Engaging, deeply researched, and richly illustrated books require significant time and expense. We make this investment to ensure that LALH books and films provide foundational scholarship and insight to students, preservationists, landscape architects, civic leaders, and the general public for decades to come. LALH books and films are made affordable through grants and generous contributions of our supporters. Please consider making a charitable gift to help us develop one.
HELP US PUBLISH A NEW BOOK ABOUT INNOCENTI – WEBEL!
In 1931, Richard K. Webel and Umberto Innocenti formed one of the most significant landscape architectural partnerships in midcentury America. Based in Roslyn, NY, and initially specializing in private estates, Innocenti – Webel soon expanded geographical range to the Deep South and scale of projects to include parks, corporate campuses, museums, hotels, racetracks, an airport, two World’s Fairs, and an innovative plan for the National Mall. Master plans for Furman University and the University of South Carolina, the vast Milliken campus in Spartanburg, and plans for several federal projects dominated the 1950s and ’60s. Through all this work, the partners were guided by classical principles—a reflection of Webel’s Harvard roots and his years at the American Academy in Rome. Innocenti’s lyrical planting compositions, highly unusual for the time, featured full-grown trees and remarkably complex understory combinations. Author Robin Karson, whose works include Fletcher Steele and A Genius for Place, discusses more than fifty of the firm’s major projects. Illustrated with plans, drawings, and fine photographs by Samuel H. Gottscho.
HELP US MAKE A NEW FILM ABOUT THE BIRTH OF THE NATIONAL PARK IDEA!
When asked to write a report about managing Yosemite Valley in 1865, Frederick Law Olmsted essentially laid out the intellectual framework for America’s national park system—based on the idea that government had a responsibility to provide access to nature for all its citizens. Well into the 1970s, however, the National Park Service continued to promote “campfire tales,” with figures like John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt spontaneously dreaming up national parks under the stars in pristine wilderness—obliterating any reference to Union victory. The forthcoming film sheds new light on how this transformative event, and Olmsted’s role in it, led to the creation of America’s national parks. Based on the award-winning book by Rolf Diamant and Ethan Carr, Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea. Our script is complete, the interview with author Rolf Diamant has wrapped, and the new footage of Yosemite is in hand. We are on track for a fall release!