Architecture: Activities across the curriculum

Teaching Pre K-8, Apr 2000 by Wiseman, Virginia

The White House: Design of the Grounds

Dear Teacher:

The grounds of The White House: just lawn, bushes and trees? Not hardly. Nearly every tree represents a president; the plans for the flower gardens go back to John Adams' presidency and there's a late 20th century addition a running track.

The lawns and gardens of The White House have seen treaties signed, hosted ceremonies honoring the accomplishments of war heroes, people in the arts and Olympians. The grounds are, in reality, an extension of the public rooms of The White House and have an architectural feel to them. Next month we'll leave The White House and look at the architecture of the U.S. Capitol.

How To Begin. The month of April, in which we celebrate Earth Day, is the ideal time to study the development of the grounds around The White House. Although the landscape design has been carefully cultivated throughout the years, there is always room for meeting the needs of the current president's lifestyle.

The steps in the tenets of the design process (see below) can and should be used in this exploration of the grounds of The White House.

Tenets of the design process:

1) Understand an assignment clearly.

2) Gather information and analyze its relevance thoroughly.

3) Develop a concept for the design solution - clearly, specifically and briefly.

4) Develop, refine and document details of the design solution completely.

5) Present (and implement, when possible) the design solution publicly.

6) Critique the design continually.

Architivity One:

The President's Park

"The President's Park" is the official name given to the 82 acres whose centerpiece is The White House. The grounds on the south side include the gardens most enjoyed by the various presidents.

For example, throughout his eight years in office, Thomas Jefferson, an avid gardener who even kept gardening notebooks in which he recorded observations about vegetables, fruits and trees, tackled the problem of a White House landscape as if it were his own home.

In their Archifiity Joumals have the students choose one plant or tree on the school grounds and write about it each day. Also, collect tree or garden poems for their journals. There is a saying that it is an optimistic per son who plants a tree. What does this mean?

Architivity Two:

Yesterday and Today

William Howard Taft (president, 1909-13) kept cows to provide milk for his family and staff. President Woodrow Wilson kept sheep, selling wool to raise money for the Red Cross during World War I. In those early days it was common for people to keep sheep on the lawn. Can your students guess why? Answer: sheep eat grass close to the ground and thus make excellent lawn mowers.

Make a three-column chart. In the first column list a chore (does not have to be landscape-related), in the middle column list how it used to be accomplished. In the right hand column describe how it's done today. For the landscaping items, discuss how those activities have changed over the years (manure to fertilizers: organic vs. chemical, etc.)

Do gardens look today as they did years ago? Read Linnea in Monet's Garden (grades 2-5, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1985). Have students use their ArchitivityJournals to sketch a theme garden, select plants and tell why they feel it would be appropriate for The White House.

Architivity Three

Architecture Outside

If you are near a university, see if it has someone who would talk with your students about the various courses of study required for a degree in landscape architecture. Visit the American Society of Landscape Architects at: www.asla.org/

Research the job of a landscape architect. Does a landscape architect follow the same design tenets as a regular architect? Invite a landscape architect to the classroom and ask about the tenets of design. One of the first things a landscape architect does when planning a design is to locate electrical, gas, water and sewer lines. Where does he/she get this information and why is it important?

Effort is made to ensure that work on The White House gardens is not visible while in progress. Why? May anyone work on the grounds of the White House, or does it require a special license?

Encourage students to research trees and flowers planted in the presidential park. List the trees planted by each president and why those particular species were chosen. For instance, Andrew Jackson planted a Southern Magnolia in memory of his wife, Rachel, who loved magnolias. For lots of helpful - and historical - information on trees, try: www.oldtrees/org/

Are students able to locate their state tree on The White House grounds? If not, perhaps the students can launch a campaign to have their state tree added to the grounds. They should raise the money for the tree and contact their local representative and senator for help in getting The White House to accept the gift. A letter should accompany their request, explaining why they want to see their state tree represented. continued

Architivity Four

Living Out of Doors

Presidents have traditionally used The White House grounds as additional "rooms." In 1841, John Tyler introduced weekly musical recitals on The White House grounds every Saturday afternoon. Abraham Lincoln added to this schedule by ordering music for Wednesdays. The Marine Band (called The President's Own) played there for the public's enjoyment.