Garden News

Blog readers will recall the Japanese Garden  controversy and the litigation about the proposed sale of the Garden by UCLA.  Here is an update:

JAPANESE GARDEN LISTED AMONG 12 SIGNIFICANT THREATENED AND AT-RISK LANDSCAPES NATIONWIDE

Rafu Shimpo 10-8-12

WASHINGTON — The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) on Oct. 4 formally announced “Landslide,” its annual compendium of threatened and at-risk landscapes, which includes the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Los Angeles.

This year’s theme, “Landscape and Patronage,” focuses on visionary patrons and/or organizations and the sites they helped create and support. The late Edward W. Carter is recognized as the garden’s patron.  The announcement will be made at El Museo del Barrio in New York at a reception co-hosted with the Central Park Conservancy (CPC) at which CPC trustee Judith Carson was honored for her patronage of Central Park’s woodlands, and it preceded a daylong conference on Oct. 5, organized by TCLF and CPC, about stewardship of Central Park’s woodlands and urban woodlands nationally…

UCLA acquired the garden in 1964 courtesy of a gift from Carter, a former chair of the UC Board of Regents and a founder of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The gift was updated in 1982, naming the garden in honor of Carter’s wife, Hannah, and requiring UCLA to maintain the garden “in perpetuity.”  UCLA officials waited until the Carters were deceased and then, without notifying their heirs, persuaded a judge to overturn the gift’s “in perpetuity” terms and listed the property for sale in early 2012. In May 2012, heirs to the Carter estate filed a breach of contract lawsuit against UCLA to uphold the terms of the gift, and in late July a Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction temporarily halting the sale.

The garden’s fate remains uncertain until the completion of a hearing scheduled to begin in May 2013…

Full story at http://rafu.com/news/2012/10/japanese-garden-listed-among-12-significant-threatened-and-at-risk-landscapes-nationwide/

The “Landslide” reference in the article above can be found at:

http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/landscape-patronage/hannah-carter-japanese-garden.html

Blog readers will also recall our advice to the university that discussion on this issue is better than litigation.  Of course, we also suggested that approach regarding the you-know-what project to no effect.