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Banner photo credit: Restoration of the Linden Allée, Naumkeag, Stockbridge, Mass. LALH archive.

NAUMKEAG DECONSTRUCTED

Thursday, May 9, 2013 | Posted by Robin Karson

It is unnerving to see any garden taken apart, especially one that you have thought, written, and dreamt about as a culmination of history and time–as inevitable, both in the history you have constructed to explain it and in the timeless concept of it you have fashioned in your own imagination. Watching Naumkeag being created [...]

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HUMBOLDT’S NEW CURRENT

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 | Posted by Kathleen John-Alder

The practice of contemporary landscape architecture is fundamentally Darwinian in the sense that it relies upon systematic and quantitative observations of natural history for many of its design decisions. These observations often include temperature, rainfall, the chemical composition of the soil and air, the relationship between topography and plant and animal assemblages, and speculations on [...]

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HISTORIC SITES IN THE UNITED STATES: PAST AND PRESENT

Thursday, March 28, 2013 | Posted by Ethan Carr

Historic parks and monuments have suffered an overall decline in visitation over the last 30 years. This may not be true of all destinations, particularly those most popular with tourists. But according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 25% of Americans reported visiting a historic site in 2008, down from about 38% in [...]

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FIRST MODERN LANDSCAPE: STEELE’S NHL

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 | Posted by PatriciaODonnell

The landscape composition of Camden Library Amphitheatre and grounds was a coup for Steele, won because he shared an office with the library architect. The amphitheatre is a remarkable composition created under a directive to employ as many local laborers as possible and use local and native materials. Shaped from 1929 to 1932, it was [...]

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NEW BOOK SERIES: DESIGNING THE AMERICAN PARK

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 | Posted by Ethan Carr

“Designing the American Park,” a new series within the Library of American Landscape History, launches this year with the publication of Frank Kowsky’s, The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System. The new series will be based on the conviction that park landscapes are among the richest of cultural [...]

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DESIGN BY THE COMMUNITY

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 | Posted by Robin Karson

The Mission is drier and warmer (and flatter) than anywhere else in San Francisco, which makes getting around fun, but something more compelling is in the air in this distinctive place. Walking down 24th Street last week, I wondered what Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. or John Nolen would make of this neighborhood—deemed the most vibrant [...]

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REFLECTIONS ON OUR 20TH

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 | Posted by Robin Karson

The morning after celebrating LALH’s twentieth anniversary at the Boston Athenaeum, we found ourselves standing in the Dell of Mount Auburn Cemetery, under a soft, dark October sky. At that moment, at least to me, it felt that the very roots of LALH could be traced back to this silent and moving place. Mount Auburn, [...]

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MANITOGA

Monday, October 8, 2012 | Posted by PatriciaODonnell

Russel Wright’s Song of Nature & Design Garrison, New York From 1942 to 1976 renowned mid-century modern designer Russel Wright shaped a former quarry and remnant woodland into a forest garden for experiencing nature and aesthetic effects. The design approach developed a series of paths, each with specific effects articulated for seasons, time of day, [...]

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WELCOME TO THE LALH BLOG

Monday, October 8, 2012 | Posted by lalh

Welcome to the new LALH blog, featuring a rotating cast of practitioners and landscape historians. Please feel free to add your comments. Renowned landscape architect, Patricia M. O’Donnell, FASLA, AICP, ICOMOS, IFLA, and principal of Heritage Landscapes LLC, Preservation blogs about her thoughts and discoveries as she works at Manitoga in Garrison, New York. Landscape [...]

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