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Photo by : John Kernick .
“ Take what you need ; it ’s here to be used ! ” It sounded profane , but Alessandra Vinciguerra , horticulturist of theAmerican Academy in Rome , was urge me to cut flowers on the newly rejuvenate honorary society ground . Once I realize that she meant what she said , it strike me that her generosity came from the heart of the one C - old institution that she serve . Each class , the academy appoint 29 fellows ( Americans who pursue projection in the artwork and humanities that typically last 12 months ) and welcomes other scholars , such as Fulbright buster , as well . The group know in an 11 - acre brow complex of villas overlook Rome , with all of the city ’s aesthetic and intellectual riches at its disposal .
Before taking my campus tour , as the married woman of a late go far fellow in design humanities , I ’d studied the list of fellows retiring , a roster that includes creative person , writers , and musicians as various as Frank Stella and Mary Miss , William Styron and Mark Helprin , Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss . An architect myself , I could easily see how a stay amid the herculean cityscape of Rome has leave its St. Mark on modern-day designers such as architects Robert Venturi and Michael Graves and landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh and Laurie Olin . In very different ways , each of these former fellow still draws upon the ageless edict and sensuousity of Italian custom to redefine the shape of our world .
Olin ’s name come up right aside as I peach with Vinciguerra , who is responsible for carry out the Philadelphian ’s challenging garden restoration plan . Academy President Adele Chatfield - Taylor praises Olin as “ one of the most poetic , experienced , and sought - after landscape architects in America . ” Now an academy regent , he return , “ I ’d get to know the web site when I was a companion during the ’ 70s . The Villa Aurelia [ a 17th - one C construction that became the Academy ’s first lasting habitation in 1909 ] was so beautiful then , and the garden of the independent edifice , with its vegetable game , flower bed , and gardener ’s hut , was like the long - lost rural landscape around Rome . Then one day in 1989 , while sit in a trustee ’ meeting , I looked out the window and saw dying Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . ” Olin walked the ground . “ The hard I appear , the sorry , I realise , it was . So I raised the consternation . ”
Chatfield - Taylor , who shuttle between the academy ’s offices in Rome and New York City , agreed with him : “ If the neglect had continued , the grounds would shortly have become a barren hillside . ” She assembled an all - asterisk squad of trustee , include Millicent Johnson , past president of the Garden Club of America ; Mercedes Bass and Arthur Ross , who each provided generous funding , ebullience , and advice ; and Marella Agnelli , a remark gardener and an government agency on the Italian landscape .
This was not the first sentence the grounds had been rescued from oblivion . Cannon ardour savaged the Villa Aurelia in 1849 , when Garibaldi made it his headquarters for the defense of Rome against French encroacher . The villa was rebuilt in the eighties by a Philadelphia dowager , who littered its classic Italian landscape painting with Victorian gazebo and fussy rockeries . The main honorary society building cause off to a good start : J.P. Morgan donate a spell of earth near the Villa Aurelia , and the famous New York architects McKim Mead and White , drawing card in the turn - of - the - century Neoclassical movement , produced an impressive design ( partner Charles McKim helped found the academy in 1894 , along with illustrious compatriots such as sculptor Augustus Saint - Gaudens and Daniel Chester French ) . Fate intervened again , however , just as the construction was nearing closing in 1913 . The outbreak of World War I scurry plans for splendid gardens with grand allées and axially orient greenswards . And during World War II the building complex was plundered , delivering yet another black eye .
In come after decades , changes to the landscape occurred “ without welfare of an overall plan , ” says Olin . Many plant life died , and others were put in helter - skelter , as were a resort area , tractor sheds , and assorted ad hoc installing . Discarded gardening equipment and construction rubble piled up against rampart and under trees . Besides span away the detritus and simplifying the layout for each section of the landscape painting , Olin ’s plan outline plant - maintenance program and bid for the hiring of a seasoned plantsperson to supervise these activities .
get into Vinciguerra , an art historiographer as well as a plantsman who had act upon at the famed garden of Ninfa , to the south of Rome . At the Villa Aurelia , she and a crew of three removed bay laurel hedging that obscured the principal façade , demolished shed , renovate shattered boxwood edging , pruned diseasedQuercus ilex , bestow to a magnificent orchard of umbrella pines , and renovated a bay laurel bower . Vinciguerra also planted flowers . “ Many think the Italian garden is — and always was — just structure and greenery because that ’s what survived the centuries , ” she says . “ But , in fact , the great gardens of the 1600s and 1700s had efflorescence , and Italians , like other Europeans , were esurient collectors of the botanical treasures that works hunters were bring back from abroad . ”
A blue - and - white colour system specified by the Olin plan complement the Villa Aurelia ’s Graeco-Roman R.C. ochre stucco . South African daisies ( blue Felicia amelloidesand whiteOsteospermum ecklonis ) splatter over Oliver Stone retaining wall and line the drive . Silver - leavedConvolvulus cneorumand wisteria descale the walls . Lavender , Lantana montevidensis , and hebe , a New Zealand native , bloom in the affectionate months , whileIberis sempervirensflowers during chilly ones . Vinciguerra explains : “ I chose predictable Mediterranean plants — the lavender and rosemary — as well as varieties from similar mood in places like South Africa , Australia , New Zealand , and California , because they all need minuscule of the gardener here in Rome . ” Nearby bench give fellow a smooth place to speculate on the scene of the Sabine Hills and the distant snow - capped Apennines . But this garden is also a spectacular setting for parties . A new fountain designed by sculptor Simon Verity flowed with wine during its dedication festivities in 1996 .
Photo by : Maura Mcevoy .
For the entry to the master honorary society building , Olin reinterpret a intent for a travertine fountain that figured in McKim Mead and White ’s original scheme . As soon as visitant approach that handsome basin , however , the odour of jasmine draw them to an inside court where they recover a bronze fountain from the 1920s . In contrast to this formality , a meandering path and trilled lawn outside the edifice recall the vanish Romancampagna . A popular resort of fellow and their families , this almost rural expanse is dotted with yield trees : peach , fig , cherry , persimmon , Cydonia oblonga , and olive . “ Italians look at this landscape , which has been made by Americans , ” says Olin , “ and sense that it carries on Roman horticultural tradition . ”
Before leaving the honorary society at the ending of my husband ’s stay , we threw an alfresco birthday party for our 4 - year - honest-to-god son . As the children black market electrical relay races on the lawn in the apparition of gilded wall , their laugh remind us that in Italy , landscape painting embracing architecture is one of the ordinary miracle of day-to-day life .
