Don't drain the pool in the V&A's garden

The V&A's new garden ('Gardening in a Palace of Art', APOLLO, August 2005) is assuredly a palace garden for a palace of art. It is extremely fresh yet draws beautifully on French formal gardens, at first luring the viewer with a sense of calm familiarity--then captivating the eye with details which are exciting and current. I hope the ultra-marine pots are not replaced, as they lighten the mood of the overall heavy seventeenth-century classical feeling of this nineteenth-century tour de force with colour/humour--and the luxury of an orangerie in summer; well, the scent will be heady.

I do find the idea of the pool being drained and stuffed with an event a little overwhelming. Our 'Blue Whale', The Pacific Design Center (above), deigned by Cesar Pelli, and now connected with the Museum of Contemporary Art here in West Hollywood, has a shallow pool which is emptied of water for receptions, etc. It is often crammed with white tents and is a very disappointing view. I thought that drawing your attention to our very brightly coloured glass building may either help bury the V&A jardinieres or elevate them! At any rate, I'm saying that the design of the new V&A garden seems to have all the promise of the two American gardens, the Getty's and the Frick's, which Mr Richardson spoke of with admiration. The V&A has a stunning new addition in this garden: it's whisper of the past artfully staged for the present.

Donald W. Larson, Los Angeles

COPYRIGHT 2005 Apollo Magazine Ltd.
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