Boston Flora

Tag: Olmsted

  • Tuesday, February 27, 6:45 pm – Frederick Law Olmsted and The Massachusetts Legacy

    On Tuesday, February 27, the Norwood Evening Garden Club will host Alan S. Banks who will discuss Frederic Law Olmsted and The Massachusetts Legacy. The meeting will be held at 6:45 p.m. at the Carriage House behind the First Baptist Church, 71 Bond Street, Norwood. The public is invited to attend for a small donation ($5). Refreshments will be served.

    Founded over a century ago, the Frederick Law Olmsted firm was involved in over 1200 landscape architecture projects throughout Massachusetts, ranging from expansive 500-acre public parks to intimate private gardens. One of its greatest achievements is the six-mile “emerald necklace” of ponds, parks and parkways that winds its way through Boston. Olmsted historian Alan Banks brings this rich landscape legacy alive as he explores the ideas that shaped some of the most treasured lands in Massachusetts.

    Alan Banks is the Supervisory Park Ranger at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline. During the last 16 years, he has developed a variety of landscape walking tours, slide lectures and presentations about the Olmsteds and their work. His programs have been presented to clubs, civic groups, schools, and libraries across Massachusetts. He was a featured speaker at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum as part of their Viewing Olmsted exhibit and was highlighted in the Boston Globe for his walking tours of the Boston Park System. Banks also has served as an Olmsted consultant on various projects including working with Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art on their Art on the Emerald Necklace exhibit and Olmsted’s Landscape Art, a traveling photographic exhibit created in cooperation with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. He also recently worked with National Geographic Magazine and was lauded for his insightful interpretation of Olmsted’s work in Boston. Legacy Magazine published his article Interpreting Cultural Landscapes: Turning the Inside Out. Working with the National Register of Historic Places he produced Boston’s Arnold Arboretum: A Place for Study and Recreation as part of their Teaching with Historic Places program. It is now available to teachers nationwide to use in their classrooms both in print and via the World Wide Web.

    A member of The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, New England Garden Clubs, and National Garden Clubs, Inc., members of the Norwood Evening Garden Club have been providing education and public beautification in Norwood and its surrounding communities since 1996. The Club, open to novice and expert gardeners, draws its members from Norwood, Walpole, Westwood, Dedham, Medfield, Randolph, and Stoughton. For information about the Norwood Evening Garden Club, contact Barbara at 781-762-1270 or visit www.NorwoodEveningGardenClub.com.

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  • Thursday, December 7, 6:00 pm – Beyond Drawings: The Olmsted Archives as Muse and Vision

    Lucinda Brockway, noted garden designer, landscape historian, and preservation specialist, began her career with an internship at Fairsted as it moved from a design office to part of the National Park Service. The Olmsted Archives play an invaluable role in her current work as Cultural Resources Program Director for The Trustees of Reservations, as they did in her previous private design practice. In this Friends of Fairsted presentation, Lucinda will bring her research stories to life, illustrating the relevance of the Archives to historic preservation projects and design work, both present and future. 6:00pm Reception | 7:00pm Lecture, to be held at Wheelock College, Brookline Campus, 43 Hawes Street, corner of Hawes and Monmouth Streets, Brookline. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Visit http://friendsoffairsted.org/programs/ for more details.

  • Through December 2017 – Projects by Experience: Design Undergrads Re-imagine Life In and Around the Necklace

    As part of the Experience Design Studio, led by Northeastern professor Kristian Kloeckl and organized in collaboration with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, a group of undergraduate students investigated people’s experience of the Emerald Necklace public park network. Based on a series of on-site interviews and observational studies, students developed design interventions with the goal to positively enhance people’s everyday experience in and around the parks.

    The semester-long studio looked at public parks as places of possibility, participation and co-creation; places of destination and of escape; places for encounter; places of proximity and of distance; places for dynamic appropriation where meaning is constantly negotiated. Projects proposed by the students are material as well as digital, orchestrating objects, services, information systems, ambient installations and events.

    “Developing experience design projects for the Emerald Necklace in Boston also means considering the deep design lessons of Frederick Law Olmsted who designed the park system in the late 19th century,” explained Professor Kloeckl. “Olmsted is known as a landscape architect but could by all means be considered an experience designer given his holistic and human centered approach to design. He referred to the ‘genius of place’ as the unique qualities of a site to be explored and to let them condition all design decisions of a project. The approach the students of this studio course followed was guided by an exploration of place and of how people make use of these parks over time.”

