Lewis Clarke Collection 1944-2006

Summary
Contents
Names/subjects
Using these materials
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Creator
Clarke, Lewis J. (Lewis James)
Size
593.5 linear feet (199 document cases, 754 tubes, 114 flat file drawers, 49 slide boxes, 3 card boxes)
Call number
MC 00175

The Lewis Clarke Collection, 1944 to 2006, documents the professional work of Lewis Clarke and his firm Lewis Clarke Associates as well as Clarke's time as a North Carolina State University School of Design faculty member from 1952 to 1968. The collection is arranged into eight series: project files, drawings, professional papers, faculty papers, personal papers, office files, project booklets, and photographic materials. The collection consists primarily of landscape architectural drawings and project files. The projects include residences, primary and secondary schools, community colleges, university campuses, regional hospitals, shopping centers, residential resort projects, and pedestrian malls. The drawings and project files represent projects located primarily, but not exclusively, throughout the southeast.

Lewis James Clarke was born in Carlton, Nottingham, England on 10 March 1927. He earned a Master's degree in Architecture at the University of Leicester, Master's in Landscape Design from Kings College at the University of Durham, and received a Fulbright Scholarship and a Smith-Mundt Award to attend Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design to earn a Master's in Landscape Architecture in 1952. Clarke taught as an associate professor at the North Carolina State College School of Design (SOD), from 1952 to 1968. He operated his landscape architecture firm, Lewis Clarke Associates, from 1968 to 1993, working on projects such as community colleges in North Carolina and Virginia, residential resort master planning, and prototype enclosed mall projects. He created the original master plans for the Research Triangle Institute; Saint Andrews College, Laurinburg, North Carolina; and the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro. His signature works include Palmetto Dunes, Hilton Head Island; Carolina Trace, Sanford, North Carolina; and Ford’s Colony, Williamsburg, Virginia. Clarke retired in 2000 and passed away in 2021 at the age of 94.

Biographical/historical note

Lewis James Clarke was born in Carlton, Nottingham, England on 10 March 1927. He earned a Masters degree in Architecture at the University of Leicester and a Masters in Landscape Design from Kings College, University of Durham. Clarke received a Fulbright Scholarship and a Smith-Mundt Award to attend Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design to purse his studies in Landscape Architecture and he graduated in 1952. In the fall of 1952, Henry L. Kamphoefner, founding dean of the North Carolina State College School of Design (SOD), hired Clarke as an associate professor. Clarke remained a part of the faculty until 1968. In addition to teaching at SOD, Clarke taught at the University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, University of Toronto, Michigan State University, Louisiana State University, and the University of California at Berkeley. Clarke formally opened his firm, Lewis Clarke Associates, in 1968 and over the years received excellence awards from the American Society of Landscape Architecture, the American Institute of Architects, Progressive Architecture, and the American Nurserymen Association.

Clarke's work includes community colleges in North Carolina and Virginia and prototype enclosed mall projects. He created the original master plans for the Research Triangle Institute; Saint Andrews College, Laurinburg, North Carolina; and the N.C. Zoological Park in Asheboro. Clarke also completed a substantial amount of work in the area of residential resort master planning. His signature works include Palmetto Dunes, Hilton Head Island; Carolina Trace, Sanford, North Carolina; and Ford’s Colony, Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1980 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Clarke retired in 2000 and passed away in 2021 at the age of 94.

Lewis Clarke
1927 Mar 10
Born in Carlton, Nottingham, England
World War II
Officer with the British Royal Engineers
1950
Earned Master’s degree in Landscape Design from Kings College, University of Durham
Earned Master’s degree in Architecture at the University of Leicester
1952
Earned Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design on a Fulbright Scholarship and a Smith-Mundt Award
1952-1968
Associate professor at North Carolina State College School of Design
1968-1993
Operated Lewis Clarke Associates firm
1980
Elected Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects
2000
Retired

Lewis James Clarke was born in Carlton, Nottingham, England on 10 March 1927. He earned his Masters in Architecture at the University of Leicester and his Masters in Landscape Design from Kings College, University of Durham. Clarke received a Fulbright Scholarship and a Smith-Mundt Award to attend Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design to pursue his studies in Landscape Architecture and he graduated in 1952. In the fall of 1952, Henry L. Kamphoefner, founding dean of the North Carolina State College School of Design (SOD), hired Clarke as an associate professor. Clarke remained a part of the faculty until 1968. In addition to teaching at SOD, Clarke taught at the University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, University of Toronto, Michigan State University, Louisiana State University, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Clarke formally opened his firm, Lewis Clarke Associates, in 1968 and over the years received excellence awards from the American Society of Landscape Architecture, the American Institute of Architects, Progressive Architecture, and the American Nurserymen Association. His work includes community colleges in North Carolina and Virginia and prototype enclosed mall projects. He created the original master plan for the Research Triangle Institute; Saint Andrews College, Laurinburg, North Carolina; and the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro. Clarke also completed a substantial amount of work in the area of residential resort master planning. His signature works include Palmetto Dunes, Hilton Head Island; Carolina Trace, Sanford, North Carolina; and Ford’s Colony, Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1980 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Scope/content

