Honored landscape architect shares career highlights

Landscape architect Morgan Wheelocks life work encompasses a range of styles and earthy canvasses.

Wheelock, former chairman of the Architectural Review Commission, has for decades designed gardens and landscapes for estates in Palm Beach, New England and across the country. He has called his firms redesign of the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden at The Society of the Four Arts the best dance of my life.

Farther out, hes created a sculpture garden in London; crafted landscaping for a horse farm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; and won accolades for, among other projects, The United States Armed Forces Memorial Garden in Caen, France.

In recognition of his work and his willingness to mentor budding landscape architects who have become award-winners themselves, Wheelock will be inducted into the New England Design Hall of Fame, in the landscape design category, on Nov. 8 at a ceremony in Boston.

I didnt believe it when they called me, Wheelock said from his West Palm Beach office. I was wow quite surprised but very excited and grateful.

His philosophy about landscape design has evolved over the years, he said.

I believe landscape architecture is a medium through which people can retain their biological connection to the land, said the Harvard-educated landscape architect. Executed properly, a gardens form and composition can produce moments that are spiritual and healing, he said.

The redesign of the 2.6-acre sculpture garden at The Society of the Four Arts, which was unveiled in 2007, is a prime example, he said. The southeast quadrant has a naturalistic feel, while the northwest quadrant is architecturally controlled, Wheelock said.

One finds strong geometry on that side of the garden and romantic natural landscape on the other side, he said.

Wheelock said the project that touched him most emotionally was the Armed Services Memorial Garden, which he designed in 1994. It was a truly international effort. Craftsmen in Carrara, Italy, used a saw designed in Germany for the project, to cut and shape 3,000 pieces of granite from Finland, Wheelock said.

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Honored landscape architect shares career highlights