    The exhibit of interventions will be at the Shattuck Visitor Center, 125 The Fenway, through December 2017. Exhibit hours are Weekdays 9 – 5, Weekends 11 – 4. For weekday visits, call ahead, as gallery is a multipurpose room and may be closed for meetings. For more information visit www.emeraldnecklace.org. Telephone 617-522-2700.

  • Wednesday, October 11, 11:00 am – Ernest Bowditch: Out of Olmsted’s Shadow

    The Preservation Society of Newport County will host a lecture on Wednesday, October 11 at 11 am at Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue in Newport. Jim Donahue, Curator of Historic Landscapes & Horticulture for the Society, will speak on Ernest Bowditch: Out of Olmsted’s Shadow. Ernest W. Bowditch (1850-1918) was a key figure in the evolution of the profession of landscape architecture in the late 19th century. Over a 40-year career, Bowditch’s firm designed over 2,500 projects ranging from Gilded Age estate master plans to designs for planned garden suburbs and civil engineering projects. The Breakers landscape plan helped to launch Bowditch, and he returned to redesign the site over the course of his career. Come and learn about Bowditch, his relationship to the Vanderbilts, and the private paradise they created at The Breakers.

    Admission is free, but advance registration is required. Register at http://www.newportmansions.org/learn/lectures/lecture-ernest-bowditch-out-of-olmsteds-shadow

  • Thursday, October 5 – Saturday, October 7 – America in Bloom National Symposium

    The 2017 America in Bloom National Symposium is coming to New England for the first time this October.  The Town of Holliston will host the event October 5 – 7, and attendees from out of state will lodge at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center.

    The conference kicks off with an East Coast Garden Tour on Thursday, October 5 from 10 – 4, advance registration required. If you want to experience horticultural heritage in the Boston area at its best, this tour is for you! We’ll start by visiting one of the oldest and finest garden centers in the Boston area, Weston Nurseries. Known for offering exceptional plants and garden ideas, this nursery in Hopkinton, MA also has an amazing railroad garden. After touring the garden center we’ll enjoy lunch hosted by Peter Mezitt, fourth generation nursery owner. Then we will head to The Gardens at Elm Bank in Wellesley, MA, headquarters of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here we will enjoy special tours of 12 display gardens, including an historic Olmsted Italianate Garden as well as the Bressingham Garden designed by English nurseryman Adrian Bloom. The last stop on the tour is to Wellesley College, rated one of the most beautiful small college campuses in the country. We will have a special tour of their botanic garden which now focuses on the fundamental role of plants in nature and culture. The cost is $50 and includes lunch. Tour is limited to 50 people so register early.

    If you prefer, take a tour of the Urban Farming Institute from 1 – 4. If you believe in sourcing local, fresh food, don’t miss this tour! The Urban Farming Institute is a brand-new concept in the historically-diverse Roxbury/Dorchester/Mattapan neighborhoods of Boston. The Institute’s mission is to develop and promote urban farming as a commercial sector within the city and to create green collar jobs for residents. It is also committed to engaging its urban community in building a healthier and more locally-based food system. The Fowler-Clark-Epstein Farm, currently under reconstruction, is becoming the center for celebrating the agricultural heritage of the Boston area as well as the cultural and historic heritage of this unique community. On this tour, you will see first-hand the work the Institute is doing to enable urban farming through farm creation, farmer training, public education, and policy change, and how the Institute brings people in urban neighborhoods closer to food production. Your tour leader is Barbara Knecht, partner in “Strategies for Cities.” Barbara has brought 30 years of developing urban land for public good and a love of all things edible to her work developing urban farm sites. The cost is $35. Tour is limited to 11 people so register early.

    Prior to that evening’s silent auction and cocktail reception there will be a Mayor and Elected Leaders Reception, and later, a Celebration Dinner.

