The Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation

Landslide 2009: Shapers of the American Landscape
In fall 2009, The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) and the University of Virginia Press will publish Shaping the American Landscape: New Profiles From the Pioneers of American Landscape Design Project. In celebration, the 2009 Landslide will place a spotlight on great American places, by seminal and regionally influential landscape architects and designers that are threatened with change. Picturesque parks and cemeteries, Colonial and Modern gardens, pleasure drives and parkways, campus landscapes and fairgrounds, plazas and playgrounds—these diverse landscapes collectively represent key benchmarks in our nation’s origins; they’ve helped shape the American landscape. The 2009 Landslide initiative will tell the stories of these places, the individuals who created them and the groups championing their survival... the Shapers of the American Landscape.

TCLF and Garden Design magazine are again teaming up with this Landslide Call for Nominations: Shapers of the American Landscape. Since its inception in 2003, the Landslide initiative has spotlighted more than 100 significant at-risk parks, gardens, and working landscapes. This year’s theme will again do so by calling attention to the places that embody our shared landscape heritage. And for the third consecutive year, the selected sites will be featured in commissioned photography curated by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. Nomination forms may be found at www.tclf.org, the deadline for submission is March 31, 2009.

2008 Landslide Designees: Marvels of Modernism
Modernist landscapes with boomerang curves, reservoirs inspired by Joan Miro paintings, animated fountains, soaring roof gardens, geometric earthworks, futuristic Fair grounds, and sunken and expansive plazas all became celebrated design elements during the nation’s massive post-World War II development. During this period, designers, their clients, and patrons utilized revolutionary new and experimental materials, and subdued transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces to infuse Modern forms into classic sensibilities. However, until recently, many of these designs have been misunderstood and underappreciated. To draw attention to these irreplaceable works, the 2008 Landslide theme: Marvels of Modernism, spotlights our diverse postwar garden and landscape heritage.

Landslide is a yearly designation of significant landscapes at risk of being lost. For more information on the Marvels of Modernism, including exhibit venues, visit www.tclf.org.

Mount Auburn Cemetery Appoints New President
Mount Auburn Cemetery is pleased to announce the appointment of David P. Barnett, Ph.D., as the new President and CEO of Mount Auburn Cemetery. Dr. Barnett has been at Mount Auburn for over 15 years, serving the institution in many critical capacities. He came to Mount Auburn in 1993 as the Director of Horticulture. In 1999 he became the Cemetery’s first Vice President of Operations & Horticulture and in January 2008 he was appointed Mount Auburn’s first Executive Vice President. He became Acting President July 1, 2008, on the retirement of former President William C. Clendaniel.

Dr. Barnett is nationally known throughout the horticultural community. He is currently Past President (2007-09) of the American Public Gardens Association (APGA), having previously been President (2005-07), Vice President (2003-05), Chair of the Host Committee for the 2003 Annual Conference held in Boston, and chair of other standing committees since 1992. He has also been on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Arboriculture, New England Chapter, and is currently Second Vice President of the Horticultural Club of Boston. He has been active as a speaker on horticulture and ecological issues. Dr. Barnett received his B.S. in Environmental Horticulture, summa cum laude, from the University of Connecticut; and an M.S. in Environmental Horticulture and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis. Prior to coming to Mount Auburn, he served as Assistant Director at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, NY. Dr. Barnett lives with his family in Boxborough, MA. "I am honored and excited," said Dr. Barnett, "to lead Mount Auburn at this critical juncture in its history. This vibrant institution is a national leader in preservation, horticulture, and cemetery services, creatively building on a tradition of innovation and excellence. I look forward to working with our talented staff, dedicated Trustees and other volunteers, and the wider community as Mount Auburn, founded more than 175 years ago, redefines what it means to be a cultural resource and active cemetery for the 21^st century."

Fellows Riverside Gardens 50^th Anniversary
Fellows Riverside Gardens operated by Mill Creek MetroParks in Youngstown, Ohio is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2008 with a new Master Plan under the direction of Keith Kaiser, Horticulture Director. Fellows Riverside Gardens is "a beloved gem" of Northeast Ohio, with over 400,000 visits a year. A newly released Master Plan by Terra Design Studios, LLC, adds an enlarged entrance, paved circulation paths, and "revitalization" of underutilized areas, but avoids "mitigation of the design intent" and "provides strong integrity" to the original design by landscape architect John L. Paolano. The 12-acre garden sits on a magnificent bluff with lovely views over Lake Glacier from the South stone terrace overlook, and views over the great Youngstown industrial valley with its distant hills and open sky from the North terrace. Elizabeth Rudge Fellows gave the property upon her death in 1958 with an endowment, specifying that she wanted roses, and that the garden be "a beauty spot for all to enjoy." Fellows Riverside Gardens was included in the book, National Geographic Guide to America's Public Gardens - 300 of the Best Gardens to Visit in the U.S. and Canada. Fellows’ "stunning" spring blooming plants against the evergreen background, and "cornucopia of conifers" were noted.

