The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is a private

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

located in

Bel Air, Los Angeles, California Bel Air (or Bel-Air) is a residential neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Founded in 1923, it is the home of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and the American Jewish Universit ...

. Known as Shikyo-en when completed in 1961, it emphasizes water, stones, and evergreen plants. The naturalistic hillside site features streams, a waterfall, a

tea house A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...

, and blooming

magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

and

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controversy ...

trees. According to the

Los Angeles Conservancy The Los Angeles Conservancy is a historic preservation organization in Los Angeles, California. It works to document, rescue and revitalize historic buildings, places and neighborhoods in the city. The Conservancy is the largest membership based ...

, the garden is among the largest and most significant private residential Japanese-style gardens built in the United States in the immediate

Post-World War II The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of a new era started in late 1945 (when World War II ended) for all countries involved, defined by the decline of all colonial empires and simultaneous rise of two superpowers; the Soviet Union (US ...

period. The garden was donated to the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 1965 and open to the public until 2011. Following a legal dispute with Hannah Carter's children, it was sold to a private citizen in 2016.

Location

The garden is located in a residential neighborhood at 10619 Bellagio Road in Bel Air, Los Angeles.Lanna Pian

Los Angeles City Historical Society, May 2012Laura Coleman, 'Fate Of Bel-Air's Hannah Carter Garden Still Up In The Air', ''

Beverly Hills Courier ''The Beverly Hills Courier'' is a free weekly tabloid-sized print newspaper of circulation in Beverly Hills and the surrounding communities, and a daily web newspaper. History The publication was founded by March Schwartz in 1965. His staff inc ...

'', August 30, 2013, pp. 1; 18

History

The site was originally developed in 1927 by oilman Gordon G. Guiberson as a Hawaiian garden on the Harry Calandar estate by landscape architect

A.E. Hanson A. E. Hanson (1893–1986) was an American landscape architect and real estate developer in Southern California. He designed gardens on the campus of the University of Southern California as well as in Bel Air. He developed two gated communi ...

(1893–1986). It was dedicated to his mother, Ethel L. Guiberson, who founded the Beverly Hills Garden Club in the early 1930s. The Japanese garden was designed by

Nagao Sakurai Nagao Sakurai（桜井長雄） (November 5, 1896 – July 1973) of the Imperial Palace of Tokyo was a landscape architect. Notable designs *Japanese Tea Garden, Central Park, San Mateo, California. * Nishinomiya Japanese Garden, in the M ...

in 1959 and constructed between 1959 and 1961.Editorial
"UCLA's garden spot"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', January 22, 2012Garden Conservancy
/ref>
/ref>Albert George Pickerell, ''The University of California: A Pictorial History'', Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1968 , p. 27

/ref> In 1965, it was purchased by

Edward W. Carter Edward W. Carter (June 29, 1911 – April 1996) was an American businessman, philanthropist and art collector. He served as the president of Broadway Stores and chair of the University of California Board of Regents, and was the owner of the ...

(1911–1996).Charles A. Birnbaum
"UCLA Violates a Long-Standing Regent's Bequest and Endangers One of the Rarest Private Japanese Gardens in the United States"
''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'', May 02, 2012 Carter named it after his second wife, Hannah Carter. The same year, Carter, who served as Chair of the

University of California Board of Regents The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sy ...

, donated it to the

(UCLA). The donation included their house uphill from the garden. The garden was rehabilitated in 1969 by UCLA Professor

Koichi Kawana Koichi Kawana ( Japanese: 川名孝一, born March 16, 1930 in Hokkaido – September 13, 1990) was a post-war Japanese American garden designer, landscape architect and teacher. He designed gardens in San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Colorado, Chica ...

after heavy rainfall caused damage to the site. Edward Carter died in 1996. Hannah Carter lived in the house till 2006. After she died in 2009, the regents of the university asked a court to release them from the commitment to maintain the garden forever and allow the sale of the house and garden at auction. In 2011, UCLA closed the garden to the public because of rising costs, deferred maintenance, and lack of attendance as a result of limited parking. On March 3, 2012, the garden was listed for sale by

Coldwell Banker Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC is an American real estate franchise owned by Anywhere Real Estate, with headquarters in Madison, New Jersey. It was founded in 1906 in San Francisco, and has approximately 3000 offices in 49 countries and territor ...

. However, the prospective sale was opposed by the

American Public Gardens Association The American Public Gardens Association, formerly the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, is an association of public-garden institutions and professionals primarily in the United States and Canada. Over the last six decades, ...

, the

American Society of Landscape Architects The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship ...

, the Bel Air Garden Club, the California Garden and Landscape History Society, the California Preservation Foundation, the Cultural Landscape Foundation,

The Garden Conservancy The Garden Conservancy is an American nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve, share, and celebrate America's gardens and diverse gardening traditions for the education and inspiration of the public. Founded in 1989, by Frank Cabot, ...

, the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

, the North American Japanese Garden Association, etc. On July 27, 2012 the

Los Angeles County Superior Court The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The ...

halted the listing by issuing a preliminary injunction. Judge Lisa Hart Cole described the action of UCLA and the Regents as "duplicitous." The Regents appealed the preliminary injunction. On September 16, 2013, the three judge Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the preliminary injunction. A trial date was scheduled beginning July 20, 2015 at the Santa Monica Courthouse of Los Angeles Superior Court. In October 2015, the heirs agreed to let UCLA sell the garden as long as the new owners kept the garden intact for the next 30 years. Meanwhile, the

established a US$500,000 endowment whose annual income to go to the preservation of the garden. In June 2016, UCLA sold the garden to developer Mark Gabay, the co-founder of the Charles Company, for US$12.5 million. The new owner is not required to open the garden to the public.

Overview

It features winding paths, a waterfall, and a stone

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

.UCLA's garden spot
''The Los Angeles Times'', January 22, 2012 Moreover, the main gate, garden houses, bridges and family shrines were built in Japan and reassembled in California. The garden includes only plants that grow in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

.A Garden That Reminds Me Of Tokyo
/ref> For example, it includes the following trees: pine trees,

redwood trees Cupressaceae is a conifer family, the cypress family, with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27–30 genera (17 monotypic), which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecio ...

, apricot, magnolia, maple and plum trees, California Live Oak trees,

pittosporum ''Pittosporum'' ( or ) is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae. The genus is probably Gondwanan in origin; its present range extends from Australasia, Oceania, eastern Asia and some parts of Africa. '' Ci ...

, and purple beech trees.

References

{{UCLA Japanese gardens in California Parks in Los Angeles Bel Air, Los Angeles 1930s establishments in California