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Contents 1 Robert Murase 1.1 Landscape architect (1938-2005) 1.2 Works & Exhibitions 1.3 Writings

Robert Murase

Landscape architect (1938-2005)

"The positioning of stone in the landscape is an ancient and sacred tradition and has always interested me - from the stone walls and megaliths in Europe - to stone gardens in Japan." -- Robert Murase

• Architect's web site: Murase Associates

• Randy Gragg, "Robert Murase dies at age 66". The Oregonian, July 21, 2005

"Robert K. Murase, designer of such renowned regional landmarks as the Japanese American Historical Plaza in Tom McCall Waterfront Park and one of the nation's most respected landscape architects, died Tuesday at age 66 of complications from a heart attack."

• Lecture poster: "Robert Murase", Anchorage Museum of History and Art, March 5, 2001 (Alaska Design Forum)

"As a third generation Japanese-American, Robert Murase was driven to explore his Japanese heritage. Moving his family to Japan in the late 60s, he studied Japanese gardens and worked side by side with traditional masons, an experience that provided him with insight that later informed his ability to arrange stones and water in ways that are more sacred than secular."

• "Revealing Memories"

Press release announcing the 2nd Annual Oscar Ekdahl Memorial Lecture, by Murase, at the Kansas State University College of Architecture, Planning and Design, March 4, 2002. Includes a profile of Murase's architecture and urban planning credentials.

Works & Exhibitions

• Rock and water garden, Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles)

• Towne Court, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, Washington)
  • Article: "'A sense of nature': Landscape artist Robert Murase's lobby-link courtyard to be ready in mid-November" Center News, October 15, 1998.

• Japanese American Heritage Plaza (Portland, Oregon, 1990)
  • Kevin Kawamoto, "Silent stones speak in Portland's Japanese American plaza". NW Asian Weekly, October 3, 1998.
  • Portland Hanami 2000: Japanese American Historical Plaza (Tadaaki Hiruki web site)
  • Lotta Magnuson and Anna Wennberg, Japanese American Historical Plaza. In: Landscape Architecture in the Pacific North West: Inventory and Analysis of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. Web site by students at the Department of Landscape Planning, Ultuna, Sweden (2002).
  • Nancy Buley, "Digger acknowledges a few Portland firms in recognition of National Landscape Architecture Month". The Digger, April 2005. (Republished on the web site of J. Frank Schmidt & Son). The Oregon Association of Nurseries honors several Portland landscape architecture firms, including Murase Associates for its design of the Japanese American Heritage Plaza. Also available as a PDF.

• Stormwater Garden-Water Pollution Control Laboratory (Portland, Oregon, 1997)
  • Contemporary Landscape Inquiry Project (University of Toronto)

Documentation, including photographs, of Murase's garden to filter stormwater runoff entering the Willamette River.

• Architect's home (Portland, Oregon)
  • Randy Gragg, "Retreating into the background". The Oregonian, June 2, 2005.

"As the designer of such landmarks as the Japanese American Historical Plaza in Portland and the Garden of Remembrance in downtown Seattle, Robert Murase has become one of the Northwest's most celebrated landscape architects. But visit his family's Columbia River retreat and you'd scarcely know he touched it."

• Yashiro Japanese Garden (Olympia, Washington)

• Yao Japanese Garden (Bellevue, Washington)

Writings

• Michelle Martinat and Robert Murase, "Show off your stormwater runoff". In: Landscape Northwest 2005 Special Section, DJC.com (April 28, 2005).

"Designers are showcasing infrastructure, instead of hiding it, to educate the public where stormwater goes."

• "Designing the Landscape as a Classroom". Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce (1996).