Lynden Miller Explained

Lynden Breed Miller
Birth Place:New York, New York
Occupation:Landscape and garden designer
Spouse:Leigh Miller

Lynden B. Miller (born December 8, 1938) is an author, an advocate for public parks and gardens, and a garden designer,[1] best known for her restoration of the Conservatory Garden in New York's Central Park, completed in 1987.[2]

Education and early career

Lynden Ryder Breed grew up in Washington, D. C. and New York. Through her mother, she is a descendant of a long line of lawyers and jurists including Judge William Butler Hornblower.[3] She attended Chapin School (Class of 1956), and graduated from Smith College (Class of 1960), where she studied art and spent her junior year abroad at the University of Florence.[4] She married Leigh Miller, an attorney, in 1966.

Miller pursued a career in fine art painting which spanned 18 years. Combining her aesthetic talents and training, knowledge gained from horticultural classes in Chelsea-Westminster College in England[5] and instruction at the New York Botanical Garden, Miller first designed her own garden at her home in Sharon, Connecticut in 1979.[6] Her selection of plants was influenced by her desire to fill the space like a canvas with texture and color in every season. She experimented with a broad palette of colors and range of native flora, shrubs, annuals and perennials to create her signature painterly plantings.

Conservatory Garden, Central Park

In 1982, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, a friend who at the time was the Administrator of Central Park, invited Miller to help restore the Conservatory Garden, six neglected and vandalized acres located near Fifth Avenue and 104th Street.[7] [8] Miller raised the money for the project herself, and recruited volunteers to help her replant the overgrown East Harlem garden.[9] Her efforts came at a time when the park was considered by some to be dangerous. The result was a lush refuge that reopened in June 1987. In a 2019 interview, Miller said, "There's something really quite wonderful about being able to bring up connection with nature to people, especially who live in a city."[10]

Career and commissions

Public parks

Miller's very visible success with Central Park led to subsequent commissions, collaborative plantings and redesigns of established gardens. She has been lauded for designs and renewals of numerous urban spaces such as Bryant Park and referred to as "New York City's very own Miss Rumphius"[11] for bringing beauty to everyone. Examples include:

Campuses

University campuses such as Columbia University[22] Princeton University, and Stony Brook University have sought out Miller's expertise. In 1996, Miller was asked to update the gardens at Columbia in time for the Centennial observation of their move to the Morningside campus. At Princeton, Miller was invited in 2005 to work with Michael Van Valkenburgh as the university's consulting gardening architect, focusing on the 17 gardens that are distributed throughout the campus.[23] As part of a team that included architects Beyer Blinder Belle,[24] they sought ways to make planting choices that respected the history of the property but also took climate change into account such as installing fewer annuals and substituting perennials.

Initiatives

Miller is adamant about working on public gardens rather than private properties. A good example of this is her collaboration with Dutch bulb grower Hans van Waardenburg in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks; Miller launched and co-founded the Daffodil Project and together with NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, she led the planting of thousands of daffodils throughout the park system to honor the victims of the attack. As of 2019, over 7.5 million daffodils have been planted in parks, school yards, community gardens and tree beds on sidewalks throughout the five boroughs. Miller's contributions to this program were recognized with the naming of a narcissus "Lovely Lynden" in her honor.[25] [26]

Books and film

Miller has lectured widely on garden design, horticulture and advocacy for public spaces. She has written articles for numerous magazines and botanical publications including Fine Gardening,[27] the Royal Horticultural Society Journal, AmericanNurseryman, and American Horticulturist. Her book, Parks, Plants, and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape won a Horticultural Society National Book Award in 2010. The book details not only her approach to designing attractive gardens for public use but also how to secure funding and volunteers for these maintenance heavy endeavors. Miller's central tenet is "Make it gorgeous and they will come. Keep it that way and they will help."[28]

Most recently she narrated and hosted a documentary about one of America's most notable landscape architects, Beatrix Jones Farrand called Beatrix Farrand, American Landscapes.[29] The film was directed by Stephen Ives and produced by Anne Cleves Symmes.[30]

Teaching

Miller started teaching at NYU in 2006 as an adjunct professor in their Urban Design and Architecture Program.[31]

Philanthropy

Miller serves on the Boards of the Central Park Conservancy, the New York Botanical Garden and New Yorkers for Parks.[32] She is also a member of the Friends of the Botanic Garden Advisory Committee at Smith College.[33]

