contents for each project download the complete Project Index in an Excel spreadsheet format by going to Karl Linn i-page  . For instructions on interpreting the Project Index, see The Guide to the Project Index.  
    The project list below, derived from the Project Index, is arranged alphabetically by Project/Client Name and contains information, where available, about the location, date, project type, and collaborators for each project in the collection.
    Project/Client Name (location, date, project type) Collaborator (role)
    • 60 Sutton Drive (New York, NY; 1959; residential)
    • A City Garden Court (New York, NY; 1957; residential) Collaborator: Klein, Milton (architect)
    • Architects for Social Responsibility: Times Square Peace Park Charrette (New York, NY; 1984; educational)
    • Aspen Group Developers: Neighborhoods of the University towards a garden city, open space master plan (Newark, NJ; residential-multi) Collaborator: Old Aspen Corp
    • Aspen Group Developers: Pueblo City Memorial Commons (Newark, NJ; residential-multi) Collaborator: Old Aspen Corp
    • Aspen Vegetable Garden (Newark, NJ; residential-multi) Collaborator: Old Aspen Corp
    • Beck, Charles (residential)
    • Café De La Paz (Berkeley, CA; 1992-1993; commercial)
    • Cannon Point North (New York , NY; 1959; residential-multi)
    • Caplan, Frank (Princeton, NJ; residential) Collaborator: Fischer, Leo (architect)
    • Carrolsburg [see Neighborhood Commons, Inc.]
    • Cedar Rose Park (Berkeley, CA; c. 1982)
    • CELA Peace Park Charrette: My Secret Garden (Urbana, IL; 1985)
    • Clara Baldwin Neighborhood Commons (Philadelphia, PA; residential-multi)
    • Competition: National Peace Garden (Washington, DC; 1988-1989; governmental)
    • Creative Playthings (East Windsor Township, NJ; 1959-1960; commercial) Collaborator: Fischer, Leo (architect)
    • Currier, Stephen (New York , NY; 1958-1959; residential) Collaborator: Bentel & Bentel (architect)
    • Currier, Steven: Rooftop PlayHouse (New York , NY; 1959; recreational) Collaborator: Bentel & Bentel (architect)
    • Design: Residential (residential)
    • Eastland Gardens Commons (Washington, DC; residential-multi)
    • Esty, William (New York , NY; 1958; residential) Collaborator: Klein, Norman (architect)
    • Farish Roof Garden (New York , NY; residential)
    • Federated Garden Club of America, NYC: International Flower Show (New York, NY; 1958; exposition)
    • First International Healthy City Commons (San Francisco, CA; 1993)
    • Four Seasons Restaurant (New York , NY; 1958-1960, 1999; commercial) Collaborator: Johnson, Philip (architect); Pahlmann, William (interior designer)
    • Frank (residential)
    • Frank, P. Jr. (New York, NY; residential)
    • Herman Miller Factory (Zeeland, MI; commercial) Collaborator: Nelson, George (architect)
    • Housing Development Rehabilitation Corp: Reservoir Townhouses (Newark, NJ; 1979; residential-multi)
    • IBM Pavilion: World's Fair (Seattle, WA; 1961-1962; exposition) Collaborator: J. Carreiro Associates (architect); Haag, Richard (landscape architect)
    • Irvington, Town of: Development Plan (Irvington, NJ; n.d.; civic/planning)
    • Karl Linn Community Garden [see also Peralta Community Garden] (Berkeley, CA; 1994-1997)
    • Kirkpatrick (Kalamazoo, MI; 1958; residential)
    • LABASH: Peace Park Charrette (Athens, GA; 1986)
    • Levenson, Edgar (Ardsley, NY; residential) Collaborator: Torkelson, Stanley (architect)
    • MacCullough, Shmael: Penthouse (New York, NY; 1957; residential)
    • Madison Avenue Patterson Commons (civic/planning?) Collaborator: Old Aspen Corp
    • Mayer, John (Riverdale, NY; residential) Collaborator: Klein, Norman (architect)
    • Mayer, William (Riverdale, NY; residential) Collaborator: Klein, Norman (architect)
    • Mel Richman Studios (Philadelphia, PA; 1959; commercial) Collaborator: Thompson, James (architect)
    • Melon Commons [see Neighborhood Renewal Corps]
    • Motel On the Mountain (Suffern, NY; 1957; commercial) Collaborator: Yoshimura, Junzo (architect)
    • Murrie, Richard & Betty (New York , NY; 1959; residential)
    • Neighborhood Commons, Inc.: Carrolsburg Public Housing Project (Washington, DC; residential-multi)
    • Neighborhood Commons, Inc.: Eastland Garden Civic Association Commons (Washington, DC; c. 1963)
    • Neighborhood Commons, Inc.: Harlem Education Project (New York, NY)
    • Neighborhood Commons, Inc.: Landscape Technician Training Center (Washington, DC; 1963-1964)
    • Neighborhood Commons, Inc.: Neighbors Commons Inc. Park (Washington, DC)
    • Neighborhood Commons, Inc.: Northwest Settlement House (Washington, DC)
    • Neighborhood Commons, Inc.: St. Paul & Augustine Commons (Washington, DC)
    • Neighborhood Commons, Inc.: Triangle Commons (Washington, DC)
    • Neighborhood Development Corps: 18th St. Commons for West Side (Newark, NJ; c. 1975; civic/planning?)
