Bellvue landscape architect wins prestigious award

By Libby James
North Forty News

Herb Schaal travels quite a bit in his line of work. And always, whether he's headed for the interior of China or the coast of Maine, he takes along watercolors and a few brushes. When he can find a free moment, he paints, never allowing himself more than a single hour to complete the small landscapes that are his specialty, because, he said, "I don't want to make it a big deal."

A collection of Schaal's landscapes will be on exhibit at the Underground Gallery in Old Town, Fort Collins, beginning Dec. 5. They're not for sale, but limited edition prints are available. Currently Schaal is working on a series of watercolors of Pleasant Valley, close to his home in Bellvue.

While he hesitates to classify himself as an artist, and for the past 37 years has made his living as a landscape architect, there's an important connection between his paintings and his work. A long list of awards topped off by the 2008 Designer of the Year award from the American Horticultural Society is evidence of the quality of his work and the respect he commands from his profession.

One of the secrets of Schaal's success is his commitment to truly understanding the spirit of a place long before he begins the process of designing a project. He always goes to the site, and he stays: visiting public places, museums, parks; staying in bed and breakfasts where he can visit with people; and hiking over the countryside until he gains the understanding he needs to proceed. Using his spare moments to capture the rhythm and mood of a place in small landscape paintings helps to solidify his feelings.

Son of a landscape architect, Schaal learned the business literally from the ground up, working with his dad setting rocks, building fences, threading pipe, pouring concrete and digging holes. He set off to college to become a forest ranger, but was soon enticed by the diversity of landscape architecture which allowed him to explore history, biology, nature, science and art. As a small child, his mother said of him: "He can't explain anything. He has to draw it."

Armed with a degree from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Schaal headed for North Carolina to pursue more schooling. Instead he was recruited to teach there and later at the State University of New York at Syracuse where he eventually earned a masters' degree while teaching full time. But he yearned for the West and four years later found himself employed by EDAW in the San Francisco Bay area, a company that appealed to him because of its commitment to socially and environmentally relevant work.

"They needed me, and I liked them, so I signed up," he said.

While the work was challenging and satisfying, Schaal soon realized that the big city was not for him. He was important enough to EDAW that they allowed him to choose the site for a branch office, and in 1970 he picked Fort Collins. From a small office in his basement, EDAW has grown to employ 40 people on Mountain Avenue in Fort Collins. Local projects have ranged from landscape design for Platte River Power Authority, the National Park Service, the Gardens on Spring Creek, Hewlett-Packard, First National Bank, neighborhood parks and many others. EDAW now has 2,000 employees and 30 offices worldwide, and Schaal, as vice president and principal in the Fort Collins office, has worked on projects in China, Australia and 90 percent of the United States.

These days the projects closest to his heart are public gardens, especially those that have educational value and are designed for children. While his company's name reflects the initials of the founding partners, Schaal likes to say that EDAW stands for "Every Design a Winner." That attitude has made Fort Collins the most award-winning office in the company.

Today Schaal has the luxury of spending mornings in the light-flooded studio attached to his home near the foothills surrounded by at least a dozen plans in various stages of development. Afternoons he goes into the office. In his studio, he points out plans for the children's Bookworm Garden he's creating for Sheboygan, Wis.

"They came to me with a pile of 80 books and asked that I incorporate each one of them into a literary garden," Schaal said. "I couldn't create 80 separate gardens so I read all the books and grouped them into categories such as art, nature, history, folk tales, crafts and then created areas for elements from each of the books. There's a walled 'secret' garden and picture frames for children to step through into different worlds."

In addition to getting to know a place intimately, Schaal makes sure he sets aside a week for workshops with his client before he begins a project. He meets with the design committee to hear ideas and then refine them until together they reach agreement on a concept design. With public projects, he holds evening presentations to assist with fund-raising.

"This process saves time and makes for a more successful project in the long run," Schaal said.

At his High Meadows Ranch in the Buckhorn Canyon west of Fort Collins, Schaal combined his love of teaching with his commitment to landscape design by establishing a summer intern program. Carefully chosen participants slept in tepees provided by Schaal and worked together to create and implement projects. Because EDAW is so interdisciplinary, students included archeologists, historians, engineers, foresters and biologists. The Riverwalk in Estes Park was an early project.

A few months ago Schaal returned to Oakland, Calif., for a 50th school reunion. While there, he became reacquainted with Lolita Morelli, the junior high music teacher who once told him he was tone deaf.

"But I know you could paint me a beautiful picture," she said at the time. He did so, presenting her with an oil of nearby mountains. It hangs in her home to this day.