HAPPPY SOLSTICE 2015
Dear Friends of LALH, On this, the shortest day of the year, I wanted to share a photo taken last December, just as the winter sun was setting. I was in Madrid for an ICOMOS conference, meeting with representatives from Mexico, Italy, Japan, France, and other nations who had gathered to discuss heritage landscapes. How […]
NEW RELEASE! LANDSCAPES OF EXCLUSION: STATE PARKS AND JIM CROW IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH
LALH and the University of Massachusetts Press are pleased to announce the publication of William E. O’Brien’s Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South, a volume in the series Designing the American Park. “O’Brien has completed a remarkable work of scholarship in landscape history that makes it possible for us, […]
LALH BOOK FEATURED ON COVER OF UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS CATALOG!
Read about our forthcoming book on Ruth Shellhorn and the LALH Masters of Modern Landscape Design series. Download the UGA Press Catalog here. […]
FUNDRAISING SUCCESSFUL! RUTH SHELLHORN FILM WILL SCREEN NEXT SPRING!
In early September, LALH asked members and supporters to help fund a new LALH filmRuth Shellhorn: Midcentury Design in Southern California. Thanks to our generous donors, we reached our goal of $15,000! Next spring we will bring the story of Ruth Shellhorn to life with a twelve minute film documenting her nearly sixty-year career as a modernist […]
NEW: APOSTLE OF TASTE: ANDREW JACKSON DOWNING, 1815–1852
“The vast amount of visual evidence combines with the material and personal history of Downing to make Apostle of Taste a must for scholars of architectural and landscape history.” —Pennsylvania History In this compelling biography, issued with a new preface, David Schuyler explores the origins of the tastemaker’s ideas in English aesthetic theory and his efforts to adapt English […]
BEST PLANNED CITY IN THE WORLD GETS A RAVE REVIEW
“Buffalo seemed to have a future without limit as its residents looked westward. To the east, of course, it was doomed always to play second fiddle to its cross-state rival, New York. But Buffalo’s leaders, particularly in the business community, made the best of the situation by carefully studying some of the breakthroughs coming out […]
ORDER BOOKS FROM LALH 2015 FALL/WINTER CATALOG
The new LALH catalog features forthcoming titles Ruth Shellhorn, Warren H. Manning, Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner, and James Rose, as well as a complete backlist of all our books. Expand your library with reprints of the classic books that have shaped our understanding of the American landscape and its preservation. Download the catalog Read […]
HELP US MAKE A MOVIE!
HELP US MAKE A MOVIE! We have one month to raise $15,000. Ruth Shellhorn: Midcentury Landscape Design in Southern California The first film about the landscape architect Ruth Shellhorn (1909–2006), who brought a modernist aesthetic and ecological perspective to projects from the UC Riverside campus to Disneyland. Donations above $100 will be listed in the film credits. Please make your […]
“NATURE LED THE WAY”: THE LEGACY OF CITY PLANNER JOHN NOLEN
Almost everyone in Madison, Wisconsin has driven on John Nolen Drive—the boulevard that runs along Lake Monona—but few know much about the influential landscape architect and city planner from whom it takes its name. This April, the Library of American Landscape History published the first book-length biography of Nolen, written by R. Bruce Stephenson, a […]
PRESERVATION HERO: CHARLES E. BEVERIDGE
Charles E. Beveridge, Alexandria, Virginia (2015) Charles E. Beveridge has been studying and writing about Frederick Law Olmsted’s career for more than five decades—for thirty-five years as series editor of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. As a scholar and preservationist, Charlie is the most important individual explaining and defending the significance of Olmsted’s legacy […]
JUST RELEASED! JOHN NOLEN, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND CITY PLANNER
John Nolen, Landscape Architect and City Planner R. Bruce Stephenson Published by University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH “The long overdue and definitive biography of one of America’s most prominent and influential urbanists.”—Keith Morgan, coauthor of Community by Design:The Olmsted Office and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts For more information, please visit LALH […]
2015 FILM AWARD FROM THE SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS/THE BEST PLANNED CITY IN THE WORLD: OLMSTED, VAUX AND THE BUFFALO PARK SYSTEM
“Large urban-scale projects with multiple parts are not easy to grasp in person or from static images,” writes the jury. “One of the things the jury found most admirable about The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux and the Buffalo Park System is its demonstration that it is possible to convey the essential points of […]
EASTERN DESIGN IN A WESTERN LANDSCAPE: OLMSTED, RICHARDSON, AND THE AMES MONUMENT
Few people come upon the Ames Monument by chance. Isolated on the high plains, between Laramie and Cheyenne in southeastern Wyoming, the sixty-foot-high pyramid sits on a windswept knoll, eight thousand feet above sea level. Although not far from Interstate 80 (the pyramid is just visible, when driving westward), it defines its own precinct, seemingly […]
OLMSTED AND SCENIC PRESERVATION
Frederick Law Olmsted is rightly remembered as the most accomplished landscape architect in U.S. history, the designer of great municipal parks and other landscapes. He also was a key figure in the nation’s most significant early examples of scenic preservation. These endeavors were not mutually exclusive, and in fact park design and scenic preservation were […]
NEW FILM UNDER WAY FROM LALH/HOTT PRODUCTIONS!