The extraordinary new Davis Education and Visitor Center makes Fellows a destination for many events. For its Anniversary, Fellows is having special programs throughout the year. The exhibit on John L. Paolano includes his plans for Fellows, earlier work for Ferruccio Vitale in New York in the 1920s, and for the National Park Service in Washington, DC in the 1930s. For more information, contact Fellows Riverside Gardens at 330 740 7116 or at KKaiser@cboss.com.

Humboldt Park Audio Tour
Chicago park historian and Alliance member Julia S. Bachrach has created an audio tour of Humboldt Park , a beautiful Jens Jensen-designed landscape. Even if you don’t have the opportunity to visit the park to follow Julia’s tour, you may want to download the tracks or listen at your computer to learn more about this fascinating place. Julia is joined by Jensen’s grandson, Bruce Johnson, who shares poetic writings and quotes by his illustrious ancestor.

Please contact Julia by email: julia.bachrach@chicagoparkdistrict.com for more information. As Julia will continue to develop other audio tours through 2008, she is also looking for other good examples of audio presentations involving historic landscapes. Feel free to let her know!

Creating a Broader HALS Network
The establishment of the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) in 2000 was like Kris Kringle receiving mountains of mail in Miracle on 34th Street. The U.S. Government finally recognized historic landscapes as legitimate siblings of historic buildings and structures in the NPS family of Heritage Documentation Programs. Suddenly, all of those buildings and structures floating in large format black and white photos with no visible means of support were poised to leap from the page in vibrant Technicolor with an entourage of plants and ponds, a network of roads and paths, and vistas stretching to the horizon. In our dreams, maybe.

Using HALS
Now that we have HALS, what is it that we do have? Another compliance tool for documenting historic properties before the road goes through? Only if we let it be. HALS has the potential to raise awareness of historic landscapes, provide baseline information for their management, and leverage significant funding for their preservation.

As part of the MOU establishing HALS, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) created a network of HALS Liaisons from each state. Their work is overseen by a HALS Liaisons Coordinator selected by the chair of the Historic Preservation-Professional Practice Network (HP-PPN). The state Liaisons are appointed by their respective ASLA chapter presidents, and charged with the following duties and responsibilities:

Lobby federal legislators for initial and ongoing Congressional funding of HALS.

Compile, prioritize, and update a list of local examples of historic landscapes that are threatened, highly significant, and/or highly valued.

Assist the Chief of HALS to compile a comprehensive national inventory of possible HALS study sites.

Identify one or more historic landscapes that merit complete documentation pursuant to the guidelines and coordinate such documentation as resources allow.

Coordinate HALS activities with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).

Advise on the review and revision of state and local historic preservation laws and standards to include documentation of historic landscapes.

Educate government agencies and consultants about the use of HALS for compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, Section 4(f) of the Transportation Department Act of 1966, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Promote public awareness of the importance of historic landscapes and the use of HALS.

Encourage donations from local philanthropists to the HABS/HAER/HALS Foundation for supplemental private funding of HALS.

A Broader Network

Many members of the AHLP are actively promoting HALS, but we need to work with the Liaisons to create a broader network of advocates. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has lent credence to landscape preservation recently, emphasizing site and context. We need to enlist the Trust and other preservation partners like NCSHPO, and local preservation organizations and individuals in the campaign to implement and fund HALS.

A new publication by board member Carol Grove and co-author Cydney Millstein entitled Houses of Missouri 1870-1940 has just been released by Acanthus Press, NYC, as a part of its Suburban Domestic Architecture Series. The book’s focus is on architectural and cultural history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as they relate to the concept of the suburban ideal. It includes references and biographical information on landscape architects and planners that shaped Missouri, among them the Kansas City landscape architectural firm of Hare & Hare, Jens Jensen, Henry Wright, Julius Pitzman, George Kessler and others.

University of Guelph Landscape Architecture professor, Cecelia Paine, and MLA student, Kirsten Brown, are preparing an assessment of golf courses designed by Stanley Thompson, noted Canadian golf course architect, who practiced in the period from 1920 to 1950. His work included courses in Canada, the United States, Colombia, Brazil and Jamaica, with the most well known that of Jasper Park Lodge in Alberta. Their assessment work, conducted on behalf of the Stanley Thompson Society, includes identifying the integrity of extant courses and establishing recognition criteria.

