In Memoriam: Richard Lewis Haag MLA ’52
Richard Lewis Haag MLA ’52 passed away on May 9, 2018. He was 94. Haag was an award winning landscape architect who designed the internationally respected Gas Works Park in Seattle and founded the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. Haag was also known for designing Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, redesigning Seattle Center after the World’s Fair to make it a public park, and designing Steinbrueck Park in Seattle with Victor Steinbrueck. His work is noteworthy for its inventive approach, sensitivity to the environment and adaptive re-use of structures and facilities. He was also a respected and passionate teacher who encouraged students to fight for great landscape architecture, his fellow professionals said. Haag enlisted in the Army during World War II. He attended the University of Illinois, and received a bachelor’s of landscape architecture from the University of California at Berkeley, and a master’s of landscape architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He won a Fulbright to study in Japan for two years, and was a resident at the American Academy in Rome. Haag challenged his students to look at projects in an environmental, social, ethical and political way. He taught them that dealing with the built environment meant that they must engage with all those interlocking issues, she said, and it was a heavy responsibility.
Haag is survived by his wife, Cheryl Trivison, founder of Friends of Gas Works Park, his children and grandchildren.
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