Landscape architect makes gift to NCSU

RALEIGH -- With the gloved care usually reserved for rare books and ancient scrolls, librarians carefully unrolled dozens of working blueprints Tuesday, searching for evidence of bugs and mold in the lifework of one of North Carolina's pioneering landscape architects.

In the North Raleigh office of Dick Bell, the librarians started cataloging his blueprints of parks and brick-lined public spaces to become part of N.C. State University library's special collections.

Bell, who designed Raleigh's Pullen Park, the Brickyard at N.C. State, the amphitheater at Meredith College and other landmarks across the state, helped found the profession of landscape architecture in North Carolina.

He will move from Raleigh to his Atlantic Beach condominium today with wife Mary Jo, a departure that marks the end of an era in the state's landscape architecture community he helped create.

"His collection of records is extraordinary, and his work over the last decades is really, really important to the state," said Catherine Bishir, an architectural historian who works with NCSU's Special Collections Research Center.

Many of North Carolina's successful landscape architects got their start by working with Bell at his Water Garden, a forested 11 acres in North Raleigh with a handful of squat contemporary buildings. The Bells lived and worked at the award-winning complex for more than five decades. Mary Jo Bell ran a successful art gallery there.

Bell is considered a pioneer in the use of native plants in his designs, introducing now-popular plants such as wax myrtle and river birch. And he is credited with helping to found the profession in North Carolina, playing a key role in getting landscape architecture registration recognized in the state nearly 40 years ago.

Now, 753 landscape architects are licensed in the state. They are the people who design neighborhoods, parks, shopping centers and other spaces, integrating the natural landscape with what people make.

Last month, Bell sold the once-isolated Water Garden property, which now is bounded by development and Glenwood Avenue, to an acquisition and development firm. The firm has plans to build a retirement community there but maintain some of the trees and the name, the Water Garden. It's uncertain whether Bell's home will remain.

Library officials learned of Bell's plans to leave after reading an article in The News & Observer on Nov. 5. Greg Raschke, associate director for collections and scholarly communication, said he heard from a half-dozen architectural historians and others urging him to preserve the collection.

Bishir contacted Bell, an NCSU graduate, to find out whether he was interested in donating his collection. He was.

"It's just marvelous all the way around," Bell said. "It just didn't make sense to throw away all these drawings."

Last week, officials surveyed the collection and photographed the Water Garden.

Lisa Carter, head of the Special Collections Research Center, said it is important to the collection to document the Water Garden as it is.

"If people didn't get a sense of what the place looked like, they wouldn't really understand the work that he did," she said.

Students, historians, practicing landscape architects and others are expected to use the collection for study and ideas. It will take a couple of years to archive the collection.

The library already has a large archive of architects, many who designed buildings at the same time that Bell was designing landscapes, starting around the mid-20th century. Now, librarians are trying to fill gaps in their landscape architecture collection.

Raschke said a growing environmental movement has helped build interest in the profession.

On Tuesday, Bell leafed through drawings in a back room. He'll keep some drawings as he works on three books but will give those to the library once he's done with them.

"I didn't know what to do," he said of the drawings. "It's terribly gratifying because it is a history of the state."