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Respect the Spirit of Place

“I chose this career not for the money but for its deep meaning,” he said.

At about age 15, Paine became fascinated with the accomplishments of Frederick Law Olmsted, the greatest of 19th century American landscape architects early on. Olmsted’s projects included New York's Central Park, the Emerald Necklace of Boston and the US Capitol’s grounds. “I met a famous Boston landscape architect, Sidney Shurcliff, when I was 19, and then wrote my undergraduate thesis at Harvard College on the recreational uses of the Boston water supply system. This pointed me to the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard Design School.” Later he worked for Shurcliff, whose firm was the oldest in Boston, where Paine hit his stride. 

As a professional landscape designer with more than 20 year’s experience, Paine formed his own theme or style of landscape design he described as “a fusion of eastern and western traditions rooted deeply in culture, rather than fads or superficial patterns and motifs.”

Having completed more than 30 landscape design projects in the United States, Paine decided to come to China, where he works as the director of landscape design at AGER, a Chinese landscape design company with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and San Francisco.

“The basic rule in landscape design is to respect the spirit of place. That is why I came to China. I feel this is where the action is for the foreseeable future. Here is where landscape architecture is evolving in an exciting way,” he said. “I am interested in Taoism and Buddhism, as well as stewardship, that is, caring for the land and our precious natural resources.” He also said that China is ready to take the lead with many professional designers, advanced technology and, above all, its unique tradition, which is incomparable with any other in the world.

With the approaching Olympic Games, Beijing is striving to improve urban environment and to build urban spaces that incorporate high-level landscape designs.

“China is just now discovering the benefits of landscape architecture; so it is a most exciting time to be here in this field, whereas in America interest is stagnant, and that is not good,” he said.

In an era of multiple unprecedented challenges imposed by the processes of industrialization and urbanization, landscape architecture is now on the verge of coming into its own in China. The Chinese people have fallen in love with the European traditional style for residential design, Americans much less so. Many western-styled buildings stand in Beijing alongside older structures. “Balance is important,” Paine said. “It is a good thing to become modernized, but we should keep certain things like the hutong (alley). They are symbols of a past that we can visit.”

Paine has also developed an “iconic open space” ideal, which is “all about making connections,” connecting parts of the city, connecting visitors to each other, connecting visitors to ideas, connecting between ideas and connecting on a sensory, emotional, intellectual, and subconscious level. “There are many empty plazas: their designs are boring, and they don’t attract users, whereas private spaces are currently most innovative but too commercialized.” The lost art of public open space design should be elegant, complex, meaningful, and “as powerful as a logo,” he said.

Sustainability is a recent phase in thinking, a concept born in landscape architecture a generation ago, but Paine said design has lost its way. The threats stem from commercialization and trivialization. China needs to strengthen its professional and licensing requirements and continue to make progress in assuring construction quality, while adding a greater variety of available plants. “I believe in passing on to the next generation what I have learned. I also believe we are all alike in these fundamental aspirations for life, for society, and for our world.”