Boston Flora

Tag: Friends of Fairsted

  • Thursday, December 11, 6:00 pm – Dwelling in Landscape

    Thursday, December 11, 6:00 pm – Dwelling in Landscape

    The New England Landscape Design and History Association (NELDHA) is pleased to announce that it is a co-sponsor of The Friends of Fairsted lecture on December 11, 2014, featuring Daniel Bluestone, Director of the Boston University Preservation Studies Program. His lecture, Dwelling in Landscape, will cover changing practices in residential landscape design. The lecture, at Wheelock College on Hawes Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, begins at 7:00 PM and is preceded by a Reception at 6:00 pm. The lecture is free and open to the public, but a reservation is required. Please RSVP to friendsoffairsted@gmail.com. Seating is limited.

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  • Wednesday, December 3, 6:00 pm – Arthur Shurcliff: From Boston to Colonial Williamsburg

    Join historian and author Elizabeth Hope Cushing on Wednesday, December 3, at 6 pm in the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, as she speaks of landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff’s early work in Boston and how this led to Colonial Williamsburg, his largest and most significant contribution to American landscape architecture.

    In 1928, the landscape architect and preservationist Arthur A. Shurcliff (1870–1957) began what became one of the most important examples of the American Colonial Revival landscape—Colonial Williamsburg. But before this, Shurcliff honed his skills in Boston. An 1894 engineering graduate of MIT with an interest in landscape design, Shurcliff, on the advice of Frederick Law Olmsted and with the aid of his mentor, Charles Eliot, pieced together courses at Harvard College, the Lawrence Scientific School, and the Bussey Institute. He then spent eight years working in the Olmsted office, acquiring a broad and sophisticated knowledge of the profession. Opening his own practice in 1904, Shurcliff emphasized his expertise in town planning, preparing plans for towns surrounding Boston. He designed recreational spaces that Bostonians still enjoy today, including significant aspects of the Franklin Park Zoo and the Charles River Esplanade. Historian Elizabeth Hope Cushing will speak of Shurcliff’s early work in Boston and how this led to Colonial Williamsburg, his largest and most significant contribution to American landscape architecture.  Fee Free, but registration requested. You may register on line at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1381&DayPlannerDate=12/3/2014. Seating is limited. A reception will follow the lecture.

    The Esplanade Association is please to be a co-sponsor of this event along with the Library of American Landscape History, Boston Society of Landscape Architects, Friends of Fairsted, the and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

  • Monday, May 19, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – A Landscape Critic in the Gilded Age

    Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer (1851 – 1934) was one of the premier figures in landscape writing and design at the turn of the twentieth century, at a moment when the amateur pursuit of gardening and the increasingly professionalized landscape design field were beginning to diverge.  Her close relationship with Frederick Law Olmsted influenced her ideas on landscape gardening, and her interest in botany and geology shaped the ideas upon which her philosophy and art criticism were based.  Author Judith Major presents the first in-depth study of the versatile critic and author, revealing Van Rensselaer’s vital role in this moment in the history of landscape architecture.  The talk will take place Monday, May 19, at 7 pm at the Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway.  Presented by The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Friends of Fairsted, the fee is $10 for members of the sponsoring organizations, $15 for nonmembers.  Registration required at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

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  • Monday, December 2, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Volume VIII: The Early Boston Years, 1882 – 1890

    Frederick Law Olmsted relocated from New York to Boston in the early 1880s. With the help of his stepson and partner, John Charles Olmsted, his professional office grew to become the first of its kind: a modern landscape architecture practice with projects throughout the country. During the period covered in Volume VIII of the Olmsted Papers, Olmsted and his partners designed the park system of Boston and Brookline—including the Back Bay Fens, Franklin Park, and the Muddy River Improvement.

    Though Olmsted would never provide a definitive treatise on landscape architecture, this volume contains some of his most mature and powerful statements on the practice of landscape architecture. Join The Arnold Arboretum and the sponsors below on Monday, December 2 at the Weld Hill Research Building for a lecture, panel discussion and celebration of this newly published landscape design resource.  Fee: $10 (Students: Call 617.384.5277 to register for free.)

    Doors open at 6:00pm. Light refreshments served.  Books available for purchase and signing.  Weld Hill Research Building is located at 1300 Centre Street, Roslindale, MA.

    Sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Friends of Fairsted, and National Association for Olmsted Parks in collaboration with the City of Boston, Parks and Recreation Department, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and Town of Brookline, Parks and Open Space Division.

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  • Thursday, November 21, 6:00 pm – From Buffalo to Boston: Olmsted’s Evolving Vision of Urban Park Systems

    The Friends of Fairsted presents From Buffalo to Boston: Olmsted’s Evolving Vision of Urban Park Systems, a lecture by Francis R. Kowsky, PhD,  SUNY Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts Emeritus and author of the the book The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System, on Thursday, November 21, at Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street in Brookline.  The reception and book signing will begin at 6, with the lecture at 7.

    Beginning in 1868, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux planned the first metropolitan park system in America for Buffalo, New York.  They designed three distinct parks linked by “parkways,” majestic, tree canopied boulevards that were linear parks in themselves.  Displaying a map of Buffalo at the Paris Exhibition in 1878, Olmsted called it the best planned city in the world.  That same year, he began to apply the concept he had pioneered in Buffalo to the Boston metropolitan area.  Here, he planned six parks stretching from the Charles River to the harbor, a remarkable chain of green spaces today known as the Emerald Necklace.

