Master Landscape Architect Launches New, Informative Blog

PRLog (Press Release) - Jun 25, 2009 -
(RALEIGH, NC) – Richard C. Bell, a master landscape architect who spent nearly all of his illustrious career in Raleigh before relocating last year to Atlantic Beach, has launched a new blog that offers a glimpse into the man and mind behind some of North Carolina’s most iconic landmarks.

Among Bell’s best known projects are NC State University’s “Brickyard” and Sculpture Garden plazas, the City of Raleigh’s Pullen Park, the Meredith College Amphitheater, St. Mary’s College soccer field and brick fencing, and The Water Garden, Raleigh’s first mixed-use development on Glenwood Avenue/Highway 70 West that combined offices and residents and served as a laboratory for his experiments on planting materials and landscape design.

Entitled “Pebbles In The Pond: News & Musings by Landscape Architect Dick Bell,” the new blog gives Bell a repository for his knowledge of the profession, of environmental design and sustainability, and of the history of the profession in North Carolina. The blog is located at: dickbell.wordpress.com.

“Pebbles In The Pond” also includes news Bell has generated over recent years, such as his induction into the Raleigh Hall of Fame. Links also take visitors to articles on Bell and his work that have been published in the media.

Dick Bell has completed over 2000 landscape architecture projects. He has designed everything from major city and highway corridors to city parks, university plazas and amphitheatres, mixed-use beachfront developments, and individual residences, and he was a recognized leader in environmentalism and sustainable design long before the words became part of the general lexicon.

A native of Manteo, NC, Dick Bell was educated at the North Carolina State University School of Design, graduating in 1950 as part of Dean Henry Kamphoefner’s first class of 15 architects and four landscape architects. At the age of 21, he was the youngest designer to receive the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to travel and study in Europe for two years. He founded his first firm in Raleigh, NC, in 1955, introducing the practice of landscape architecture as a registered profession to the state. He was also the first person elected to the registration board.

Bell is a Fellow of both the American Society of Landscape Architects and the American Academy in Rome and has received 27 honor awards for his work. To view his new blog, go to dickbell.wordpress.com.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/10267167/1