A love of the prairie expressed through the use of horizontal lines. Use of local materials. Integration of nature and home. Manipulation of space to beckon us forward. Democratic ideals and the desire for a truly American form that does not rely on historical models from foreign shores. Are these ideals from prairie architecture, most eloquently expressed by Frank Lloyd Wright?

Of course. But these are also elements of the landscapes of Jens Jensen, the pre-eminent prairie landscape architect. Jensen identified deeply with the American Midwest, although he was not from the United States. After emigrating from Denmark in 1884 at the age of 19, he made his home in Chicago, eventually becoming Superintendent of Chicago’s West Park System. The beginning of the 20th century saw tremendous concern about social welfare. Jensen saw nature as an antidote to the stresses of city living. In Chicago’s parks, he wanted to reveal the beauty of the local region, to ensure that city dwellers could have an idea of what the wild lands outside of Chicago looked like and find a refuge from city life. Jensen was ahead of his time. In addition to his work as a landscape architect, he was a strong advocate for the natural landscape, lobbying for the creation of national and state parks and the preservation of sand dunes on both sides of Lake Michigan.

Jensen was one of the first landscape architects to emphasize the indigenous plants of whatever region he was working in. He had a particular love of the common hawthorn with its low profile and spreading habit, which symbolized the prairie, and he used it often in his designs in the Midwest. His landscapes looked as though they were formed by nature, without the involvement of man. At the Henry Ford Estate in Dearborn, for instance, he designed rapids on the Rouge River that looks natural and which conceals a power plant for the complex.

Another of Jensen’s signature design features was the use of a series of clearings, which he would connect by small openings bordered by plantings of trees and shrubs. These openings would draw the eye and allow glimpses of the clearing beyond, drawing the visitor on. These clearings would be viewed from shady paths. This manipulation of space and the contrast of light and shadow remind me of the way Frank Lloyd Wright manipulated the entrances of many of his homes where he often created a claustrophobic entranceway with a very low ceiling which opened into a large expansive, light-filled room. Jensen and Wright knew each other, and actually worked together on a few commissions, and so it is not surprising that they might have similar elements in their work.

Jensen had a poetic nature, as revealed in his book, Siftings, originally published in 1939. In Siftings, he speaks of friendship repeatedly when talking about plants, trees, and plant communities. He gives us a new appreciation of the common plants we grew up seeing by the roadside. He speaks of high ideals like freedom, democracy, and spiritual renewal in connection with landscaping. He rejected the formal gardens of Europe as expressions of despotic governments and felt they had no place in America.

Jensen designed landscapes throughout the country and had several commissions in Michigan. Although most of his designs have undergone radical change or have been destroyed altogether, two of his Michigan commissions still exist and are open for tours: the Henry Ford Estate (Fair Lane) and the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores. These estates showcase many of his signature features, including the use of hawthorn trees, a succession of clearings, rock outcroppings and ponds, streams, lagoons. Further west in the state, Jean Klock Park is reputed to have been designed by Jensen, but currently no records exist that prove his design was actually implemented. Jean Klock Park is presently being threatened with development.

Jensen was a remarkable man, crusading for a healthier environment, ahead of his time in conservation efforts, and creating beautiful, natural landscapes. For more information, see the sources below.