Boston Flora

Tag: Vincent Scully

  • Thursday, July 17, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The African Ancestors Garden, Online

    Designed to honor the lives and legacies of the African diaspora, the African Ancestors Garden at the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC, integrates cultural symbolism, native plants, and evocative spatial forms. This Garden Conservancy talk on July 17 by Walter Hood examines the creative process behind this living memorial, highlighting how history and memory are embedded within the design to foster reflection, healing, and connection. Through its layered narratives and immersive experience, the garden creates a contemplative space that bridges past and present while inspiring dialogue about identity, heritage, and community.

    WALTER J. HOOD, a multidisciplinary designer from Charlotte, NC, is globally recognized for his contributions in art, landscape architecture, urbanism, and research. Founding Hood Design Studio in Oakland, CA, in 1992, he now leads as its creative director. His passion for landscape and urbanism emerges from its broad, democratic scope, allowing experiences beyond architectural constraints. Infusing African American cultural arts into his philosophy, he has established a unique voice, reshaping spaces to reflect contemporary needs without erasing their history. A professor at UC Berkeley and former Harvard educator, Walter penned Black Landscapes Matter and has received accolades such as the 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2021 Architectural League’s President’s Medal award, and the 2024 Vincent Scully Prize.

    Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. Participants in this webinar have the option to purchase a copy of the book, The African Ancestors Garden: History and Memory at the International African American Museum, receive complimentary admission to the webinar. Price ($50 Conservancy members, $60 nonmembers) includes book, free shipping, and webinar admission. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/the-african-ancestors-garden-with-walter-hood-book-webinar Or you may choose to register for the webinar alone. If you’d like to purchase webinar admission only, please click 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. 

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    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