Existing comment:
Gude Garden:
The Gude Garden (dedicated by Congressman Gilbert Gude to his father and nurseryman, Adolph Gude) has a calming, Asia feel to it -- though it was not designed to be a Japanese garden in the strict sense. Its emphasis on forms (land, water, and specimen trees) and how they relate to one another is unlike other parts of the Gardens.
Hans Hanses, the M-NCPPC landscape architect who designed all of the original garden areas of Brookside Gardens, sells this story about the Gude Gardens' design, "I got a letter from a Japanese professor from Tokyo. He had visited [the] Gude Garden, and he went home and researched the garden to determine what period in Japanese history the design came from. And there was no such thing. I had just looked through some Japanese garden books, and I saw certain elements. What we did, the carpenter and I, was to get some kind of Oriental flair. I had to disappoint the poor guy. It was not from any authentic Japanese period. The professor thought it was fantastic. It shows proper balance. It shows simplicity. It shows harmony." |