The Landscape Designs of Jens Jensen & O.C. Simonds by Bob Grese

Get to know the world of Prairie Style landscape gardening, developed in the late 1800s by landscape architects Jens Jensen and O.C. Simonds, who practiced their ecologically friendly approach throughout the Midwest. Bob Grese, professor emeritus in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, shares an overview of Jensen’s and Simonds’s work, including key projects in Indiana and Prairie Style’s connection to today’s native gardens. Presenter: Robert E. Grese Bob Grese is Professor Emeritus of Environment and Sustainability. His interests include ecologically-based landscape design and management that respects the cultural and natural history of a region. Grese is particularly interested in the restoration and on-going management of urban wilds and the role such lands can play in re-connecting children and families with nature. He has long been fascinated by the work of early designers such as Jens Jensen and Ossian Cole Simonds who borrowed from the native landscape in their work, as there is much to be learned about their designs and their fate over time.