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Editor’s note: Please note the following changes to the article: Deleted Jensen’s credit for designing the boat house at Humboldt Park (credit Schmidt, Garden and Martin) and the Refectory at Columbus Park (credit Chattan and Hammond). Added Harrison and Union Parks to Jensen’s list of park credits. Thanks to Tom Drebenstedt for the new information. 

Jens Jensen

We offer another resource focus on an individual, landscape architect Jens Jensen, who, like Frederick Law Olmstead was a multifaceted designer. Born in Denmark, Jensen eventually settled in Chicago. He was a most important figure in Chicago’s growing park system in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, outlasting rampant corruption in what was then known as the West Park System. He designed Humboldt Park, Garfield Park, Douglas Park, Columbus Park, Harrison Park and Union Park. He helped establish what is now the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. He worked with others for the preservation of the Indiana Dunes.

When he retired, he founded The Clearing Folk School in Door County, WI, “as a place where city people could renew their contact with the ‘soil’ as a basis for life values,” as the still-existing place says on its website.

We will add all of the Jensen resources we have found to our main Excel spreadsheet of digital resources. Some representative materials follow:

Articles

Gesme, Ryan, “Trees are Like People, They Do Not Like To Be Alone: Jens Jensen,” The Cross Section (University of Wisconsin online journal) https://crosssection.gns.wisc.edu/2014/05/01/trees-are-like-people-they-do-not-like-to-be-alone-jens-jensen/ (May 1, 2014)

Kling, Samuel, “Regional Plans and Regional Plants: Jens Jensen’s Vernacular Landscape and Metropolitan Planning in Chicago, 1904-1920,” Journal of Urban History 44.6 (November 2018): 1154-1175.

Books

Bachrach, Julia Sniderman, Inspired by Nature: The Garfield Park Conservatory and Chicago’s West Side. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2008. ISBN 9780979412509; LC # NA8360.B33 2008.

Grese, Robert E., Jens Jensen, Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. ISBN 0801842875; LC # SB470.J4 G74 1992; Dewey 712.0973/092 B

 Videos

“Chicago Park District September 2010: Jens Jensen”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP9ZKs-ge4w. A celebration by the Park District on the 150^th birthday of Jens Jensen.

“The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFOh5wOjISo
“A short historical feature about landscape architect Jens Jensen and the history of The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin. Features commentary by famed Door County writer Norbert Blei in one of the last interviews before his death at age 78 on April 23, 2013.

“Jens Jensen: The Living Green”. A film by Carey Lundin and Mark Frazel of Viva Lundin Productions for the Video Project, 2013. 54 minutes. Available for purchase as a DVD; available and included on Amazon Prime. Information at https://www.videoproject.com/Jens-Jensen-The-Living-Green.html

And More – Architecture Websites

The combination of sheltering in place and daylight savings time makes the days seem longer. Your digital resource team in always looking for new ways/sites to add some entertainment to our life. Here is a list of architecture websites that focus on an architect and/or architectural style.

Many have past lectures or articles you can peruse as well as some in-depth information. If you have any favorite sites to add to the list, please email bo**********@gm***.com. We’re eager to add to our cache.

Art Deco: https://www.artdeco.org/nyc-deco

Art Deco, Chicago: https://chicagodeco.org

Bauhaus: https://www.chicagobauhausandbeyond.org

Mid-century Modern: https://www.docomomo.org

Walter Burley Griffin: https://www.griffinsociety.org/walther-burley-griffen

Benjamin Marshall: https://www.benjaminmarshallsociety.org

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: https://miesociety.org

Edgar Miller: https://www.edgarmiller.org