Kalamazoo, MI - Landscape Forms remembers with admiration and gratitude its founder, John E. Chipman, who died on April 2, 2011. John was a friend and mentor, a gregarious man who took pleasure in people and special joy in his family. He was an outdoorsman, a skilled woodcraftsman and a visionary businessman. Born in Ypsilanti, Michigan on February 26, 1931 he graduated in 1953 from Michigan State University with a degree in landscape architecture and six years later started Chipman Landscaping in Kalamazoo. His foray into furniture manufacturing is part of Landscape Forms lore. Loath to lay off his landscaping employees during the long Michigan winters, he began making benches and planters to keep them working year round. He was good at it and in 1969 turned his attention full time to furniture, founding Landscape Forms. Under his leadership as CEO and Chairman of the Board the company grew to become North America’s leading designer and manufacturer of furniture for outdoor spaces and a standard-bearer for quality and fine design.
“John established the principles, ideas and values that endure at Landscape Forms today. He was a very driven, forceful entrepreneur, although many people didn’t see that because he was so friendly and outgoing. He had great vision and tremendous courage of conviction to do what he thought was right.”
Bill Main, President, Landscape Forms
John Chipman believed it was important to be different. He didn’t like the word ‘corporate’ and all that it implied. He created a business run in a different way. A significant number of Landscape Forms employees have worked for the company long enough to remember John walking through the plant, talking to people every day about what they did and how they did it. He wanted to know how everything worked. “John knew that welders or painters or landscapers, if they are the right people, know their job and you should listen to them about what they know,” Main says.
John valued openness, expected people in the company to contribute, respected their contribution and rewarded them for it. Part of his genius was finding a way to build-in these values as the company grew and the business became more complex. Thirteen years after founding the company he brought to Landscape Forms a pioneering corporate governance plan called Scanlon Principles, which focuses on labor/management cooperation, open book management and employee profit sharing. “That’s unusual today, but it was really odd when John started doing it back in the 80s,” Main explains. With Scanlon, John found a way to translate his values into guidelines that other people could use. They were formalized and made part of the company structure where they continue to guide the way the company operates today.
John Chipman was interested in people and design and he successfully combined the two. “He was pioneering good design in outdoor furniture and building a business that reflected his personal values about people. He made Landscape Forms a place where you could come and do your best work – whether you were a welder or a designer,” Main explains. While he resigned from the day-to-day operation of the company in 1993 and from his role as Chairman of the Board in 2003, John Chipman’s focus on first-rate design and on the people who make it happen still defines the culture today. His family remains part owners of the company with the people of Landscape Forms. John’s son John A. sits on the Board of Directors, his daughter, Becky is VP for People, and nephew Bob Chipman, a landscape architect, designs beautiful Landscape Forms products.
In addition to his legacy at Landscape Forms, John Chipman made serious contributions to the larger community. He was a generous supporter of his alma mater, Michigan State, and contributor, with his wife Patti, of 228 acres of family property in Kalamazoo to the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy. The Chipman Preserve, site of the original nursery on which John started his career, is one of the largest and most public of the Conservancy’s preserves, a place with public trails and heritage fauna and flora, which he tended into his eighth decade. In 2000 John established the John Chipman Scholarship Endowment for Overseas Study to provide opportunities for Michigan State landscape architecture students to study abroad and in 2002 was named the university’s Landscape Architecture Alumnus of the Year. In 2004 he received the Scanlon Leadership Network’s most prestigious honor, its Stewardship Award, in recognition of his demonstration of Scanlon Principles in his work and community.
John Chipman was an exceptional man. The people of Landscape Forms remember him with deep respect and affection. Bill Main speaks for many when he says, “John was a rare person and it was my good fortune to know him.”
About Landscape Forms
Since its founding in 1969 Landscape Forms has earned a reputation for excellent design, high quality products and exceptional service. The Landscape Forms U.S. headquarters and manufacturing facility is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan with sales offices throughout North America, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Hong Kong and Southern Europe. Landscape Forms collaborates with renowned industrial designers and consultancies, landscape architects, and architects to design and develop integrated collections of products that address emerging needs. Major collections in addition to Concord include 35, created in collaboration with frogdesign, and Metro40, designed in partnership with BMW Group DesignworksUSA. Landscape Forms has an installed base of products around the world. Clients include municipalities, transit centers, corporate, college and health care campuses; and familiar brand leaders such as Boeing, Cisco Systems, Disney, Sprint, American Airlines, Herman Miller and Nike. Landscape Forms was recently named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the Top 15 Small Workplaces in the US. www.landscapeforms.com
###