Male, US, born 1923-10-23, died 2018-05-09
Associated with the firms network
Haag, Richard, Associates, Incorporated, Site Planners, Landscape Architects; Halprin, Lawrence and Associates, Landscape Architects; Kiley, Dan, Landscape Architect; Osmundson and Staley, Landscape Architects
Résumé
Worker, Lexington Signal Depot, Lexington, KY. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For Kentucky, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 262, accessed 12/07/2023.) According to the Defense Technical Information Center, the Lexington Signal Depot "...was constructed in 1941-1942 as a major Signal Corps depot for storage of ground radar, other classified radio equipment, and special vehicles required to transport radar." (See Defense Technical Information Center.mil, "Accession Number: ADA175846 Title: Historic Properties Report: Lexington-Blue Grass Depot Activity, Lexington, Kentucky," accessed 12/07/2023.)
Landscape Designer, Dan Kiley, Landscape Architect, Charlotte, VT.
Landscape Designer, Osmundson and Staley, San Francisco, CA.
Landscape Designer, Lawrence Halprin, Landscape Architect, San Francisco, CA, 1956; Haag worked for Halprin for about six months before opening his own practice.
Principal, Richard Haag, Landscape Architect, San Francisco, CA, c. 1957-1958.
Principal, Richard Haag, Landscape Architect, Seattle, WA; by 2015, Haag had designed more than 20 gardens for private clients in China.
Teaching
Assistant/Associate/Professor, University of Washington, Seattle, 1958- ; Haag founded the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1963;
Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Professional Service
Haag belonged to the Executive Board of the Friends of the Market preservation group before 1963.
Professional Awards
Recipient, Fulbright Scholarship, Study in Japan, c. 1954.
Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects (FASLA).
Honorary Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA), 1981.
Recipient, American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Presidents Award for Design Excellence for Gas Works Park, Seattle, WA.
Recipient, ASLA, Presidents Award for Design Excellence for The Sequence of Gardens at Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, WA, 1986.
Resident Scholar, American Academy, Rome, Italy, 1998.
Recipient, American Society of Landscape Architects, ASLA Medal, 2003.
Recipient, University of Washington, Seattle (UW), College of Built Environments, Distinguished Faculty Award for Lifetime Achievement, Seattle, WA, 2018. The College of Built Environments said of his achievement in teaching at the UW in 2018: "Richard ('Rich') Haag (1923-2018) joined the faculty in 1958 and was the founder (1964) and first chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. An inspirational teacher, he developed and taught a “non-striving approach” to design based on his experiences in Japan. During a 60-year professional career, he produced a wide array of notable projects, including internationally recognized work at Bloedel Reserve and Seattle’s Gas Works Park." (See University of Washington, Seattle (UW), College of Built Environments.edu, "Ten honored with new CBE Distinguished Faculty Award for Lifetime Achievement," published 2018, accessed 08/02/2022.)
Archives
Richard Haag's papers, were donated to the University of Washington Libraries, Department of Special Collections by Richard Haag, Richard Haag Associates and Cheryl Trivison between 1993-2005. (A "Preliminary Guide to the Richard Haag Associates Records 1956-2004," exists online at
College
Coursework in landscape architecture, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL, 1947-1949. At the University of Illinois, Haag was strongly influenced by Stanley Hart White (1891-1979) and Hideo Sasaki (1919-2000), As Thaisa Way has written: "White maintained that there was no new need to become modern per se and what was being proposed was merely form-based. Haag, in contrast, was more persuaded by Sasaki's argument for a modernist framework that might alter the paradigms of practice. Unlike White, Sasaki was excited by the modern movement and argued that landscape architects should seriously consider how ideas being discussed by contemporary artists and architects might inform landscape architecture." (See Thaisa Way, The Landscape Architecture of Richard Haag From Modern Space to Urban Ecological Design, [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015], p. 16.)
B.L.A., University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Berkeley, CA, 1949-1950.
Master's of Landscape Architecture (M.L.A.), Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1952.
College Awards
Haag was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for study in Japan, for two years, during 1953 -1955; Haag learned of the Fulbright Program from Lester Albertson Collins (1914-1993), who served as Dean of the Landscape Architecture Department at Harvard University from 1950-1953. Just before World War II, Collins had traveled throughout the Far East with a friend, John Ormsbee Simonds (1913-2005), whom he had met while getting a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture at Harvard in the late 1930s. Presumably, Collins had felt enriched by his Far East travel, and thought that Haag would find it enlightening. Haag has said the experience in Japan "transformed his life," opening his mind toward another fundamental attitude toward nature; thereafter, he strived for his work to be "in balance with nature, a part of it, not in a superior position" to it. While in Japan, Haag toured various sites with Harvard Dean of Architecture, Walter Gropius (1883-1969). (See "Following Fulbright: a Conversation with Richard Haag and Samuel Shepherd," conversation sponsored by the UW Japan Studies Program and the College of Built Environments, University of Washington, Seattle, 03/11/2013.)