California modernist Ruth Shellhorn (1909–2006) was one of the region’s most prolific and talented practitioners. Establishing her practice during the Depression, Shellhorn is perhaps best remembered for her Bullock’s department stores that defined a new post-war shopping experience of luxury and leisure. In 1955 Shellhorn was hired to create a plan and plantings for Disneyland, […]
UPDATE: FUTURE OF HANNAH CARTER JAPANESE GARDEN UNRESOLVED
The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden, designed by Nagao Sakurai from 1959 to 1961, is among the most significant residential Japanese-style gardens of its era in the United States. The garden was named after the wife of Edward Carter, chairman of the regents of the University of California, who donated the garden to UCLA “in perpetuity” […]
CONCERN FOR THREATENED RUSSELL PAGE GARDEN GROWS
The Telegraph UK recently reported on the ongoing proposal by the Frick to demolish its viewing garden by renowned British designer Russell Page. Reporter Franky Kentish reminds readers that the risk of destruction to New York’s singular Russell Page garden is juxtaposed with an upcoming celebratory retrospective exhibition on the life and work of Page, […]
COMMUNITY BY DESIGN IS ONLINE!
The latest LALH film, Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts, is now available to view online. Based on the LALH book by Keith N. Morgan, Elizabeth Hope Cushing, and Roger G. Reed, Community by Design tells the story of the Olmsted firm’s move to “the richest town in the […]
LALH WELCOMES NEW BOARD MEMBER DEDE DELANEY
Dede Delaney of Windham, Connecticut, joined the LALH board of directors in December. The owner of Redtwig Garden Design, Delaney is passionate about creating native and sustainable gardens. Her current projects include the Lyman Allyn Art Museum Memorial Gardens in New London, the Connecticut Audubon Society Center in Pomfret, and Horizons, a residential school in […]
OLMSTED PARKS IN CHICAGO THREATENED BY OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY PROPOSAL
The University of Chicago recently unveiled its plan to locate the Obama Presidential Library in either Washington or Jackson Parks, both of which were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in the 1870s. Promoting the plans as a way of invigorating the South Side and even adding to the city’s park land, University […]
LALH EXHIBITION FEATURED IN THE PARIS REVIEW
The latest LALH exhibition, 100 Years of Design on the Land, was featured in the Paris Review on December 15th, the day it opened at 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery in New York City. Jonathan Lippincott’s interview of photographer Carol Betsch not only explores LALH’s mission of educating the public in landscape history […]
BEATRIX FARRAND’S DUMBARTON OAKS WILD GARDEN—REVEALED
The section of land near Rock Creek Parkway in Washington D.C. known as Dumbarton Oaks Park is also one of landscape architect Beatrix Farrand’s masterpieces, the wild garden she designed for the Dumbarton Oaks estate during the 1920s and 1930s. Over the last ninety years, this Farrand garden has become increasingly overgrown, as invasive species […]
LALH AND NYBG COSPONSOR EARTH DAY FILM SCREENING
In celebration of Earth Day, the New York Botanical Garden and LALH are offering a screening of the award-winning documentary film Jens Jensen: The Living Green. A pioneering conservationist, Danish-born Jens Jensen rose from street sweeper to become the “dean of landscape architects.” Following the film, Darrel Morrison, FASLA, will moderate a panel discussion featuring […]