A psychologist and landscape designer, Linn was responsible for the grounds of many prominent buildings, such as the Seagram Building in New York. But in the late 1950s, he gave up his lucrative career, rejecting “landscapes of affluence,” and dedicated himself to creating community gardens on vacant lots, particularly focusing on blighted areas around New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
“The garden touches a core of humanness,” he once said, and was a better reflection of humanity than war. One of his gardens, in Berkeley, Calif., was featured in the 2004 documentary “A Lot in Common”. Linn died February 3 from myelogenous leukemia at his home in Berkeley. He was 81.