Bruce Kelly

Bruce R. Kelly (December 8, 1948–January 21, 1993) was a landscape architect based in New York City, an advocate for the preservation and restoration of the landscapes designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. He is also remembered for his own designs in New York's parks, including Strawberry Fields, the Central Park memorial to John Lennon.

Early life, education and career

Bruce Kelly was born in 1948 at Wrens, Georgia. In 1971, he received a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia and in 1973, he received a master's degree in historic preservation from Columbia University. In July to September 1974, Kelly was in Tuscany preparing archaeological drawings of the ancient Roman town of Cosa, excavated under the auspices of the American Academy in Rome. After returning to New York, Kelly worked from 1974–1977 for the Central Park Task Force, formed to help rehabilitate New York City's Central Park.

In May 1977, Kelly formed Bruce Kelly Associates. The Central Park Conservancy, formed in 1980, was an early client for whom Kelly helped to compile an inventory and analysis of the park's assets, the first to be done in decades. Completed between 1982-1985, the exercise led to the creation of the Conservancy's master plan for restoration of the park, published in 1987 as Rebuilding Central Park: A Management and Restoration Tool.

In October 1981, Kelly and Gail Guillet organized and exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled "Art of the Olmsted Landscape." The exhibit and the accompanying catalogue helped cement Kelly's reputation as an Olmsted expert. That same month, Kelly obtained his license to practice landscape architecture in New York State.

In March 1986, Kelly and David Varnell formed Kelly/Varnell Landscape Architects. The two had been classmates at the University of Georgia where they jointly published their senior thesis, a planning study for Washington, Georgia.

Kelly/Varnell were well-known for their many master plans and projects for public spaces, but on a parallel track they cultivated a private practice. Writing in 1988, James Baily noted that Kelly was active "...in the most rarefied strata of the private sector, undertaking elaborate garden projects for such clients as Mary Morgan, Carolyne Roehm and Henry Kravis, Yoko Ono, Saul and Gayfryd Steinberg, and some dozen others. These are good times to be Bruce Kelly." Other glamorous commissions included the garden of Angier Biddle Duke in Southampton, New York, that of Tim Husband and Ashton Hawkins on the Greek island of Patmos and the restoration of the gardens of the Pallazo Abrizzi in Venice.

Kelly died in 1993 at the age of 44, after which David Varnell continued the practice, completing among other projects the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in New York's Riverside Park, dedicated in October 1996. In 2000, the firm became Kelly Varnell Virgona.

Representative works of Kelly/Varnell

• Master Plan for the Arboretum, South Park, Buffalo, New York (1985).
• Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York City (dedicated 1985).
• Master Plan, Boulevard East Promenade, Weehauken, New Jersey (1985).
• James Michael Levin Playground, Central Park, New York City (1987).
• Restoration of the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park, New York City (1987).
• Restoration of the Dene in Central Park, New York City (1987).
• Garden Design, Metropolitan Home Magazine Show House (to benefit DIFFA), 126 East 65th St., New York City (1988).
• Forest Park Redevelopment Proposal, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, June 1989.
• Perennial Garden, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York City (1991).
• The Hermitage, Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, Specifications for Landscape Restoration and Construction (1993).
• Renovation of the Boulevard East Promenade and ancillary parks, Weehawken, New Jersey (1989–1995).
• Eleanor Roosevelt Monument, Riverside Park, New York City (dedicated 1996).

Gallery

• 
  A view of the landscape of Strawberry Fields.
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  The memorial at Strawberry Fields, New York City, dedicated October 1985.
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  The Shakespeare Garden in Central Park, completed in 1987.
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  The Shakespeare Garden in Central Park, completed in 1987.
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  The Dene and Summerhouse, Central Park.
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  Eleanor Roosevelt Monument, New York City, dedicated October 1996.

Written works

• Bruce Kelly, Gail Travis Guillet and Mary Ellen W. Hern. Art of the Olmsted Landscape (New York: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and The Arts Publisher, 1981).
• Elizabeth Barlow Rogers (principal author) with Marianne Cramer, Judith L. Heintz, Bruce Kelly, Philip N. Winslow, and John Berendt (editor). Rebuilding Central Park: A Management and Restoration Tool (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1987).