Awards

Personal life

Miller is married to Leigh Miller and has two sons, Marshall and Gifford and two step-sons, Ethan and Christian. Her son [37] Gifford Miller is a politician.[38]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Wall Street Journal. She Creates Urban Edens. Joanne Kaufman. October 20, 2009.
  2. Web site: Restoration of the Conservatory Garden, Celebrating 35 Years of the Women's Committee. Central Park Conservancy. January 16, 2020.
  3. Web site: William Butler Hornblower. Albert M. Rosenblatt. Historical Society of the New York Courts. January 16, 2020.
  4. Web site: Lynden B. Miller. 3 March 2010 . Commonweeder. January 16, 2020.
  5. Web site: Landscape Design Award. American Horticulturalist. March 1989. 4.
  6. Web site: Captivating Connecticut Garden. Traditional Home. Tovah Martin. January 16, 2020.
  7. Web site: Garden designer Lynden Miller says a healthy city needs beautiful parks. Grist. November 13, 2010. January 18, 2020.
  8. News: The New York Times. Garden in Central Park Is Reborn After Neglect. Sarah Lyall. June 11, 1987.
  9. Web site: A Gardening Life: Lynden Miller. Deborah Needleman. Horticulture Magazine. January 16, 2020.
  10. Web site: INTERVIEW: LongHouse Reserve Landscape Awards Honoree Lynden Miller On Adding Greenery To NYC, Beautifying Public Gardens, And More. Nicole Barylski. Hamptons.com. January 17, 2020.
  11. Web site: New York's Miss Rumphius. Chapin. November 2, 2016. January 17, 2020.
  12. Web site: New York City's Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park Listed as Nationally Significant Threatened Landscape. The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Washington, D. C.. June 4, 2017. January 16, 2020.
  13. Web site: Bryant Park: A Stunning Urban Garden. Frannie Sorin. November 22, 2008. Bryant Park. January 16, 2020.
  14. Web site: Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden. New York Botanical Garden. February 25, 2020. Louise Edeiken.
  15. Web site: Gardener Steph: Plants of the Future. Madison Square Park. February 25, 2020.
  16. Web site: Fort Tryon Park. NYC Parks. January 16, 2020.
  17. Web site: Friends of Hudson River Park Presents $25,500 For Upkeep Of Park's Newest Section. May 17, 2010. Friends of Hudson Park. Allan Margolin. February 25, 2020.
  18. Web site: The Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden. NY City Parks. February 25, 2020.
  19. Web site: Questions About New York. The New York Times. Michael Pollak. September 3, 2010. February 25, 2020.
  20. Web site: Lynden B. Miller. Bayard Cutting Arboretum. January 16, 2020.
  21. News: Frick Collection, With Fourth Expansion Plan, Crosses Its Fingers Again. Robin Pogrebin. The New York Times . April 4, 2018.
  22. Web site: Columbia University's Landscape Improvements to the Morningside Campus. Columbia University Facilities. January 18, 2020.
  23. Web site: Growing Campus. Mark F. Bernstein. Princeton Alumni Weekly. June 11, 2008. January 18, 2020.
  24. Web site: Princeton University Campus Plan. Beyer Blinder Belle. February 5, 2020.
  25. Web site: Public Garden Savior. Garden Design. Charles Birnbaum. January 16, 2020.
  26. Web site: New Daffodil "Lovely Lynden" Unveiled at Daffodil Breakfast. New Yorkers For Parks. April 19, 2019.
  27. Web site: The Only Shrubs You Need to Grow. 25 April 2014 . Fine Gardening. 127. January 18, 2020.
  28. Web site: Parks, Plants, and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape. Good Reads. January 16, 2020.
  29. Web site: Beatrix Farrand's American Landscapes. Beatrix Farrand Garden Association. January 16, 2020.
  30. Web site: The Humanities Institute Presents: Beatrix Farrand's American Landscapes. New York Botanical Garden. January 18, 2020.
  31. Web site: Adjunct Professor Lynden B. Miller wins CIVITAS Award. New York University. February 2, 2012. January 18, 2020.
  32. Web site: Public Garden Design. Lynden B. Miller. January 16, 2020.
  33. Web site: Friends of the Botanic Garden Advisory Committee. The Botanic Garden at Smith College. January 16, 2020.
  34. Web site: 2011 Honorary Medals Gala to honor Lynden Miller. Massachusetts Horticultural Society. January 18, 2020.
  35. Web site: People and Places in the News. Cleveland Botanical Garden. January 18, 2020.
  36. Web site: GCA Medals, Elvira Broome Doolan Medal Winners. Garden Club of America. January 18, 2020.
  37. Web site: leighmiller.com. Leigh Miller. January 16, 2020.
  38. Web site: An Address on Fifth, but She's No Hothouse Flower. The New York Times. Joyce Wadler. November 7, 2002. January 16, 2020.

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