Eugene Martini: Difference between revisions

Eugene Richard Martini (1915-January 23, 1965) was an American landscape architect and planner.^[1]

Eugene "Gene" Richard Martini received his B.F.A. in Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois in 1939. Martini spent the early part of his career as a land planning consultant for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in Chicago and Atlanta from 1941 to 1946 working on federal initiatives that addressed the military family housing shortage during and following World War II. Soon after WWII, he formed Martini and Associates, Landscape Architects and Planning Consultants, in Atlanta, Georgia and became a firm involved in housing and urban renewal projects, subdivisions, parks, civic centers and other development projects. He was design consultant for the southeastern region of the Public Housing Administration.^[2]

Edward Daugherty FASLA worked on housing and subdivision projects in Martini's office during his summer's while studying at Harvard's GSD (1948-1951), and noted that similar firms in Atlanta at the time included: H. Boyer Marx and Willard Byrd. From 1963-1965, Martini was Second Vice President of the American Society of Landscape Architects from 1963-1965 and other memberships throughout his career including the American Institute of City Planners, the American Society of Planning Officials, the Urban Land Institute, the Georgia Engineering Society, the American Planning and Civic Association, and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.^[3]

In his article Mobile Homes, Immobile Landscape, he questioned 'What can the landscape architect do?' and asserted that :

He can design better communities for mobile-home owners. He can devise more delightful and interesting ways to site the units. He can use this small residential unit to meet desired densities and yet minimize grading to preserve trees. The tight efficiency of the mobile-home core could be the seed from which might grow a better way of life. Herein may lie the clue and herein lies a challenge. Beyond his drafting board contribution, he can help his clients find sites and analyze their suitability; he can help work our problems with local planning authorities, and through collaboration with civil engineers, electrical engineers, and building architects, he can create beautiful communities in lieu of uncoordinated chaos.^[4]

• Aiken Estates, South Carolina (1953) ^[5]

• Bagley Park-Frankie Allen, Atlanta, Georgia (1954) ^[6]

• Park Road Shopping Center, one of Charlotte's oldest shopping centers, located at the intersection of Park and Woodlawn roads. (Drawings, 1953, 1956, UNCC MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION, 210 [3])

• Cocoa Isles Masterplan, Florida (1957)^[7]

• Contribution to Tuxedo Park in Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia [4]

• Tower Mobile Homes Court, Leesville, Louisiana (1960) with Edwards and Portman, AIA (published in an article by Eugene Martini, 'Mobile Homes, Immobile Landscape, or: Who said you can't take it with you?' "Landscape Architecture" v50, Fall 1960)

• Landscape Planning, 1962, a book published by Better Homes & Gardens

• 'Mobile Homes, Immobile Landscape, or: Who said you can't take it with you?' "Landscape Architecture" v50, Fall 1960

• 'Twenty thousand dollars per acre is cheap' "Landscape Architecture" v49 no4, Summer 1959, 226-229

• also wrote numerous articles for the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS, AMERICAN BUILDER, and AMERICAN CITY^[8]

--Andrew.dribin (talk) 04:14, 28 October 2009 (UTC)