    The Symposium begins in earnest on Friday, with a Keynote Presentation by Ken Kruckemeyer, board member of LivableStreets Alliance and partner in “Strategies for Cities.” Ken specializes in the design of civil infrastructure focusing in pedestrian and bicycle corridors as well as roadway and bridge design. Historic preservation has become a fundamental tool for strengthening communities. When understood as a combination of physical and human attributes, it can provide a framework for communities to build on their assets and improve health, affordability, prosperity, and well-being. Historic preservation can make it possible to achieve a wide range of public goals, including small business incubation, affordable housing, sustainable development, neighborhood renewal, heritage tourism, and economic development. By examples primarily drawn from his Boston experience, Ken will address the importance of historic preservation and the role that walkable corridors play in an effective immersion in the historic character of a community.

    Friday brings a host of panel presentations such as Creating a Sense of Place Downtown, and a How-To Guide to Improving Your Town Through Horticulture. Afternoon and evening tours of the Freedom Trail and the Rose Kennedy Greenway, plus Mount Auburn Cemetery, are on offer.

    On Saturday the Showcase of Innovation continues, and America in Bloom President Katy Moss Warner will take a brief look at collective successes in her morning Keynote Speech. A lunch and Holliston Walking Tour round out the afternoon, and that evening, the America in Bloom Awards Banquet will take place.

    Full registration is $345, and by registering online at http://www.americainbloom.org/Symposium/Registration.aspx before September 8 you will receive a discount. You may also call 614-453-0744, or email aib@AmericainBloom.org.

  • Sunday, July 30, 1:00 pm – 2:30 PM – Invasion of the Aliens Part III

    Olmsted NHS summer 2017 programs include free walks throughout the season, no reservations needed.  On Sunday, July 30 beginning at 1 pm you are invited to Invasion of the Aliens Part III. This interpretive walk focuses on the natural history of the Wilderness in Franklin Park with a focus on invasive plants. Please wear hiking or running shoes. To RSVP or learn more, and for directions to start point, please call (617) 566-1689 ext. 221. For a complete list of programs visit https://www.nps.gov/frla/special-events.htm

  • Tuesday, August 1 – Thursday, August 3 – Coastal Maine Garden Trip

    DAY 1: Come and join Tower Hill Botanic Garden for our visit to the charming Maine Coast, August 1 – 3! Our first stop is a visit to the very beautiful Fuller Gardens an elegant 1938 formal estate designed by the Olmsted Brothers. This ‘Seaside Gem’ features hundreds of varieties of gorgeous roses, English perennial border, Japanese garden framing a pond and more. Now we continue along the coast with a lunch stop en route, to arrive at Boothbay Harbor to spend 2 nights at the Boothbay Harbor Inn located right on the Harbor, near the footbridge. Enjoy lovely rooms and fabulous views. Welcome Dinner in the Inn’s waterfront restaurant.

    DAY 2: This morning we’ll have breakfast before visiting the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, a natural wonder on 250 acres of shorefront in mid-coast Maine. Join our garden docents for a Guided Walking Tour as we stroll through spectacular ornamental gardens, waterfront and woodland trails. Visitors are delighted by the beautiful plantings, impressive stonework, waterfalls, fountains, and scenic views. Enjoy an afternoon at leisure to explore the charming village of Boothbay with its wonderful shops, crafts and exciting harbor front. Farewell lobster dinner at McSeagull’s Restaurant.

    DAY 3: We say goodbye to our friends in Boothbay Harbor and head to Portsmouth, NH. It’s time to explore four centuries of American History through the eyes of the people who lived in New Hampshire’s oldest waterfront neighborhood, Strawbery Banke. Here you can see 40 buildings – most on their original sites – spanning the late 1600s to the mid-1950s. From the spare storefronts of colonial merchants, the elegant Georgian-style mansion of Governor Goodwin, the humble dwellings of early Jewish immigrants, the penny candy counter of the WWII-era Abbott Store, Strawbery Banke tells the stories of a neighborhood over time. We head home with memories of our Maine Coast trip.

