A Symbolic Landscape for Suburbia

Abstract

The embrace of modern architecture by American institutions was historically coincident with many communities’ migration from city centers to suburban environments. This geographic shift, accelerating after World War II, reflected changes in widely held attitudes toward landscape as well as toward architecture. Jewish American groups were especially active in this transition. A useful case study is a design for Baltimore’s Chizuk Amuno congregation, which in 1954 began planning a suburban campus with New York architect Daniel Schwartzman. Among the congregation’s initial requests was a proposal for a “Hebrew Culture Garden,” inspired by Cleveland’s ensemble of public ethnic-cultural gardens dating to the 1920s. Chizuk Amuno’s garden project was never realized, but its design and development throughout the planning process illustrate changing sensibilities about public space, cultural consumption, and the balance between religious and secular identities.