Threatened Garden Alert

The UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden

• The threat
• How you can help
• Resources
• History and description of the garden

 
A place of natural beauty and quiet retreat in the Los Angeles community of Bel Air, the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is modeled on the gardens of Kyoto. The beautiful hillside garden was designed by noted Japanese garden designer Nagao Sakurai* in 1959 and constructed between 1959 and 1962. It is recognized as one of the finest examples of residential Japanese gardens in America and was donated to the University of California in 1964. 

“… we look upon the garden as something to be treasured for its unique beauty and validity.”
- Charles E. Young, UCLA Chancellor, 1968-1997

 

Sadly, the garden is now closed to the public and its survival is threatened. In November 2011, UCLA announced plans to sell the garden, citing rising maintenance costs, deferred maintenance, and the lack of attendance due to limited parking. Funds from the sale of the garden would be used to support UCLA's academic programs.

 

The university listed both the house and garden for sale in early March, after removing several valuable art objects that are integral to the design of the garden earlier this year. There are no protective covenants or requirements calling for the garden to be maintained or preserved. As a public institution, UCLA is required to accept the highest bid in the sale.

 

"Her name and legacy will live on through the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden, a beautiful reminder of her gracious and giving spirit." - current UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, May 1, 2009

 

To gather public interest and support to save the garden, the Garden Conservancy has joined forces with concerned individuals and other organizations, including the Los Angeles Conservancy, California Preservation Foundation, Cultural Landscape Foundation, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the California Garden and Landscape History Society.

 

In February, a Coalition to Save the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden was formed. Discussions are underway with members of the Los Angeles city government and other concerned cultural and preservation organizations, both local and national.

 

For more information on the current situation and on how you can help:

 

Sign a petition to save the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden.

 

Make an online contribution to support the campaign to save the garden.

 

Stay abreast on the latest status, action steps, and other information at www.hannahcarterjapanesegarden.com.

 

To be notified of further developments in this situation, please send an e-mail to the Coalition at info@hannahcarterjapanesegarden.com.

 

Other resources:

• Huffington Post article, May 2, 2012

• Fact sheet on the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden

• Op-Ed in UCLA Daily Bruin, February 21, 2012

• Rafu Shimpo report on January 31 community meeting in Bel Air, February 2, 1012

• Audio of community meeting on the sale of the garden, Bel Air, January 31, 2012

 

• Letter from Los Angeles councilman Paul Koretz to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block,

  January 24, 2012

 

• UCLA's garden spot. Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2012

 

• UCLA's plan to sell Japanese garden draws criticism. Los Angeles Times,

  January 22, 2012

 

• Preservationists decry alteration, sale of UCLA Japanese garden. Los Angeles Times,

  January 18, 2012

 

• UCLA moving toward sale of Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel Air. Daily Bruin,

  January 18, 2012

 

• UCLA Plans to Sell Historic Garden Rile Preservationists. Beverly Hills Courier,

  January 18, 2012

 

• Press release,  The Garden Conservancy, January 17, 2012

 

Following are fuller descriptions of the garden and its history.

 

History of the site and garden

1923	The site was first developed by Los Angeles landscape architect A. E. Hanson as a retreat for his client Harry Calendar. Hanson described the site as “a beautiful piece of hillside” located not far from his client’s city home, but with a feel of being out in the country.
1959	Gordon Guiberson commissioned noted Japanese garden designer Nagao Sakurai to design “a garden that reminds one of Kyoto” on the steep one-and-one-half-acre hillside behind his home in the affluent Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.
1959-61	Sakurai, with the help of Kazuo Nakamura from Kyoto, changed the overall look from a casual California country place to an exquisitely designed Japanese garden.
1964	Edward W. Carter, then Chair of the Regents of the University of California, purchased the Guiberson estate and donated it to the University of California with the understanding that UCLA would maintain the Japanese garden. The garden was renamed in honor of his wife, Hannah Carter, in 1982.
Late 1960s	After a mudslide damaged the garden, UCLA Professor of Art and Campus Architect Koichi Kawana, a leading designer of Japanese gardens in the 1970s and '80s, directed the reconstruction of the garden.
1996	Edward Carter died.
2006	Hannah Carter vacated the residence and died in 2009.
2011	On November 10, UCLA announced that it plans to sell the garden after first removing valuable objects that are integral to the garden's design, including the Buddha stone, a five-tiered pagoda, and a wooden Buddha in the household shrine.

 

 

Description of the garden

The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden was sculpted into the hillside using 400 tons of lichen-covered, dark brown stones from Santa Paula Canyon, north of Los Angeles. Another several hundred stones came from rock quarries at the foot of Mt. Baldy, south of the city.

 

Visitors enter the garden at its lowest point, through a stone-based stucco-and-tile gate that was built in Japan for the garden, dismantled, and reassembled on site by Kazuo Nakamura, a Kyoto garden designer and artisan brought over to construct the garden. A Katsura-type bamboo fence extends from the gate. Once inside the gate, several stone paths ascend the garden, passing natural stones of symbolic significance brought from Japan, as well as carved stones, stone lanterns, and stone water basins selected by Mr. and Mrs. Guiberson.

 

After entering, visitors pass the Buddha stone (photo, right), a flat carved stone representing the Buddha seated in sixteen positions. One of many items of historical significance in the garden, it dates from Japan's Kamakura Period in the thirteenth century. Taking the path to the left, one crosses a bridge over a koi pond with a black pebble beach, numerous Japanese plants including specimen pines, many manmade stone objects, and natural stones, including a 9.5-ton ship-stone brought from Japan. A five-tiered stone pagoda, one of the most prominent of the garden’s artifacts, anchors the lower edge of the pond. Further along is a tea house built in Japan and reassembled on site. As one continues to climb, a waterfall and a Hawaiian garden, both remnants of the 1923 A. E. Hanson garden, lie on the left. At the top of the garden, another major feature of the garden—the hokura or family shrine (photo, above)—presides over the hillside. This cryptomeria wood shrine was built in Kyoto by the same craftsmen who built the entry gate. An antique, hand-carved, gilt wooden Buddha sits inside.

 

Descending the garden on east side, one passes three more areas: a stone bathhouse and outdoor sunken bath, another remnant of the A. E. Hanson garden; a moon-viewing deck; and a barbeque area designed by Nakamura with a stone mosaic counter picturing chrysanthemum and camellias.

 

In designing the garden, Sakurai followed Guiberson’s wish to create an authentic Japanese garden that adapted features of Kyoto gardens admired by the Guibersons, featuring plants found in Japan and using materials and workers brought over from Japan. The result is one of the finest examples of a Japanese garden in America.

 

“ ...the biggest and best private, residential [Japanese-style] garden built in America in the immediate post-war period”

“It also shows… a new sophistication in American domestic culture, in which garden styles including 'California patio', 'Hawaiian tropical', and 'Japanese teahouse' are combined into something that is distinctly American and wonderfully Californian.”

- Dr. Kendall H. Brown, professor of Asian Art, California State University, Long Beach

 

* After designing this garden, Nagao Sakurai also created many leading private gardens as well as civic Japanese gardens in San Mateo and Spokane. Sakurai was chosen by the Japanese government to build the Imperial Japanese Gardens for the 1939 international expositions in San Francisco and New York. He  is a major figure in modern garden history.

 

 

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