Boston Flora

Tag: Laurence Cotton

  • Monday, May 16, 7:00 pm – Director’s Series – Life: The Arnold Arboretum as an Institution of Public Health

    Join the Arnold Arboretum’s Director William (Ned) Friedman for the annual Director’s Series! To celebrate the Arboretum’s sesquicentennial, this year’s series will explore the Magic and Meaning of a Garden of Trees. Over the course of four sessions, we will trace the Arnold’s significance in the landscape architecture movement, value for the people of Boston, and leadership in creating global connections between plants and people. This session will include brief presentations and a moderated panel. The program is free and is offered both in person and livestreamed. 

    Panelists:

    • Dr. Michelle Kondo, Research Social Scientist, UDSA-Forest Service
    • Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space, City of Boston
    • Laurence Cotton, Consulting Producer, “Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America,” PBS

    Moderator: Dr. William (Ned) Friedman, Director, Arnold Arboretum

    To sign up for the virtual event, click HERE. This event will also be presented in-person at the Arboretum’s Weld Hill Research Building at 1300 Centre Street, Boston, MA 02131. To sign up for the in-person event, click here.

  • Thursday, January 27, 6:30 pm – Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America, Online

    Historian and filmmaker Laurence Cotton joins The Morven Museum & Garden virtually to present a “mini-travelogue” of select Olmsted landscapes across North America in this special evening event. Discover the extraordinary legacy of a true Renaissance man and how Olmsted’s philosophy, his writings and his designs are still relevant today.

    Mr. Cotton originated and served as Consulting Producer to the NEH-funded, nationally broadcast PBS special “Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America.”

    He will present an information rich and entertaining talk about Frederick Law Olmsted’s life, career and legacy including those sites designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior, the two sons and the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm. They left a huge imprint upon the landscapes of North America. Public parks, private estates and gardens, residential neighborhoods, entire community designs, and institutional campuses. Not only did Frederick Law Olmsted and his progeny found the field of American landscape architecture, they also were early proponents of urban planning. The Olmsted design philosophy addressed public health—physical and mental health, and issues of equity and access that are even more relevant to contemporary park managers and users. Frederick Law Olmsted foresaw the crucial role of the experience of nature in the urban setting and the very role that parks can play for the enactment of democracy in a multi-ethnic, multiracial society.

    Tickets are $10 for Morven members, $15 for nonmembers. Register HERE. Zoom link provided day of program. Recording link available to attendees following program.

    Image credit: Olmsted’s 1874 plan for the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C. Architect of the Capitol