Florence Yoch (1890–1972) was an American landscape architect in California who was active from 1915 through the 1950s. Her career included commissions for private residential clients, parks, public spaces, and film sets for Hollywood movies, including the grounds for
Tara in ''
Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind most often refers to:
* Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell
* Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel
Gone with the Win ...
''. Many credit Florence with helping develop a distinctively Californian interpretation of classic European Gardens.
Early years
Florence Yoch was born in
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...
on July 15, 1890 to Joseph and Catherine Yoch.
The youngest of six girls, Yoch spent much of her time outdoors which included horse and buggy trips from the family home in Santa Ana to the beachfront hotel they owned and operated in
Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...
.
Yoch was surrounded by the cultural pursuits offered in Laguna Beach which included art, drama and gardening.
Close friends and frequent visitors to the Laguna Hotel were
Madame Modjeska and her husband
Count Karol Bozenta Chlapowski whose own house and garden at Arden further inspired Yoch to pursue a career in landscape design.
Florence Yoch's college education began in 1910 at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
and then at
Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
's College of Agriculture. She would go on to earn her degree from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
in 1915.
Landscape design career
Upon graduation, Yoch immediately went to work designing gardens in
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
Its ...
and
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
. Her influences include the formal gardens of France and the wilder, flowery gardens of England, particularly those designed by
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote ...
.
She made many trips to Europe on sketching trips, focusing on great gardens of the past.
In 1921, she hired as apprentices
Katherine Bashford (who would leave to found her own solo practice in 1923) and
Lucile Council Florence Theresa Yoch (July 15, 1890 – January 31, 1972) and Lucile Council (November 17, 1898 – January 21, 1964) were influential California landscape designers, practicing in the first half of the 20th century in Southern California.
Biograp ...
, who had studied at both the Cambridge School of Domestic and Landscape Architecture and at Oxford. In 1925, Florence and Lucile formed a partnership,
Yoch & Council, setting up shop in the garden studio at Council's home in South Pasadena. From there they would enjoy a thriving business creating landscaping for a large roster of clients that ranged from wealthy clientele in Pasadena and Santa Barbara to Hollywood players such as
Jack L. Warner
Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some ...
,
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of ...
and
David O. Selznick.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoch, Florence
1890 births
1972 deaths
20th-century American architects
American women architects
People from Santa Ana, California
Cornell University alumni
20th-century American women