Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
CALDWELL, Alfred
CALDWELL, Alfred. (St. Louis, MO, May 26, 1903--Bristol, Wisconsin, 1998). Landscape architect. Caldwell attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but left before completing a degree. From 1926-1931 he worked for landscape architect Jens JENSEN before beginning his own private practice which he maintained from 1931 to 1933. Caldwell’s landscape work and PRAIRIE STYLE ARCHITECTURE buildings in Dubuque, Iowa, and Chicago from the 1930s were inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, who earlier had invited Caldwell to join him at Taliesin.
From 1933 to 1936, Caldwell served and the superintendent of parks in Dubuque. During this time he oversaw the construction of EAGLE POINT PARK and others in the city. He called upon his mentor, Jens Jensen, during this time for creative assistance. He left Dubuque in 1936 to accept the position of landscape designer for the Chicago Park District. In 1944 Caldwell was hired by Mies van der Rohe to teach landscape architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) College of Architecture. Caldwell resigned in 1959 in a dispute with the college administration. He taught briefly in 1965 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and then left to teach at the University of Southern California until 1973.
In 1980 Caldwell was awarded the Distinguished Educator Award from the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He returned to teaching at IIT in 1981.