Catherine Seavitt examines two rarely addressed moments in the career of Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994): his absence from the initial planning and execution of Brasília in 1960, and his later affiliation with Brazil's military dictatorship as a member of the Conselho Federal de Cultura in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For Seavitt, any discussion of Brasília and Roberto Burle Marx must acknowledge these episodes. Burle Marx executed three significant landscapes for the military government's new ministries in Brasília, including two ministry palace gardens at the head of the monumental axis and a grand triangular plaza, Praça dos Cristais, at the army headquarters in the military sector, all in collaboration with architect Oscar Niemeyer. Commissioned in 1967 by the very Ministério do Exército that controlled the regime, the Praça dos Cristais was envisioned as a vast military parade ground, facing Niemeyer's monumental complex of the Quartel-General do Exército and inaugurated in 1973.

This talk draws on Seavitt's book Depositions: Roberto Burle Marx and Public Landscapes under Dictatorship (University of Texas Press, 2023), supported by a 2017 grant from the Graham Foundation, and is presented in conjunction with Latinitudes: A Collection of Latin American Modern Architecture by Leonardo Finotti, on view at the Graham Foundation through July 18, 2026.

Catherine Seavitt is Meyerson Professor and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design. She is the faculty codirector of the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology and creative director of the department’s LA+ Journal. A registered architect and landscape architect, she is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Architects, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, and the American Academy in Rome. Her research explores urban landscapes, post-industrial sites, toxicity, and inventive plant knowledge, with a focus on actionable responses to the climate crisis and decarbonization. Seavitt’s books include Depositions: Roberto Burle Marx and Public Landscapes under Dictatorship (University of Texas Press, 2023); Structures of Coastal Resilience, with Guy Nordenson and Julia Chapman (Island Press, 2018); and Four Corridors, with Guy Nordenson and Paul Lewis (Hatje Cantz, 2019).


Image:  Roberto Burle Marx, aerial view of the Crystal Plaza garden for the Ministry of the Army with Oscar Niemeyer's Army Headquarters complex seen beyond, 1972, Brasília, Brazil. Courtesy of the Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal.

For more information on the exhibition, Latinitudes
A Collection of Latin American Modern Architecture, click here.