The Lewis Clarke Collection, 1944 to 2006, documents the professional work of Lewis Clarke and his firm Lewis Clarke Associates as well as Clarke’s time as a North Carolina State University School of Design faculty member from 1952 to 1968. The bulk of the collection documents the progress of Clarke’s firm’s projects, which include residences, primary and secondary schools, community colleges, university campuses, regional hospitals, shopping centers, residential resort projects, and pedestrian malls. The collection is arranged into eight series: project files, drawings, professional papers, faculty papers, personal papers, office files, project booklets, and photographic materials.

Project Files, 1949 to 1991, include correspondence on projects such as: the master plan for Research Triangle Institute; community colleges in North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina; regional hospitals throughout North Carolina; residential resort properties such as Palmetto Dunes; the North Carolina Zoological Park; and some of the first enclosed malls in the country. Also included are private residences, primary and secondary schools, university campuses, and shopping centers.

The Drawings series, 1950 to 1995, comprises a substantial part of the collection. Some of the forms include original drawings, sketches, blueprints, and topographic maps. The drawings represent projects located primarily, but not exclusively, throughout the southeast.

The Professional Papers series, 1953 to 2006, contains articles and papers presented at conferences, as well as correspondence regarding the City of Raleigh Planning Commission, the Southeastern Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and its successor organization, the North Carolina Chapter of the ASLA. Accreditation reports are also included.

The Faculty Papers series, 1950 to 1984, contains printed lectures from visiting professors and professionals such as Burle Marx, Lawrence Halprin, and Brian Hackett. Also included are Clarke’s typed lecture notes for classes taught at the North Carolina State University School of Design. Correspondence in the faculty files dates from 1952 to 1968 and includes letters from Charles Burkhead, Frank Chippendale, Brian Hackett, Garrett Eckbo, Henry Kamphoefner, Claude McKinney, Ian McHarg, Robert Stipe, and others.

The Personal Papers series, 1944 to 1972, includes notebooks from Clarke’s architecture student days at the University of Leicester and as a landscape design student at King’s College in England. Additionally, there are notes and projects from 1951 to 1952 when he was a graduate student in landscape architecture at Harvard.

The Office Files series, 1947 to 1989, contains correspondence directly between Clarke and clients and firms with whom projects were collaborated. Some of the correspondence is between developer James Rouse, and architects such as Tommy Hayes, James Biggs, Dick Schnedl, and Leslie Boney.

The Project Booklets series, 1959 to 1990, is a collection of booklets created by Lewis Clarke Associates and designed to convey the scope and context of a given project. Not all projects have representative booklets but all booklets contain corresponding drawings and designs.

The Photographic Materials series, 1948 to 1987, includes Lewis Clarke’s photographic prints, slides, negatives, and proof files. These photographic materials primarily represent architectural projects undertaken by Clarke’s firm, including Research Triangle Institute, the North Carolina Zoological Park, shopping centers (such as the Charlottetown Mall and Cherry Hill Mall), community colleges (such as Piedmont Technical Institute, Richmond County Technical Institute, and Sandhills Community College), businesses, churches, and private residences. This series also contains materials documenting Lewis Clarke's travels, historical Uniked Kingdom landscapes, teaching aids for lectures, and reference slides.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in eight series:

  • Project Files
  • Drawings
  • Professional Papers
  • Faculty Papers
  • Personal Papers
  • Office Files
  • Project Booklets
  • Photographic Materials

Please click here to view a project index.

Use of these materials

The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.

The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Lewis Clarke Collection, MC 00175, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Other finding aid

This list of 992 projects indicates which series in the collection contain materials for each project. A single project may be represented in the Project Files, Drawings, Photographic Materials, and Project Booklets. The list also indicates whether the photographic materials are prints, negatives, or slides.

Related material

Source of acquisition

Donated by Lewis Clarke, 2009-2011.

Processing information

Processed by: Carolyn Chesarino and Yona Owens; machine-readable finding aid created by: Carolyn Chesarino, August 2011. Addition processed and finding aid updated by Yona Owens, November 2012.

Sponsor

This collection was processed with support from the Council on Library and Information Resources Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program.

Please note that some historical materials may contain harmful content and/or descriptions. Learn how we’re addressing it.
Please note that some historical materials may contain harmful content and/or descriptions. Learn how we’re addressing it.

Access to the collection

This collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to digital files may require additional advanced notice.

For more information contact us via mail, phone, or our web form.

Mailing address:
Special Collections Research Center
Box 7111
Raleigh, NC, 27695-7111

Phone: (919) 515-2273

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Lewis Clarke Collection, MC 00175, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Use of these materials

The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.

The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.