Boston Flora

Tag: Library of American Landscape History

  • Tuesday, October 8, 6:00 pm – Franklin Park: Boston’s Imperiled Public Landscape

    The Emerald Necklace Conservancy and the Library of American Landscape History invite you to a film premiere and panel discussion on Tuesday, October 8 at 6 pm at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street, #200, Boston, Massachusetts. Based on Ethan Carr’s award-winning book Boston’s Franklin Park: Olmsted, Recreation, and the Modern City, the new film from director Ian Forster weaves together interviews with the author, park advocates, and park users, to trace the park’s decline, caused by patterns of institutionalized racism on the part of the City of Boston and the heroic efforts of local residents to save it from ruin. Register and learn more at www.emeraldnecklace.org

  • Saturday, March 12, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm – Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea, Online

    Out of the 1860s, as the United States engaged in a civil war, abolished slavery, and remade the government, the public park emerged as a product of these dramatic changes. New York’s Central Park and Yosemite in California both embodied the “new birth of freedom” that emphasized the duty of republican government to enhance the lives and well-being of all its new citizens. A central figure directly connected with abolition, the Civil War, and the dawn of urban and national parks is Frederick Law Olmsted, whose pre-war journalism about the South, design work on Central Park, and ground-breaking Yosemite Report created an intellectual framework for the “park idea.” Marking the bicentennial of Olmsted’s birth, a new book by Rolf Diamant, former superintendent of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site and Ethan Carr, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, offers a new interpretation of how the American park—urban and national—came to figure so prominently in our cultural identity, and why this more complex and inclusive story deserves to be told.

    The Arnold Arboretum will present Rolf Diamant and Ethan Carr on March 12 from 2:30 – 4, and 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. Presented in collaboration with Friends of Fairsted, the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, and the Library of American Landscape History. Register HERE.

  • Tuesday, September 14 & Wednesday, September 15 – A Virtual Design Symposium and Flower Show: The Life and Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted

    The Albemarle Garden Club is thrilled to announce that Charlotte Moss,  American interior designer and national author of ten books, has agreed to serve as the honorary chair of AGC’s virtual flower show: “Genius of Place: an Ode to Frederick Law Olmsted.” This virtual flower show will attract judges and exhibitors from across the country. It will offer classes in four divisions – Floral Design, Horticulture, Photography, and Botanical Arts. The two day Olmsted Forum will debut with the “Preview” of the flower show on Tuesday, September 14 from 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Eastern time. This will be a ticketed, virtual event and feature a presentation by Charlotte Moss. Her new book, launching this spring, is entitled Flowers.  $40. Register at https://www.albemarlegardenclub.com/olmsted-forum-tickets

    On Wednesday, September 15 from 1:30 – 5:00 pm Eastern Time, with the support of the National Association of Olmsted Parks and the Center for Cultural Landscapes at University of Virginia School of Architecture, Albemarle Garden Club is planning Olmsted Forum – 2021. Building on our successful fundraising platform —Design Forum— the focus of this event will be Frederick Law Olmsted.  Olmsted is commonly known as the father of landscape design.  The Forum will survey his life and lasting legacy, providing the opportunity to learn about Olmsted from an historical perspective and how and why parks are so important today.  This event will be one of the first in a year-long line up of events organized by the NAOP leading to the bicentennial of Olmsted’s birth in May 2022. 

    Olmsted scholars and practitioners will present talks focusing on the relevance of Olmsted’s legacy in the park movement today. Speakers will include:

    • Susan Rademacher, GCA Honorary Member since 2017. Susan is the founder and President of ForeGround Consulting, LLC.  She was the Parks Curator for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy which preserved, enhanced and promoted the Pittsburgh Parks from 2007 until 2019.  During Susan’s tenure, the Conservancy raised more than $126 million and completed 22 major projects.  Susan also served as the assistant director of the Louisville Metro Parks and the president of the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy from 1991-2007.  She  has lectured and taught extensively and has authored award winning  books and articles.  She has been the recipient of a prestigious Loeb fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and received the Frederick Law Olmsted Award for Distinguished Leadership.
    • Sara Zewde,  Founding Principal of Studio Zewde.  Sara is an Assistant Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.  She was named the 2014 National Olmsted Scholar by the Landscape Architecture Foundation, a 2016 Artist-in Residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and in 2018 was named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s inaugural “40 under 40” list. Most recently, she was named a 2020 United States Artists Fellow.  Sara is a registered landscape architect and holds a master’s of landscape architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a master’s of city planning from MIT, and a BA in sociology and statistics from Boston University. 
    • Sara Cedar Miller, Central Park Conservancy Historian Emerita.  Sara first joined Central Park in 1984 as a photographer. She conducts extensive research on Central Park, lectures on history and is the  author of award-winning books. She was named in 2020 a Preservation Hero by the Library of American Landscape History.

    The moderator for a live conservation with the speakers will be Elizabeth K. Meyer, FASLA.  

    Beth Meyer, the Merrill D. Peterson Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia.  She founded the Center for Cultural Landscapes at UVA and is broadly recognized as one of the most influential landscape architectural critics and theorists.  She is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. She was awarded the Vincent Scully Prize by The National Building Museum in 2019 and in 2017 the Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal from the American Society of Landscape Architects. 

    The forum will also include a presentation by Albemarle Garden Club on its work at the Booker T. Washington Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

    ​

    Format:  this will be a hybrid event with some components pre-recorded and available for viewing ahead of the event for ticket holders.  Speaker introductions and the panel discussion will be live and links will be provided to ticket holders. Register at https://www.albemarlegardenclub.com/olmsted-forum-tickets

  • 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.

  • 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.

    http://brooklynbridgepark.com/wp/media/2010/05/brooklyn-bridge-park-600x400.jpg

  • 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.

  • Tuesday, March 27, 7:00 pm – One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place

    By the time she reached her late twenties, Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was launching a distinguished literary career. She was also becoming a capable gardener under the tutelage of her mother, Chestina Welty, who designed their modest garden in Jackson, Mississippi. From the beginning, Eudora wove images of southern flora and gardens into her writing, yet few outside her personal circle knew that the images were drawn directly from her passionate connection to and abiding knowledge of her own garden. Jane Roy Brown’s book One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place contains many previously unpublished writings, including literary passages and excerpts from Welty’s private correspondence about the garden.  Ms. Brown will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge on Tuesday, March 27, beginning at 7 pm.

    Brown is a freelance travel and garden writer with a focus on historic gardens and landscapes. She is also director of educational outreach for the Library of American Landscape History. She has published in Horticulture, Preservation, Garden Design, and the Boston Globe, and she serves as a contributing editor to Landscape Architecture.  Call 617-491-2220, or visit www.portersquarebooks.com for more information.