    • Neighborhood Development Corps.: Newark District Scale, west side (Newark, NJ)
    • Neighborhood Renewal Corps.: Clara Baldwin Community Commons (Philadelphia, PA; 1962)
    • Neighborhood Renewal Corps.: Melon Commons Neighborhood Park (Philadelphia, PA; 1968; civic/planning?)
    • Neighborhood Renewal Corps.: Pearl Street Neighborhood Commons (Philadelphia, PA; c. 1960)
    • New Jersey, State of: John Fitch Way Master Plan (Trenton, NJ; 1960; planning) Collaborator: Clauss, Alfred (architect); Frank Grad & Sons (architect)
    • New York State University: College of Education (Plattsburg, NY; 1961; educational) Collaborator: Fordyce & Hamby Architects
    • Northern Student Movement Coordinating Committee for Civil Rights Harlem Tutorial Project (New York, NY; residential-multi)
    • Northside Community Garden (Berkeley, CA; 1997)
    • Northwest Settlement House Commons (Washington, DC; residential-multi)
    • Ohlone Greenway Natural and Cultural History Interpretive Exhibit (Berkeley, CA; educational)
    • Old Aspen Corp.: headquarters (Newark, NJ; 1978-1980; commercial) Collaborator: Bastuni, Rusturm (architect)
    • Old Aspen Corp.: parking park (Newark, NJ; 1980; commercial) Collaborator: Bastuni, Rusturm (architect)
    • Pacem in Terris, Fredrick Frank Retreat (New Milford, NY)
    • Pahlmann, William (Bedford Village, NY; residential) Collaborator: Thiele, George (architect)
    • Patterson Medical Clinic: Medical Arts Building (Patterson, NJ; 1958; commercial) Collaborator: Fordyce & Hamby Architects
    • Peace Garden (Sebastapol, CA; recreational)
    • Peace Pagoda (Leverette, MA; recreational)
    • People's Convention, Site Development (South Bronx, NY; 1980)
    • Peralta Community Garden [see also Karl Linn Community Garden] (Berkeley, CA; c. 1997)
    • Posters for Peace: AIDS quilt, Spiderwort - Nuclear Indicator plant, Protest for Alternative Energy Wackersdorf Reprocessing Plant, Ribbon Project
    • Richman, Mel (Penn Valley, PA; residential) Collaborator: Thompson, James (architect)
    • Rosen, Saul (Patterson, NJ; 1956; residential) Collaborator: Church,Thomas (landscape architect); Klein, Milton (architect)
    • Royal York Apartments (residential-multi)
    • Rubin, Henry (New York, NY; 1959; residential)
    • Selikoff, Irving (Ridgewood, NJ; 1955, 1990; residential) Collaborator: Klein, Milton (architect)
    • Simkin (Metuchen, NJ; residential) Collaborator: Tafel, Edgar (architect)
    • Smith, Sydney (Highland Park, NJ; residential) Collaborator: Tafel, Edgar (architect)
    • Spaeth, Otto (East Hampton, NY; residential) Collaborator: George Nelson & Gorden Chadwick Architects
    • Spruce Hill University City: Backyard and Inner Court Project (Philadelphia, PA; residential-multi)
    • Spuyten Duyvil Pre-School Playground (Riverdale) (New York, NY; educational)
    • Tenant's Garden (Peterson, NJ; 1978; residential-multi)
    • Torno (Toronto, Canada; 1961; residential) Collaborator: Bregman & Hamann (architect); Johnson, Philip (consultant)
    • Torno, Noah: Office building (Toronto, Canada; 1961; commercial)
    • Toronto Peace Park (Toronto, Canada; recreational)
    • Tremont St. Commons (Syracuse, NY; 1963-1965; civic/planning?)
    • Tulipan, Alan B. (Ardsley, NY; residential)
    • Weitzman, Daniel (New York , NY; residential)
    • Weller, Truman D. (Ossining , NY; residential)
    • Yonkers Public Library: G.I. Will Branch (Yonkers, NY; 1959; educational) Collaborator: Rabineau, Eli (architect)
    • Zirpolo (Colonia, NJ; residential) Collaborator: Fischer, Leo (architect)

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Landscape Architecture
    Landscape Architectural education
    Architecture and society
    Chadwick, Gordon, 1915-1980
    Church, Thomas Dolliver, 1902-1978
    Fischer, Leo L., 1913-1999
    Haag, Richard, 1923-
    Johnson, Philip, 1906-2005
    Kahn, Louis I., 1901-1974
    Klein, Milton, 1930-
    Klein, Norman, 1922-1975
    Nelson, George, 1908-1986