    Free and open to the public.  Seating is limited and reservations are required.  Email friendsoffairsted@gmail.com.  Limited street parking is available.  Public parking is not allowed in the Wheelock parking lot.

    http://www.buffalonews.com/storyimage/BN/20130819/CITYANDREGION/130818991/AR/0/AR-130818991.jpg&maxW=960

  • Thursday, March 14, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Brooklyn’s Resilient Edge: The Transformation of Industrial Waterfront into Brooklyn Bridge Park

    Brooklyn’s Resilient Edge: The Transformation of Industrial Waterfront into Brooklyn Bridge Park, is a lecture by Nate Trevethan, Senior Associate at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and senior design team member for Brooklyn Bridge Park, sponsored by the Friends of Fairsted, to take place March 14, 2013, with reception at 6:00 pm, lecture at 7:00 pm, at Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street, Brookline. Free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Reservations are requested: e-mail friendsoffairsted@gmail.com or leave a message at 617-566-1689, ext. 265.

    Ambitious and visionary goals guide the creative team in their transformation of Brooklyn’s former industrial waterfront into a new public landscape of diverse recreational, economic, ecological and social possibilities: to preserve the historic urban context and the way it is experienced in this dramatic waterfront site. The award-winning design by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates gives voice to physical history, geography, industry, urbanity and evolving recreational needs as it transforms a challenging waterfront into a sustainable public park of monumental vistas and diverse landscape experiences.

    Friends of Fairsted gratefully acknowledges the support of the following co-sponsors: National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site; Wheelock College; Arnold Arboretum; Boston Society of Landscape Architects; Brookline GreenSpace Alliance; Brookline Historical Society; Charles River Conservancy; Emerald Necklace Conservancy; The Fenway Alliance; Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery; Friends of the Muddy River; Friends of the Public Garden; High Street Hill Association; Historic New England; The Landscape Institute of the Boston Architectural College; Library of American Landscape History; Massachusetts Historical Society; Muddy River Restoration Project Maintenance and Management Oversight Committee; National Association for Olmsted Parks; New England Landscape Design and History Association; Society of Architectural Historians, New England Chapter; The Trustees of Reservations.

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  • Thursday, October 25, 6:00 pm – The Brookline Troika: Olmsted, Richardson, and the Planning of the Model Suburb

    Join The Arnold Arboretum for a glimpse into Brookline’s past — the shaping of its public parks and parkways, private estates, and planned housing developments, as influenced by the Olmsted Office. On Thursday, October 25, beginning at 6 pm, architectural historian Keith Morgan, one of three co-authors of the newly published Community by Design: The Role of the Frederick Law Olmsted Office in the Suburbanization of Brookline, Massachusetts, 1880–1936, will present a selection of the firm’s approximately 150 Brookline commissions that were created over the course of a half century. He will discuss the networks of individuals, institutions, and municipal authorities that worked with the firm on the boulevards, subdivisions, institutional grounds, and private estates that define the character and qualities of Brookline, with particular attention given to the planning theories of Olmsted, Jr. Reception to follow. The event will take place in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum.
    Free, but registration requested at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the Friends of Fairsted, and the Library of American Landscape History.

  • Friday, August 31 – Sunday, September 30 – Echoes of the Olmsted Elm: Works from RISD’s 2011 Witness Tree Project

    The Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, in collaboration with the Rhode Island School of Design’s Witness Tree Project and the Friends of Fairsted, is pleased to present an exhibit of artworks produced from the wood of the historic Olmsted Elm that graced the landscape at 99 Warren Street, Brookline, Massachusetts until March 2011, when it succumbed to old age, a serious fungal infection, and exposure in recent years to Dutch elm disease. Echoes of the Olmsted Elm: Works from RISD’s 2011 Witness Tree Project will take place in the rehabilitated barn at Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline from Friday, August 31 through Sunday, September 30. The exhibit will be open to walk-in visitors on Thursday evenings from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. as well as Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The regular on-site tours taking place Wednesday through Sunday will also make stops at the exhibit. Finally, a special opening reception for the public will be held the evening of September 14. For further information, please call 617-566-1689 or visit, www.nps.gov/frla starting in mid-August.

  • Thursday, March 15, 6:00 pm reception, 7:00 pm lecture – FL Olmsted 1882 – 1890: Boston, Brookline and Beyond

    The Friends of Fairsted present F L Olmsted 1882 – 1890: Boston, Brookline & Beyond on Thursday, March 15 at Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street in Brookline.  The evening will begin with a reception at 6, followed by a lecture given by Ethan Carr.  Ethan Carr, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and editor of Volume 8 of the Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted: The Early Boston Years 1882-1890, provides an insider’s look at the process of preparing the volume including new and revealing details of his work on the Boston Park System. The volume will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2013.  For further information e-mail friendsoffairsted@gmail.com or call 617-566-1689 x265.

  • Wednesday, October 28, 6:00 pm – Neighbors & Networks: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, 1880 – 1936

    Professor Keith Morgan of Boston University will present an illustrated lecture on The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, 1880 – 1936, at the Wheelock College Auditorium, 43 Hawes Street in Brookline, on Wednesday, October 28.  A reception at 6:00 pm will be followed by the lecture at 7:00 pm.  Seating is limited.  Please rsvp to friendsoffairsted@gmail.com, or telephone 617-566-1689 x 235.  Cohosted by the Friends of Fairsted; Brookline Greenspace Alliance; Brookline Historical Society; Emerald Necklace Conservancy; Fenway Alliance; High Street Hill Association; Historic New England; Mount Auburn Cemetery; Muddy River Restoration Project Maintenance and Management Oversight Committee; NPS, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site; Society of Architectural Historians, New England Chapter; and the Friends of Stonehurst.

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