Judith B. Tankard's new book, A Legacy in Bloom: Celebrating a Century of Gardens at the Cummer, focuses on the extraordinary gardens at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida. The landscape architects associated with the property (formerly the home of the Cummer family, lumber barons from Michigan) include O.C. Simonds, the Olmsted firm, William Lyman Phillips, and Ellen Shipman. Photographs by Mick Hales show the gardens in all seasons. This book is currently only available through the Cummer Museum. Please visit www.cummer.org for more information.

William H. Tishler will be serving on the ASLA Awards 2009 Jury for the selection of The Landmark Award in Landscape Architecture.

William C. Clendaniel: Preservation Pioneer Retires as President of Mount Auburn Cemetery
William C. (Bill) Clendaniel retired on July 1, 2008, as President of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown, MA, after 20 years of service. During his tenure he made Mount Auburn—North America’s first landscaped cemetery—a preservation role model for historic cemeteries and natural and cultural landscapes nationwide.

He established a proactive preservation policy, saving and conserving endangered structures and monuments, and created innovative new interment landscapes that address 21st-century challenges of space limitations and environmental sustainability. Bill also expanded the Cemetery’s professional staff, increased the programming that Mount Auburn offers the public, and developed a comprehensive fundraising program to help finance these improvements.

Mount Auburn Cemetery received numerous awards for its stewardship during Bill’s presidency, including, in 2007, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Trustee Emeritus Award for Excellence in the Stewardship of Historic Sites. Bill himself received the Gold Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1997 for “leadership in restoring and revitalizing one of the greatest historic landscapes in the United States.”

Throughout his presidency Bill made sure that Mount Auburn shared its heritage, horticulture, and artwork with an ever-widening segment of the public as the Friends of Mount Auburn presented an average of 70 lectures, walks, and tours annually. The programming for the Cemetery’s 175^th Anniversary year, from June 2006 through September 2007, reached many new audiences, and Mount Auburn’s new Visitors Center in Story Chapel, which officially opened on the weekend of May 3, 2008, will continue to educate the public about the Cemetery’s many facets.

Prior to coming to the Cemetery, Bill served as Deputy Director of The Trustees of Reservations. He had also been Legal Counsel at the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office. After retiring from Mount Auburn, Bill will continue to serve on the executive boards of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Friends of the Public Garden. He was recently elected Treasurer of Massachusetts Historical Society and Vice President of the Friends of the Public Garden. He is also a member of the Historic Resources Committee of The Trustees of Reservations.

In honor of Bill’s decades of leadership and in recognition of the importance of preservation to the future of the Cemetery, the Trustees and Friends of Mount Auburn have established the Preservation Endowment Fund to conserve, restore, and protect the Cemetery’s collections of architecture, monuments and archives.

Sherda Williams accepted a new position in April 2008, transferring to the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio (http://www.nps.gov/jaga). The Site is a Presidential home that receives over 19,000 visitors a year. Management of the Site has shifted from a nonprofit to the National Park Service. Sherda was previously stationed in western Kansas at Nicodemus National Historic Site.

Honourary Doctorate Granted To Susan Burke
In June 2007, Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario granted an honourary doctorate to Susan Burke, Board Member of the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation. Susan is manager and curator of two historic sites which interpret the cultural heritage of the two founding groups who settled in the area in the early 1800’s – the Pennsylvania German Mennonites from the United States and the Scots from Great Britain. This great honour recognizes her personal contribution to material culture preservation and it raises public awareness of our field of heritage conservation in general. The following is an excerpt from Susan’s Convocation Address for the general and honours Arts students in which she focuses on a key attribute of heritage – Sense of Place.

Excerpt of Convocation Address ...

Mary Paolano Hoerner, BA, MA, JD, has developed workshops for teachers on teaching with cultural landscapes. She has given programs for the Western Ohio OEA, Central Ohio OEA, and most recently at Wittenberg University. The programs were developed with the support of Ohio Chapter, ASLA. The programs have been well-received, and additional workshops for teachers are planned for 2008.

Call for Papers

Call for papers

May 2009
At the Confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers:
The 31^st Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation
St. Louis, Missouri

Historic preservation practice in the United States has become complex, professional, and inclusive, while reflecting an increasingly mainstreamed and popular public ethos. This has, in turn, focused the attention of some preservationists far beyond traditional concerns for preserving individual historic buildings, landscapes and neighborhoods, to grappling with ways to integrate preservation with land use and transportation planning, smart growth, and management of resources; in short, seeking ways to make historic preservation a central part of the growing discussion of developing sustainable practices.

This series of National Forums, co-sponsored by a consortium of 11 graduate historic preservation programs, has focused on the changing perspectives of historic preservation practice in the United States. The Sixth National Forum on Historic Preservation Practice, to be held at Goucher College, March 2009, will explore the challenges that preservation faces in becoming a critical component of the national debate about sustainability.