Relocation
Born in Louisville, KY, Richard Lewis Haag resided in rural Jefferson County, KY, during his childhood. In 1930, the US Census found the Haags living on on Six-Mile Lane in the Second Magisterial District of Jefferson County. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1930; Census Place: District 2, Jefferson, Kentucky; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0189; FHL microfilm: 2340487, accessed 12/07/2023.) The Haags remained living on Six-Mile Road in 1940 with eight family members in the household. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: m-t0627-01320; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 56-21, accessed 12/07/2023.)
He moved to Berkeley, CA, to attend undergraduate school in the late 1940s. In 1950, Haag lived at 2310 College Avenue in Berkeley, CA.
Haag again relocated for his education, moving to Cambridge, MA, to attend graduate school at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. After college, he spent two years in Japan, before returning to the Bay Area to live and work. He remained here until 1958, when he moved to Seattle, to become a professor.
In 1996, Haag lived at 2419 Everett Avenue East in Seattle. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 12/07/2023.)
Haag built a new residence for himself and his wife in 2006. This was a 3,420-square-foot residence at 1112 East Lynn Street in Seattle's Portage Bay neighborhood.
He moved to Southern CA in 2017, where he passed away in May of the following year.
Parents
His father was Rudolph Louis Haag (born 10/13/1889 in Jeffersontown, KY-d. 02/15/1974 in Louisville, KY), a nurseryman living in Jeffersontown, KY, in 1927. His father was Vice-President of the Kentucky Nurseryman's Association in that year. The 1940 US Census listed Rudolph as a "farmer," although he likely still operated his nursery at this time. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: m-t0627-01320; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 56-21, accessed 12/07/2023.) Caron's Louisville, Kentucky, City Directory, 1942, (p. 803) indicated that Rudolph Haag operated a nursery in Taylorsville, KY and lived in Jeffersontown.
His mother Luthera Owings (born 06/27/1903 in Jefferson County, KY-d. 12/13/1985 in Jefferson County, KY) was 14 years younger than her husband. She and Rudolph had a large family, with Richard being the eldest of six children. Richard's siblings included: Philip John Haag (born 08/25/1925 in Jeffersontown, KY-d. 02/28/1991 in Eminence, KY), Virginia Haag (born c. 1926 in KY), Ruth Haag England (born 11/29/1927 in Jefferson County, KY-d. 05/24/1977 in Jefferson County, KY), Louise Haag (born c. 1934 in KY) and John P. Haag (born c. 1938 in KY)
Luthera's parents were Luther C. Owings (born 02/21/1857 in Jeffersontown, KY-d. 03/13/1920 in Jeffersontown, KY) and Olivia "Ollie" Scheffer(born 04/06/1862 in Louisville, KY-d. 06/25/1926 in Jeffersontown, KY)
As noted on the 1940 US Census, Rudolph ended his schooling in the 8th grade, while Luthera completed high school. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: m-t0627-01320; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 56-21, accessed 12/07/2023.)
Spouse
Haag married four times.
He first wed Muriel "Maryo" Y. Natsuhara (born 04/02/1922 in WA) on 05/20/1950 in Monterey, CA. They divorced on 08/06/1975 in Seattle, WA. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Washington State Archives; Olympia, Washington; Washington, Divorce Index, 1968-1996, accessed 12/07/2023.)
Richard Haag married Cheryl Jean Trivison (born c. 1945 in Lebanon, MO) on 09/12/1986 in Seattle, WA. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Washington State Archives; Olympia, Washington; Washington Marriage Records, 1854-2013; Reference Number: kingcoarchmc860916_07562, accessed 12/07/2023.)
Children
Richard and Maryo Haag had seven children together. Two sons were Zachary Haag (born c. 1951 in Boston, MA) and Aaron Haag (born c. 1952 in Louisville, KY).
Biographical Notes
As a youth, Richard Haag was a prodigy who could name many varieties of trees and shrubs and perform plant grafts at 4 years of age; a nurseryman, William A. Natorp, said of little Richard at this time: "The boy has surprised nurseryman by his uncanny knowledge and skill--his conversation on technical tree matters is like that of a matured nurseryman." (See "Kentucky Boy, 4, Attains Fame as Tree-Grafter," newspaper article in unknown newspaper, collection of Richard Haag.)
The spelling of Richard Haag's middle name "Lewis" may or may not be correct. "Louis" was his father's middle name, but Richard may have spelled it differently to distinguish himself from his father. His World War II draft registration card of 06/30/1942 spelled it "Lewis," as did a passenger manifest for Haag's 1953 trip to Japan with his family. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For Kentucky, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 262, accessed 12/12/2023 and Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, U.S., Passenger and Crew Lists of Airplane Departures, 1947-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com, 2011, accessed 12/12/2023.)
Haag registered for the World War II draft on 06/30/1942 at age 18. His draft registration card listed Haag as Caucasian with brown eyes, brown hair and a ruddy complexion. He stood 6-feet tall and weighed 125 pounds.
On 08/24/1953, Haag sailed aboard the M.S. Hikawa Maru for Yokohama, Japan. He was accompanied by his wife Maryo and their sons Zachary and Aaron. According to the ship's passenger manifest, they expected to stay in Japan for 10 months.
Haag traveled to Sweden in the summer of 1963 to as a delegate to a conference in Stockholm; while in Sweden, Haag was deeply impressed with the Woodland Cemetery by Erik Gunnar Asplund (1885-1940).
PCAD id: 1620