    Member $599, Non-member $659 pp double / triple, $110 single supplement, $200 deposit

    Includes: Deluxe Motor Coach, 2 nights hotel, 2 breakfasts, 2 dinners, sightseeing & admissions – final payment due 6/20/17. If a passenger cancels from deposit to June 20, 2017 fee of $100 pp; June 21 to July 17, 2017 fee of $350 pp; no refunds if cancelled on July 18, 2017 or later unless a substitute is provided. Trip Protection Coverage is strongly recommended.  To register visit https://towerhillbg.thankyou4caring.org/pages/event-registration-form—coastal-maine-garden-trip

  • Thursday, June 15, 6:00 pm – Warren Manning: Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner

    Warren H. Manning’s (1860–1938) practice comprised more than 1,600 design and planning projects throughout North America, from small home grounds to estates, cemeteries, college campuses, parks, and new industrial towns. Trained as a horticulturist and apprenticed with the Olmsted firm, Manning went on to mentor important designers such as Fletcher Steele and Dan Kiley. Under Robin Karson’s direction, contributors to the Warren H. Manning Research Project have worked for more than a decade, locating and assessing current conditions of his built projects. Karson, who is Executive Director of the Library of American Landscape History, will reveal the scope and significance of Manning’s career, showing how his approach to design and planning projects distinguished him from his early twentieth century colleagues. The event will take place in the Weld Hill Research Building of the Arboretum on Thursday, June 15 with the lecture beginning at 6, followed by reception and book signing. Fee Free, but registration requested. Seating is limited. Offered with Friends of Fairsted. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Saturday, June 3, 8:00 am – Lace ’em Up: No Ordinary Tour

    Saturday, June 3, 8:00 am – Lace ’em Up: No Ordinary Tour

    Lace ’em Up: No Ordinary Tour:  On Saturday, June 3 beginning at 8 am, walk the entire Olmsted Emerald Necklace. Enjoy a seven-mile walk on a spring day through Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace—from the Fens to Franklin Park— with Conservancy President Karen Mauney-Brodek and some very special guests. Brief stops along the way will allow participants see recent park improvements and hear about the exciting things to come for the Emerald Necklace, considered by many to be one of the greatest park systems ever designed.

    Starting at the Shattuck Visitor Center, the walk will traverse the Back Bay Fens to Charlesgate and continue along to the restored Muddy River, where the brand new Justine Mee Liff Park takes center stage overlooking the recently day-lighted river. From there, walkers will stroll the banks of the river along the Riverway, glimpsing, perhaps, the turtles and herons that are frequent visitors. Iconic structures loom large in this park—the picturesque Round House, bridle path and granite bridges.

    Next up is Olmsted Park with its scenic waterways and ponds and on to Jamaica Pond where we’ll stop for a lunch break at Pinebank Promontory before heading to the Arnold Arboretum for some floral sights and scents. The walk continues on to Franklin Park, which Olmsted himself considered to be one of his greatest achievements. Participants will enjoy vistas that transport the viewer back in time — Schoolmaster Hill, the 99 Steps and Ellicott Arch, to name a few. This event has reached its capacity, but people’s plan change, so contact Jeanie Knox at jknox@emeraldnecklace.org or call 617-522-2700 to join the waiting list.

  • Wednesday, April 26, 10:00 am – The Emerald Necklace Parks: 130+ Years Later and Counting

    Wednesday, April 26, 10:00 am – The Emerald Necklace Parks: 130+ Years Later and Counting

    The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America will hold its Spring 2017 Lecture and Luncheon on Wednesday, April 26 beginning with coffee and registration at 10:00 am, welcome at 10:30 am, and lecture at 10:45 am, followed by lunch at The Country Club, 191 Clyde Street in Brookline.  The guest speaker is Marion Pressley, FASLA, of Pressley Associates Landscape Architects, who will speak on The Emerald Necklace Parks: 130+ Years Later and Counting.  Marion is a devoted professional who has contributed enormously to the designed landscape through her work in landscape architecture and the restoration of public parks and private historical properties throughout the eastern United States.  Her work has received national recognition in both historic preservation and contemporary design.  Marion’s work in preserving the Olmsted legacy is particularly noteworthy and includes master planning and the implementation of treatment design on the Emerald Necklace Park System.  Her presentation for the Boston Committee will enlighten us on the extraordinary Muddy River project.  Garden Club of the Back Bay members will receive car pool notices.  Open only to members of Boston Committee Clubs.  Lecture and luncheon $60, lecture only $30.  Please make checks payable to The Boston Committee of the GCA and mail to Karen Gregg, 92 Beacon St. Unit 41, Boston, MA 02108 prior to April 19. Please note your Club on the memo portion of your check.  Names will be held at the door.