Student Film Explores Halprin’s Yosemite Falls Corridor
Featured on the website of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), the Lawrence Halprin Oral History (2010), and also in the online and traveling photographic exhibition, The Landscape Architecture of Lawrence Halprin (2016), Yosemite Falls Corridor is considered the capstone project of Halprin’s career. It is the focus of a new, short film, Natural Energies | Yosemite Falls, produced by recent Purdue University alumnus Ben Henschen. In 2024 Henschen was awarded the Bill Millsap Travel Fellowship by Dallas AD EX (Architecture and Design Foundation), which enabled him to travel to Yosemite National Park to experience and document Halprin’s work firsthand.
Henschen, now a landscape designer at Studio Outside Landscape Architects in Dallas, recently debuted the final film, featuring audio clips from TCLF’s oral history of Halprin. Henschen describes his project as “a layered visual essay” that documents the Yosemite Falls Corridor through both analytical and emotional lenses and draws inspiration “from Halprin’s sketches and design philosophy, [and] it strives to convey the essence of Yosemite—not just as a place, but as an experience.” Henschen was delighted to discover TCLF’s web page when he was in the beginning stages of his film project. It proved to be an invaluable resource: “The video Lawrence Halprin Projects: Yosemite, in particular, had a profound impact on the direction of my film.”
The filmmaker relates that Natural Energies |Yosemite Falls unfolds in three chapters: The Essence of Design, The Heart of Yosemite, and A Symphony Trail. The first chapter opens at the top of Yosemite Falls, highlighting the sheer scale of the natural environment that shaped Halprin’s vision. The second focuses on the falls themselves, the centerpiece of the design. The sound of falling water takes over the soundtrack, progressing from a delicate drip of melting snow off leaves to the thunderous crash of water pounding against boulders at the base of the falls. The last chapter follows the visitor’s journey through Halprin’s project, capturing the harmony between design and environment.
Natural Energies | Yosemite Falls is paired below with a reflection by Henschen.
“I stepped out of my tent into the quiet darkness of Yosemite Valley. The beam of my headlamp guided me to the nearby trailhead. As I started my hike, light snow began to fall. Three and a half miles later, I found myself standing in several inches of snow at the top of Yosemite Falls, 3,254 feet above my camp. As snowflakes swirled around me, I looked out over the scenery that inspired the renowned landscape architect, Lawrence Halprin. I was reminded of his statement:
‘When you get up on the high country and you see a piece of landscape falling down, for example, then you start to learn what nature is really about.’
“For the first time, I truly understood what he meant. Standing there, I felt the landscape in a new way. It was not just scenery, it was motion, story, and music. Halprin’s design of the Yosemite Falls Corridor captures that feeling with remarkable sensitivity. He didn’t merely decorate the landscape; he orchestrated an experience that subtlety guides visitors to the base of Yosemite Falls. My project Natural Energies seeks to document that experience through film, not simply as a record of place, but as a channel through which viewers can feel the impact of Halprin’s design.”
Henschen’s project began long before he set foot in Yosemite, with extensive research. A central aspect was studying Lawrence Halprin’s sketches. These drawings are not just design tools but expressive visual narratives that reveal Halprin’s thought processes. Through them, Henschen began to understand what makes the design of Yosemite Falls Corridor so significant. One sketch captures the trailhead, marking the moment visitors first glimpse of Yosemite Falls through the trees. Another, labeled “pounding stone,” illustrates how Halprin integrated existing boulders into the design, using the natural terrain to shape the path rather than impose his own ideas upon it. Henschen relates further: “These moments were not incidental, rather they were carefully designed to seem as though they had always been there.” As a landscape architecture student and filmmaker, Henschen wanted to capture how the design lives within Yosemite and relate how Halprin conveyed the spirit of the place (the water, the trees, the light, the rhythm of people moving through it) in his design.
Evocatively, Henschen writes, “Once my research was complete, I traveled to Yosemite and pitched my tent at Camp 4, just a short hike from the Yosemite Falls Corridor. With a sense of anticipation, I set out to experience Halprin’s design firsthand. I left my camera behind. Instead, I focused on immersing myself in the landscape, observing through notes and sketches without the filter of a lens. After a few hours of quiet observation, I returned to camp feeling attuned to the landscape."
“The next morning, I began the filming process. I started by revisiting the main trails and the key locations I had identified during my research. Over the course of several days, I returned to the trailhead, the “pounding stone,” and the base of the falls, capturing each at different times of day. Once I felt I had documented the essential elements of Halprin’s design, I allowed myself to stray from my original route, focusing on the transitional spaces between the natural and the designed. This intuitive, unscripted approach led to some of the most meaningful footage in the film. A young girl, for example, running freely down the trail toward the falls, or a puddle in a dry creek bed, mirroring the towering cascade above. These quiet, unplanned encounters begin to portray the spirit of Yosemite as Halprin saw it.
“I left Yosemite with a story to tell.”
Ben Henschen, a native of Indiana and a graduate of Purdue University, works as a landscape designer at Studio Outside in Dallas, Texas, where he enjoys taking on artistic projects in his free time. He can be reached at bwhenschen@gmail.com.