UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Johnna D’Ecclesiis, a second-year landscape architecture student in the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School, visited the James Rose Center for Landscape Architectural Design and Research when she was just a little girl. This coming summer, she will be an intern at the same non-profit landscape research and study foundation, which is headquartered in her hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey.
The James Rose Center honors the history and work of famous landscape architect James Rose. Rose built the center in 1953 as a residence for his family. Before he died in 1991, he established the center and created a foundation to transform his Ridgewood residence into an education center, according to the center’s website.
“James Rose was a pioneer in our field,” said Stephen Mainzer, assistant professor of landscape architecture. “He was a bit of an anti-institution rebel who, alongside other prominent designers, pushed landscape architecture toward modernity. The James Rose Center for Landscape Architectural Research and Design is a living artifact of his approach to the design process, one of the very few records of his work.”
Nestled into the natural landscape, the James Rose Center creates the feeling of being a treehouse for the guests.
“I visited the center when I was very little. In my brain, I remember calling it the treehouse house because it felt like a treehouse to me,” she said.
The center’s mission is “to explore the interrelationship between people and the environment and to contribute to a more sustainable suburban condition through preservation, research and design.” In its May to October season, the center provides tours, lectures, classes in mindfulness, exhibitions, student internships and research opportunities.
“The center is not large and — I imagine — does not accept many interns. To my knowledge, Johnna is the first Penn State student to be accepted into this opportunity,” Mainzer said. “I look forward to what she brings to the experience, learns from it and brings back to our program.”
As an intern, D’Ecclesiis will give tours, digitize Rose’s journals and help with hosting events at the James Rose Center. To apply, she submitted her resume and a one-page essay. The prompt for the essay was, “A one-page description of your particular interest in the field of landscape architecture and why you want to intern at the James Rose Center.”
D’Ecclesiis wrote about visiting the James Rose Center as a child and her connection to the house’s detailed design.
“One thing that I’m particularly interested in when I’m designing is getting caught up in the little details, but this house itself has so many specific little details put in to add to the whole whimsical feel of it,” she said. “You can have great architecture, but it’s the details that really bring it to the next level.”
After two interviews, D’Ecclesiis was offered the position. She said that visiting Penn State Career Services and attending career fairs helped her feel more comfortable networking in a professional context.
This summer, D’Ecclesiis said she is excited to work at the treehouse she once visited to further her design education.
“The interviewer told me that I’m really going to get into the mind of James Rose by going through his journals,” she said. “I’m really excited to learn about him and how he thought and apply it to my future and my career.”