Pioneer Information
Raised in Lynbrook, New York, Simonson was awarded a Regent’s scholarship to attend Cornell University, where he concentrated on landscape architecture and took courses in architecture and engineering. Upon graduating in 1919 with a bachelor of science degree from that school’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences he worked briefly as an engineer draftsman for the Curtis Engineering Corporation. During the early 1920s, he worked for several landscape architecture, engineering, and city planning firms, including the office of landscape architect A. D. Taylor.
Simonson, invited by Gilmore Clarke and Jay Downer, in 1925 joined the staff of the Westchester County Park Commission, the acknowledged leader in the field. Four years later the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) engaged Clarke and Downer as consultants for the development of Mount Vernon Memorial Highway (now George Washington Memorial Parkway) and the two senior designers sent Simonson to Washington, D.C., to serve as the project’s supervisory landscape architect. Completed in 1932, the parkway was designed to protect the shoreline of the Potomac River, provide recreational opportunities for the national capital region, and commemorate George Washington by providing a safe and attractive roadway to his Mount Vernon estate. Simonson then served as chief of the BPR’s Roadside Branch until his retirement in 1965. He continued to promote the integration of aesthetics, safety, and efficiency in highway location and design throughout his career. Furthermore, he encouraged students and colleagues, published articles for professional journals, and drafted guidelines for the treatment of roadside landscapes in federally funded highway projects.
Simonson was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in in 1940 in recognition of his contributions to highway design and for his efforts to promote greater collaboration between the disciplines of engineering and landscape architecture. He passed away the age of 91 in Bethesda, Maryland.