Historic preservation of existing neighborhoods and commercial districts embodies the concept of a sustainable society. Preserving and continuing to use existing neighborhoods with their closely integrated network of houses, schools, parks, open spaces, streets, alleys, and religious institutions provides residents with an environment that encourages human interaction. Preserving and continuing to use traditional commercial districts provides residents with a variety of locally oriented goods and services.

In particular, the Sixth National Forum is interested in receiving abstracts on the following topics:

Papers must be analytical rather than descriptive. They should address new approaches to historic preservation and sustainability, and not be simply case studies. Papers should focus on new material that brings fresh information and insight to the nexus between preservation and sustainability.

While the focus of the conference is on preservation practice and sustainability in the United States, papers may incorporate international perspectives for comparative purposes or in ways that bring domestic practices and issues to the fore.

Abstracts and any inquiries should be sent to:
David L. Ames, Conference Coordinator, and Director of the Center for Historic Architecture and Design
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
PHONE 302.831.1050 FAX 302.831.4548
davames@udel.edu

Abstracts may be submitted electronically or in hard copy. Abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words and must be submitted no later than January 31, 2008.Abstracts should contain the author’s name(s), postal and e-mail addresses, and telephone and fax numbers at the top of the page. Papers will be selected based on thoughtfulness, organization, and how well they address the focus of the conference. The selection committee reserves the right to request modifications to proposals.

Inquiries and abstracts should be sent to David L. Ames, Conference Coordinator, and Director of the Center for Historic Architecture and Design, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716; 302-831-1050, FAX 302-831-4548, davames@udel.edu. Abstracts may be submitted electronically or in hard copy.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Section 106 Courses
The only Section 106 course taught by the federal agency responsible for administering the National Historic Preservation Act’s Section 106 review process, this two‑day course is designed for those who are new to Section 106 review or those who want a refresher on its basic operation. The course explains the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which applies any time a federal, federally assisted, or federally approved activity might affect a property listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Click here for ACHP2008 courses.

Present – March 28, 2009
Edward L. Daugherty, A Southern Landscape Architect: Exploring New Forms
Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Georgia
Edward Daugherty is one of the most significant post-World War II landscape architects in Atlanta and the Southeast, designing commercial, residential, and institutional landscapes in eight states and abroad. This retrospective of Daugherty’s career traces his seminal works in landscape architecture, urban planning, conservation, and historic preservation from 1953 to the present. The exhibition also includes The Cultural Landscape Foundation's oral history module featuring Edward Daugherty (www.tclf.org). For more information, please visit www.atlantahistorycenter.com.

January 14 – 17, 2009
Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Annual Conference: Teaching + Learning Landscape
Tucson, Arizona
At the 2009 meeting of CELA there will be a panel titled: A Cultural Landscape Perspective: Assessing the Potential for a Transdisciplinary Framework for Teaching Landscape Architecture. Thaisa Way (Univ. of Washington), Jeffrey Blankenship (SUNY-ESF), Arnold Alanen (Univ. of Wisconsin), and Kathryn Rogers Merlino (Univ. of Washington) will address how cultural landscape studies might serve as a framework for an alternative pedagogy in the design curriculum. They will present their thoughts on the potential of J.B. Jackson, the Cultural Landscape Report, and interest in the vernacular to inform the pedagogy of design suggesting a transdisciplinary practice. For further information, please visit www.thecela.org.

March 19 - 21, 2009
The Sixth National Forum on Preservation Practice: A Critical Look at Sustainability and Historic Preservation
Goucher College, Towson, Maryland
Participants will explore the challenges preservation faces in becoming a critical component of the national debate on sustainability. Among the speakers will be Alliance member Shary Berg, Valencia Libby and others. Further details and registration information are available at www.goucher.edu/forum2009.

April 1 – 5, 2009
The Society of Architectural Historians Annual Meeting
Pasadena, California
There will be a session titled "(Cultural) Landscape History: Expanding the Narratives of Landscape Architecture" at the 2009 meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians. The session will be chaired by Jeffrey Blankenship, SUNY-ESF and Thaisa Way, University of Washington. This session will address places and histories in Israel, Gordon Cullen's Townscape, modernism in Germany, and the concept of socialized landscapes. Speakers will include David Haney (Newcastle), Ziva Kolodney (Technion, Israel), Miriam Engler (Iowa State University), and Nina Antonetti (Smith College). Information about the annual meeting can be found at www.sah.org.

May 27 – 31, 2009
The Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation 31st Annual Conference:
At the Confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers
St. Louis, Missouri