Historic Landscape

Historic Landscape. . , Pioneering landscape architect Marian Coffin designed this conifer garden in the 1940s., Marian Coffin (1876-1957) studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to become one of the first American women in the emerging profession of landscape architecture. When Coffin moved to New York City, she recalled, "the idea of taking a woman into an office was unheard of… The only thing that seemed to be for me to hang out in my own shingle." She opened an office, employed women as apprentices, and charged clients at the same rate as her male colleagues. Coffin went on to design some 50 large-scale public projects and private estates, including the campus of the University of Delaware and the gardens at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library., Coffin enjoyed studying plants in the field and knew hundreds of botanical names. In 1940 she published the book Trees and Shrubs for Landscape Effects. When NYBG commissioned her to design the ornamental conifer collection a few years later, Coffin used her firsthand experience to highlight the young trees that would mature into the most impressive specimens. Her design included plans for a cedar-and-stone pergola at the entrance. Although this was not completed initially, entry pavilions and this overlook were built based on Coffin's sketches when the collection was restored in 2004.