Emiel van der Meulen* was at once an inventive landscape architect, a sculptor of considerable renown, and an international citizen. He discovered Canada in his twenties, and remained for decades, leaving his inventive signature on scores of notable projects.
Born in Hilversum, Holland in 1928, Emiel visited Canada, then immigrated to Hamilton, Ontario. In 1959, he left for Ann Arbor to study landscape architecture at Michigan State, where he rapidly became a Teaching Fellow. By 1962, he had earned an MLA from Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Ned Wood, Chief LA with the NCC, brought Van der Meulen to Ottawa in 1961, when the capital, armed with the Greber Plan, had begun to transform the region. By the next year, Van der Meulen’s sculpture, “The Great Lakes”, was in full display in the Garden of the Provinces and Territories, designed by the eminent LA Don Graham. The garden, christened “a jewel of modernism” by historian Ron Williams, was restored in the early 2000s, and the enduring aesthetic of the sculpture remains.
“Van der Meulen was clearly invested in narratives concerning the Canadian landscape and using quintessential Canadian materials – concrete and metal,” said Professor Alissa North, University of Toronto. “Somehow he transformed the materials’ understood qualities … The gently upturned concrete basins suddenly feel light and ephemeral, when water delicately flows from one “Great Lake” to the next.”
In the 1960s, as the profession in Canada experienced unprecedented growth, Van der Meulen again collaborated with Don Graham, becoming Associate Editor of “The Landscape Architect,” the early professional voice of the Canadian profession. By the mid-60s, Van der Meulen had joined Richard Strong’s rapidly growing firm, and was advocating for LAs in the pages of the “RAIC Journal” (September 66), and on the international stage, as CSLA’s delegate to the IFLA.
Van der Meulen was a founder of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) and its first President (1969-71). Throughout the decade, he actively produced works for clients such as York University and the Royal Ontario Museum. A few years later, he was the first LA admitted to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art.
Van der Meulen was an innovator, often at the cutting edge of professional developments. By 1979, with his own company, EVM Ltd., he had begun to explore interior landscapes (hydroculture designs for Ottawa’s Bank of Canada Glass House corridor and, for 240 Sparks Street on the mall, a moat with a waterfall over 3 m high.) He worked on the Shaw Festival Theatre, and in Toronto, on the Royal Bank Plaza, First Canadian Place, and the “new” Massey Hall Project in the 70s.
Van der Meulen retired in 2001, and became an OALA Emeritus Member in 2004. His OALA GROUND magazine, for several years, was delivered to Saudi Arabia.
*Emiel van der Meulen spelled his name in a variety of ways, including Emil Vandermeulen.
Sources
Lead photo: Emiel Van der Meulen (the cropped one)
1 Emiel Van der Meulen and William Coates, Courtesy OALA.
2A/2B/2C/2D Garden of the Provinces and Territories, designed in the early 1960s by Don Graham, and restored some 50 years later. Photos 2A Photo Courtesy NCC (circa 2013). 2B Courtesy Canada Research Chair on Built Heritage (2012). 2C Courtesy Ron Williams (c2012). 2D Courtesy National Capital Commission.
3 Emiel Van der Meulen with his sculpture “Intersection” in the courtyard, Vanier College, York University, 1971.
4. “Hanging Water Gardens,” by Emiel G. Van der Meulen and EVM Ltd. Partner, Brian McClusky. OALA Review, June, 1979.
Ron Williams. Landscape Architecture in Canada.
John E. Zvonar, “Garden of the Provinces… Finally Taking Centre Stage”, in Conserving the Modern in Canada: Conference Proceedings, Trent University, 2005.
Nicole Valois, “A Capital Treasure: Garden of the Provinces and Territories,” in GROUND magazine #24, Winter 2013.
