Louise Harris Odiorne Papers

Louise Odiorne was born in McRae, Georgia, on January 8, 1910. She continued to live in Georgia and even began high school there. She and her family then moved to the Dayton, Ohio area where she finished high school in 1929. The same year, she entered Antioch College in Yellow Springs, which she attended until 1933.

In 1934, she accepted a fellowship to attend the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, in Groton, Massachusetts. In 1935 she transferred to Ohio State University, where, in 1938, she received a bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture, from the College of Engineering. Post graduate studies include the Steve Hamlin plant materials course at the Harvard University Department of Landscape Architecture during the summer of 1938; and also in 1938, she attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Architecture and Planning Department.

With her formal education and training completed, Louise Odiorne took a short break in her professional career and married Richard Odiorne in 1938. She resumed her professional interests in 1940 by entering private practice in Landscape Architecture and Planning. What followed was a varied and dynamic professional career in Landscape Architecture.

In addition to her private practice, one of her interests was community planning. This interest landed her in the Ohio Plan Board Office of both Dayton and Yellow Springs, Ohio. She was also extensively involved in the planning and design of Melbourne Village, Melbourne, Florida.

Louise Odiorne was widely respected professionally and as a guest lecturer. She was a guest lecturer at both Ohio State University and Antioch College. In addition, she participated in the Winter Lecture Series at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and was a visiting lecturer at the Cheekwood Gardens and Tennessee Garden Clubs, Nashville, Tennessee. She also served as a consultant to the Notre Dame Graduate School of Environic Studies.

Louise Odiorne is probably best known for her research and development in building technologies and materials for buildings as human life support systems. This culminated in applying for patents for the “Life Clime Platform,” an idea for establishing indoors the symbiotic relationship between living plants and people, called “The Indoor-Eden Effect”. Twenty demonstration structures and installations were built. Closely related to this was her work with rural land owners for regenerative, economically feasible land use and conservation practices.

Finally, busy as she was, Louise also had several other business interests. She established Living Space, Inc., which became a franchise of Alside Structural System in 1965 and in 1969, she established Hunatech Foundation for research in environment. In addition, she was the director of Carr greenhouses, Yellow Springs and directed the conversion from commercial use to Human-Climate productive-ornamental plant selection research. In November of 1977, Louise Odiorne passed away.