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By Stella Chu

Daily Bruin Contributor

For some students, the Franklin D. Murphy sculpture garden, a five-acre quadrangle of land sandwiched between Bunche and Dickson Halls means a break from the hurriedness of UCLA life.

“This place is great,” said former UCLA student Aric Gregson. “It’s the quietest place here, yet you can still hear the muffled noise from the road and fountain in the background.”

Where cars once sat parked on a barren lot, motionless bronze and stainless steel figures stand instead, quietly watching over visitors who amble casually along the shady, curved pathways.

Beside statues like Henry Moore’s 1961 Reclining Figure No. 3, students also lie relaxing.

The casual intermingling of life and art distinguishes the sculpture garden from any other place on campus, Gregson said.

“It’s relaxing and the quietest place on campus,” he said “It’s my favorite place here.”

Completed in 1967, the sculpture garden was dedicated and named for then-UCLA Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy in 1968.

Despite today’s manicured appearance,in 1960 the garden was still only an image envisioned by Murphy.

In the 1960s, just as UCLA’s reputation as a prestigious university was growing, the campus’ physical size also increased.

When the university began searching for a new region to develop on the campus in 1963, they looked to North campus – an area housing MacGowan and Dickson Halls, both less than a year old at the time.

Jennifer Dunlop, curatorial assistant at the UCLA Hammer museum, provided some background on the sculpture garden’s history from various publications.

Planners began to draft a long range development plan for the campus in the late 1950s.

“Particular attention was paid to the need for the preservation of open spaces and for careful and sensitive landscaping,” reads “In the Sculptor’s Landscape: Celebrating Twenty-five Years of the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden,” published in 1993.

With all the construction, Murphy also desired a place where there was balance between the creativity of nature and the creativity of man, according to the book.

Howard E. Troller, who helped design the garden, recalled in a letter that Murphy wanted the garden to be unique.

According to Troller, Murphy told them that “Gentlemen, I want you to design the finest sculpture garden in the world!”

Murphy’s plans, however, were met with some opposition, because some students believed the space should be used for parking. The students petitioned to stop bringing more sculptures to campus.

Despite the controversy, Murphy teamed up with Ralph Cornell, a distinguished Southern California landscape architect, to realize his dream.

The combination of Murphy, a man avidly dedicated to the arts, and Cornell, a man whose dedication rivaled Murphy’s only by his equal dedication to beauty in nature, created the perfect elixir for the garden’s success as a distinguished outdoor sculpture collection, according to Dunlop.

“Dr. Murphy and Mr. Cornell dreamed not alone of a green open space but of a collaboration between nature and man which would combine the creative genius of sculpture with the constantly changing creativity of plant life in an intimate setting,” reads “Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden,” published by the UCLA Art Council in 1984.

Construction began early in 1964, where asphalt pavement was stripped and grass was laid in it’s place and textured pathways were arranged upon the sloping lawn.

“I wanted something expansive but not flat,” Murphy once recalled in Vaissair’s Diary, an art column. “So Cornell conceived a garden that caught a sense of movement in the terrain as it moved over the hillocks.”

Cornell also satisfied Murphy’s wishes by installing curved, fluid seating areas to follow the theme of continuity instead of individual benches.

In conjunction with the interplay between art and life, many of these seating arrangements double as sculpture display stands, the giant figures towering above any person who sits there, according to Dunlop.

Although the sculpture garden was officially completed in 1967, the first sculpture installed in the area was the Tower of Masks, by Anna Mahler in 1961.

New additions to the garden came in 1969 with the arrival of Jean Arp’s masterpiece “Ptolemy III,” Francesco Somaini’s “Verticale-Assulonne” and William Tucker’s “Untitled.”

The sculpture garden eventually grew to display more than 60 pieces from world-renowned artists because of various donations and UCLA Art Council fund-raising.

In addition to the man-made art, natural beauty speckled throughout the landscape also contribute to the sculpture garden’s character.

From its inauguration more than 30 years ago, species of Brazilian jacarandas, California sycamores and eucalyptus trees still continue to provide shade to the many delighted visitors that pass through the garden.

This blending of nature and sculpture through the years has become a part of UCLA’s natural setting, as Murphy once described in an issue of the “At UCLA” publication.

“Once exposed to beauty we begin to accept it and to expect it,” Murphy then told “At UCLA.” “We’re uncomfortable only in its absence.”

Murphy’s dream to provide people with a sense of nature and relaxation, has become a reality with the sculpture garden being one of the most popular places on campus.

The garden’s fame has also spread beyond UCLA’s borders.

“I had heard about it on the radio as one of L.A.’s best places to have a picnic,” said campus visitor Sue Fox.“We came here to find it and everybody on campus knew about it.”

With Murphy’s vision realized by the garden’s popularity, he still has an enduring presence on campus.

“Dr. Murphy frequently came down in bathrobe and slippers early in the morning to observe the progress of the construction,” Troller said.

In a 1985 interview for “Art News,” Murphy affirmed his continued dedication to his dream.

“I’m still guardian of the garden,” he said.

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