Lynden 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]

Lynden Breed Miller
BornDecember 8, 1938 (1938-12-08) (age 84)
New York, New York
Occupation(s)Landscape and garden designer
SpouseLeigh Miller

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, May 2019

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, American Nurseryman, 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
  • 2019 Landscape Award, LongHouse Reserve
  • 2018 Living Landmark Award, New York Landmarks Conservancy
  • 2012 August Heckscher Award for Community Service, CIVITAS[31]
  • 2011 George Robert White Medal, Massachusetts Horticultural Society[34]
  • Frederick Law Olmsted Award, Central Park Conservancy
  • 2006 Vail Medal, Cleveland Botanical Garden, for "significant national contributions to the field of horticulture"[35]
  • 1993 Elvira Broome Doolan Medal, Garden Club of America, "Presented for her diligence and belief in the refreshing quality of plants, coupled with a sensitivity for people working together to make things happen, giving her the impetus to envision new gardens for New York City."[36]

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]

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