Reprinted with permission from Montecito Magazine

Lockwood de Forest III

During the 1920's, a sort of garden frenzy was sweeping Southern California. Along with the proliferation of garden clubs, the decade saw the emergence of a new breed - the professional landscape architect. Among these landscaping artists was Lockwood de Forest III, who dominated the field locally for almost thirty years.

Born in New York City in 1896, young Lockwood was sent West in 1912 to attend Thacher School in Ojai. He loved it, absorbing classroom learning and the subtle beauty of the Ojai Valley while developing his artist's eye during weekend sketching and camping trips with his schoolmate and best friend, Wright Ludington.

After graduating from Thacher in 1916, de Forest went to Williams College in Massachusetts until his college career was interrupted by World War I. While awaiting his army assignment he attended his first class in landscape design at Harvard. After the war (1919) he returned West to attend the University of California at Berkeley, taking several classes in landscape architecture, a field still so new that the studies were offered by a division of the College of Agriculture. Although enrolled for a four-year program, Lockwood de Forest was a young man in a hurry. He left Berkeley after one year, having decided on his life's work and eager to get on with it. However, de Forest was eventually licensed by the state as a landscape architect and became a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

For six months, de Forest worked for Ralph Stevens- a successful Santa Barbara landscape architect who was responsible for the gardens and grounds on several of the area's most impressive estates (see Montecito Magazine Fall 1994 "The Men Who Made Montecito Bloom"). Finding Stevens too inflexible and conventional, de Forest felt confident enough to break free and pursue an independent career.

He began by traveling to Europe with his old Thacher school friend, Wright Ludington. Armed with letters of introduction, the two young men were welcomed into a number of great Italian Renaissance villas and gardens. Continuing his travels alone, de Forest studied and photographed magnificent Moorish gardens in Spain, especially noting their design patterns, use of sculpture, and the details of planning watercourses and fountains. The leisurely trip was a valuable learning experience, and he returned to Santa Barbara ready to begin working on his own.

From 1920 to 1930, Lockwood de Forest's commissions included a number of large estates in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Los Angeles and Ventura County. Good landscape architects were in demand, and he was already recognized as one of the best. The year 1925 was a landmark for Lockwood de Forest, personally and professionally. He worked with George Steedman, Ralph Stevens and architect George Washington Smith on landscaping plans for Steedman's estate, Casa del Herrero (see Montecito Magazine Fall 1994), to be ready in June. That same year, he married San Francisco-born Elizabeth Kellam.

Later in 1925, the Plans and Planting Committee of the Community Arts Association asked the de Forests to begin a regional gardening publication, giving them the munificent sum of $25 toward initial expenses. Their Magazine, The Santa Barbara Gardener, carried articles on every aspect the subject, many written by nationally known horticulturists. Published from late 1925 until 1942, when it was discontinued due to Lockwood de Forest's World War II service, the Gardener began as the only magazine of its kind in the state and ended as a popular, widely mimicked periodical.

Although fiercely devoted to his work, Lockwood de Forest stayed active in community affairs throughout his career, finding time to teach courses at Santa Barbara State College (now UCSB). When it was located on the old Riviera campus, and act as an advisor to city and county planning groups. A favorite project was the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens where he donated his time and skills and was an active contributor throughout his life, beginning with the original planning of the gardens.

From the outset, de Forest deliberately kept his office small. He preferred the simplicity of dealing with clients himself, drawing his own plans, making all design decisions and monitoring work crews closely. He liked to do explanatory drawings on the job site, stuffing them into car casually-often unsigned-because he had no patience with fancy plans or pretensions.

One of the most intriguing aspects of de Forest's work is the gradual change in his design style throughout his career. While he studied traditional European designs and incorporated those ideas in his early work, he was aware that the times increasingly called for a more modern interpretation of landscape architecture. His designs departed from the traditional as he became convinced that each site should inspire its own natural landscaping, rather than have an arbitrary style imposed upon it. The use of permanent shrubs and trees gave de Forest's designs a unique and remarkable quality.

The landscape artistry of Lockwood de Forest is best illustrated locally by the garden design of three fine Montecito estates, as well as the private gardens of his family home.

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