Jane Silverstein Ries
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Jane Silverstein Ries (1909–2005), also known professionally as Julia Jane Silverstein, was an American landscape architect who was the first woman licensed in Colorado as a professional landscape architect. For her landscape work as well as her efforts to preserve and restore historical sites, she was inducted into the
Colorado Women's Hall of Fame The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2020, 170 women have been inducted. History There was a short-lived recogniti ...
and a foundation was established in her name that awards scholarships in her field and supports an annual lecture series.


Education and personal life

Julia Jane Silverstein was born on March 10, 1909, in Denver, Colorado, to Harry S. and Eva W. (Sickman) Silverstein. She attended public school and received her training in landscape architecture at the
Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture The Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture is the shorthand name for a school that was founded in Groton, Massachusetts in 1901 for women to be trained in landscape architecture and horticulture. Under its original name of Lowthorpe School ...
, from which she graduated in 1932. She went on do further studies at
Colorado University The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...
, the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
, and at the
Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
. She worked under her birth name for the first few years of her professional career. In 1953, she married Henry F. Ries, a Colorado insurance actuary; and starting in 1961, she used Jane Silverstein Ries as her professional name. Henry died in 1984.


Career

Silverstein began her professional career in 1933 when she was hired by the Denver-based landscape architecture firm of McCrary, Culley and Carhart to work on planting designs for Colorado University. In 1935, she opened her own firm in Denver, specializing in residential landscape design for smaller lots. Silverstein also received commissions to design plantings for other kinds of sites, including housing projects, large estates, churches, schools, hospitals, government buildings, and businesses. She is responsible for the Herb and Scripture Gardens at the
Denver Botanic Gardens The Denver Botanic Gardens is a public botanical garden located in the Cheesman Park neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. The park contains a conservatory, a variety of theme gardens and a sunken amphitheater, which hosts various concerts in the su ...
. Silverstein gained a reputation for plantings that diverged from the most common planting plan in Denver of front and back lawn plus foundation plantings and a flowering border. Inspired by the walled gardens of Boston's Beacon Hill, which she had admired during her Lowthorpe years, she designed gardens that were slightly formal yet intimate, and that often featured native plants that did not require great amounts of water. Her career took off after she designed a garden in 1935 for a General Electric demonstration project, and altogether she designed over 1500 gardens in her long career. During World War II, Silverstein served in New York in the Women's Reserve of the
U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...
as an officer working on matters to do with port liaison and property surveys. She ended the war with the rank of lieutenant. After the war, Silverstein briefly held a job as a landscape architect for the New York firm of
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
before returning to Denver in 1947 and reopening her own practice. Ries was active in working to preserve elements of Colorado's urban past. She was a key mover in a drive to rehabilitate the grounds of
Colorado Governor's Mansion The Colorado Governor's Mansion, also known as the Cheesman-Boettcher Mansion, is a historic U.S. mansion in Denver, Colorado. It is located at 400 East 8th Avenue. On December 3, 1969, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Plac ...
, and she also consulted on the
Molly Brown House Museum The Molly Brown House Museum (also known as House of Lions) is a house in Denver, Colorado, United States that was the home of American philanthropist, activist, and socialite Margaret Brown. She survived the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'' and ...
garden and the 9th Street Historic Park. She also developed an early set of plans for the Larimer Square redevelopment. In the 1960s, Ries worked to establish a Colorado licensing authority for landscape architects. After the state's Landscape Architect Registration Act passed, Ries became (in 1968) the third person and the first woman to be certified as a licensed landscape architect in Colorado. In 1965, Ries was elected a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). She was also a member of the ASLA's Rocky Mountain Chapter (now the Colorado Chapter) and became its first president. She was given the Community Service Award by the American Institute of Architects' Denver Chapter. In 1990, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. Ries never formally retired, but in 1989 she became a senior adviser to the firm Land Mark Design, which had been founded by former colleagues and associates. Ries died on July 6, 2005. Earlier that same year, she had been honored with the prestigious American Society of Landscape Architects Medal in recognition of her lifetime of achievements in her profession.


Legacy

In 1992, 737 Franklin Street, where Ries lived and kept an office for many decades, was designated a Denver landmark. In 1983, the ASLA's Colorado Chapter established the Jane Silverstein Ries Award to honor members showing exceptional awareness of the importance of land stewardship in the Rocky Mountains. The Colorado Chapter also established the JSR Foundation (in 1997), which awards scholarships to landscape architecture students, funds an annual lecture series, and administers the Jane Silverstein Ries Award. Ries herself inaugurated the foundation's lecture program. A hardy
boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...
cultivar, ''Buxus mycrophylla'' “Julia Jane”, is named after her. Her papers—comprising photographs, landscape design drawings, business documents, client files, and letters—are held by the Denver Public Library.


References


External links


JSR Foundation website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ries, Jane Silverstein 1909 births 2005 deaths American landscape architects American landscape and garden designers Women landscape architects