Oehme van Sweden Presented With LongHouse Landscape Award

Oehme, van Sweden and Associates were recognized by LongHouse Reserve founder Jack Lenor Larsen on Saturday afternoon and presented with the “2011 LongHouse Landscape Award” during a luncheon at the East Hampton-based reserve.

Accepting the award, which was created this year by Marc Leuthold, were Wolfgang Oehme, who founded Oehme, van Sweden with James van Sweden in 1977, and principal landscape architect, Eric Groft.

Known for its “New American Garden Style,” which is a vigorous blending of natural and cultivated plantings, the firm champions the use of ornamental grasses and herbaceous perennials. The approach frees plants from forced and artificial forms and instead produces a more natural landscape.

During a short address, Mr. Larsen touted the firm’s storied history, as well as its future.

“They are the people who will change the face of landscape architecture,” he said of Oehme, van Sweden’s associates.

Others present at the luncheon, including past “LongHouse Landscape Award” winner Elizabeth Barlow; Chicago Botanic Garden’s Kris Jarantoski; and New York Botanical Garden’s Todd Forest—who participated in a panel discussion on the work of Oehme, van Sweden—had similar praise.

“In contemporary American style, they are leading the way,” Ms. Rogers said of the firm.

Mr. Jarantoski, who contracted Oehme, van Sweden for landscape design at the Chicago Botanic Garden, called members of the firm both artists and exceptional plants people.

“They are pioneers, getting us away from the manicured garden,” he said. “They have really changed the face of American gardens.”

Mr. Forrest has also employed the firm for the New York Botanical Garden. He called the firm’s work “bold, muscular and smart.”

For more information, visit the LongHouse Reserve website at longhouse.org or Oehme, van Sweden’s website at ovsla.com.