Iowa State runs in professor Robert Harvey’s family.

Harvey’s parents graduated from ISU. His great-grandfather served on the board of trustees. His grandfather was a founding member of Sigma Nu fraternity at ISU, which is no longer in existence. His daughters mark the fifth generation of his family to graduate from ISU.

Harvey, professor of landscape architecture, said ISU was a household word used frequently when he was growing up.

“My parents never let me know there was anything other than Iowa State,” Harvey said.

Just as they influenced his selection of college, Harvey said his parents in the same way affected his career decision.

“My father was a forester, and my mother was an interior decorator, so it’s no wonder I ended up in landscape architecture,” he said.

Forty-four years ago, Harvey was taking classes in the Landscape Architecture building on the east side of campus. For 15 years of his teaching career at ISU, his office was located there. About 20 years ago, his office was moved to the College of Design building.

“The old building had oak floors and wood trim. I could open my windows and smell the lilacs outside. The old building had charm,” he said.

Besides teaching two landscape architecture classes, Harvey helps coordinate English 375 (British Literature: The Restoration and 18th Century) with English professor Robert Bataille.

With connections Harvey made while he taught at Thames Polytechnic in England, he is able to take English students to England at a reduced rate in the summer.

The concept for the class resulted from Harvey and Bataille discussing prominent landscape architecture texts.

“After 10 to 12 days in England discussing landscape architecture writings, we knew we should make a course out of it,” he said.

The course was first offered last spring.

Jennifer Sears, senior in landscape architecture, took the course last year but was unable to attend the England trip last summer. She will be on this year’s trip, however.

“I heard so many wonderful things about the trip that I decided I could not miss out on it this year,” she said.

Sears said English 375 aided in her understanding the roots of landscape architecture.

“It was very interesting to study how poetry and paintings led to built landscapes. The most vogue painting and poems were used as models to actually build exact landscapes,” she said. “It is an odd way to think of developing a garden or a park. The painting developed from an artist’s impressions and expressions is then applied to the land.”

Sears also attributes much of the course’s success to its professors.

“Professor Harvey and professor Bataille made a great compatible team. I think the landscape architecture and any other department should start to develop more of these cross-curriculum pairings.”

Learning from one another is a common goal of the course instructors. Bataille said English 375 gives students the opportunity to relate two separate disciplines that aren’t always connected.

“Essentially, we are mixing a visual disciplinary — landscape architecture — and a verbal disciplinary — English — and cross-referencing them,” he said. “That is mainly what inspired us to put the course together. Together, the two disciplines have a broader appeal.”

As Harvey nears retirement, he and Bataille are searching for another professor to carry on the tradition.

---

Robert Harvey

Degrees:

• Bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Iowa State in 1961.

• Master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964.

Came to ISU: 1968.

Courses taught: Landscape Architecture 271 (Landscape Architectural History) and Landscape Architecture 472/572 (Landscape Architectural History and Preservation).

Before retiring: “I am very intent on putting my collection of slides and books on file so that others may use them.”