Ossian Cole Simonds
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009) |
Ossian Cole Simonds (1855-1931), often known as O. C. Simonds, was an American landscape designer. He preferred the term 'landscape gardener' to that of 'landscape architect'.
[edit] Career
Simonds was born near Grand Rapids, Michigan and, from 1874-1878 studied civil engineering at the University of Michigan and, briefly, architecture with William Le Baron Jenney. In 1878 he joined Jenney's architectural practice in Chicago where he worked next to William Holabird. Shortly after receiving the commission to extend Graceland Cemetery, Jenney passed it on to his assistants who, in 1880, established the firm of Holabird & Simonds to carry out this job. In 1881, Martin Roche, who had also worked in Jenney's office, joined them as a third partner. In 1883, Simonds left the firm to concentrate solely on Graceland Cemetery. He eventually became a sought after independent landscape designer and consultant.
In 1899, he was a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and served as its president in 1913.
O. C. Simonds was also an author and wrote the book Landscape Gardening, originally published in 1920.
[edit] Further reading
- Mara Geldbloom, Ossian Simonds: Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening, in: The Prairie School Review 12, 2 (1975).
- Robert E. Grese, Ossian Cole Simonds, in: William H. Tishler (Ed.), American Landscape Architecture. Designers and Places, Washington, D. C., Preservation Press 1989.
- Julia Sniderman Bachrach, Ossian Cole Simonds: Conservation Ethic in the Prairie Style, in: William H. Tishler (Ed.), Midwestern Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois 2000.
