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Artist Mary Miss files suit to stop demolition of outdoor installation at Des Moines Art Center

2024-04-09T17:42:00-04:00

Artist Mary Miss has filed a lawsuit in an ongoing dispute over the planned demolition of her outdoor installation Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996) at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa.

A district court subsequently decided to issue a temporary restraining order against the institution’s plans, which were to be enacted on April 8th of this year.

Greenwood Pond-Double Site, Des Moines, IA, 1996. Photo © Mary Miss courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Miss, who is considered a leading figure of the Land Art movement, filed the legal challenge after The Cultural Landscape Foundation divulged the Art Center’s “secret plans” to deconstruct and remove the installation from its grounds over the deterioration of its materials and presumed adversity of potential repairs.

Greenwood Pond-Double Site, Des Moines, IA, Dec. 2023. Courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Miss is alleging a breach of contract as part of the suit, citing a 1994 agreement and seeking damages through a readi...

New digital guide documents African American cultural landscapes

2024-02-07T15:19:00-05:00

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) just launched a brand new initiative called the What’s Out There Guide to African American Cultural Landscapes. So far, the digital guide documents over 140 sites associated with African American culture lifeways as well as nearly 30 biographies and is part of the foundation's four-year-old Race and Space program.

The TCLF says the production of the guide required some rethinking of its four existing categorizations of cultural landscapes. Nine themes (Enslavement, Impacts of African Cultures on the American Landscape, The Underground Railroad, Reconstruction, The Civil Rights Movement, Education, Public Accommodations, Commemoration and Healing, and Elevating Designers and Shapers) were created to reconstrue them into their proper contexts.

This will be of value to future research endeavors, the TCLF says, while equally helpful in promoting the stewardship of the sites, both of which are related to its organizational mission to "connect peop...

The Cultural Landscape Foundation acquires photographer Alan Ward's archive

2023-08-31T14:19:00-04:00

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has just announced a gift of landscape photographer and architect Alan Ward’s digital archive, a donation they say provides both the public and scholars exposure to one of the profession’s most beloved practitioners.

The Sasaki Associates principal’s bequest includes 2,500 photographs. Each will be made accessible through the Alan Ward Portfolios of Designed Landscapes section of TCLF’s website and is part of the “Related Content” holdings, which currently includes over 13,000 images depicting more than 2,600 sites across the world.

Sissinghurst, Cranbrook, Kent, U.K., 1999. Photo © Alan Ward, courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation

France’s iconic garden at Vaux-le-Vicomte is one recent documentary subject included in the trove, which features work from the United States and twelve other countries taken over a 50-year span. A total of 20 of 110 separate portfolios will be unveiled first as part of the launch. The TCLF says they are useful...

Oberlander Prize winner Julie Bargmann's work and life featured in 'Pioneers of American Landscape Design' series

2023-05-30T18:06:00-04:00

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has just released the latest episode of their ongoing Pioneers of American Landscape Design series featuring an oral history and overview of the work of the 2021 inaugural Oberlander Prize winner Julie Bargmann.

The D.I.R.T. founder and University of Virginia professor emerita profiles her career in landscape architecture beginning with her graduation from the Harvard GSD in 1987. From there, Bargmann went on to become a Fellow in Landscape Architecture at the American Academy in Rome before establishing the studio in Minnesota in 1992. Bargmann has since gone on to win the prestigious Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award and is elsewhere recognized as the "Queen of Slag" for her work outside of academia, which focuses heavily on post-industrial sites and the public realm.

The Turtle Creek Water Works in Dallas, Texas. Photo: © Charles A. Birnbaum, courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Adriaan Geuze and Michael Van Valkenburgh are also ...

Elyn Zimmerman’s Marabar sculpture redebuts as Sudama in D.C.

2023-04-04T19:19:00-04:00

Artist Elyn Zimmerman’s 1984 Marabar sculpture has been officially rededicated on the campus of Washington, D.C.’s American University after a yearslong preservation effort spearheaded by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF).

A reconfiguration of the site-specific 225-ton granite sculpture was installed next to the school’s Kay Spiritual Life Center over the last year after being moved from the courtyard surrounding the National Geographic Society headquarters in order to make room for a new plaza expansion designed by Hickock Cole and OLIN.

TCLF President Charles Birnbaum said: “Though we regret the loss of Marabar at its original location, we are pleased that its creator, artist Elyn Zimmerman, with the support of National Geographic, retained the ability to control its reconfiguration and relocation to the American University campus. Had TCLF not intervened beginning in March 2020, when the artist was resigned to the loss of one of her most important works, Zimmerman's instal...

The state of Frederick Law Olmsted's most at-risk landscapes is examined in new TCLF Landslide 2022 report

2022-10-26T10:00:00-04:00

A new report and exhibition inspecting the state of some of the most at-risk designs by Fredrick Law Olmsted and his successor firms have been released by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) in honor of the storied landscape architect’s 200th birthday.

This year’s Landslide report has identified twelve Olmsted projects in nine states and Canada that are under threat of a range of challenges including climate change, maintenance delays, and the overall lack of funding.

Washington Park in Milwaukee, WI. Image: Eddee Daniel, courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation

“Landslide 2022 shows us that while the appreciation and value for Olmsted-designed landscapes in general continues to increase, some landscapes have been less fortunate. Our intent with this report is to foster greater awareness and curiosity about this exceptional legacy, and to encourage a stronger shared responsibility for its future,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, the TCLF’s president and CEO, in a preview.

Olmsted...

The TCLF will honor Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture, with a new digital guide ahead of his 200th birthday

2022-04-14T15:20:00-04:00

In honor of the 200th birthday of perhaps the most revered figure in the history of American landscape architecture, The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has produced a wonderfully illustrated digital guide to more than 300 of Frederick Law Olmsted’s landscape designs.

Featuring landscapes from Maine, Massachusetts, Illinois, Canada, his home state of Connecticut, and 26 others, the guide offers a mapping system and database with important biographical information about his myriad employees and even more detail about the outsized impacts of his successor firms.

A daguerreotype of Olmsted writing in winter 1858 at Brookline, MA. Olmsted was an accomplished literary journalist during the Antebellum period before turning to landscape design full-time. Image courtesy National Parks Service.

The 20th in the TCLF’s series of “What’s Out There” guides, this edition gives equal weight to the 30 National Historic Sites and hundreds of other lesser-known designs associated with Olmsted, ...

Elyn Zimmerman’s Marabar installation finally has a new home

2021-12-29T19:28:00-05:00

The fate of one of the most iconic artworks in the nation’s capital has been officially resolved months after The Cultural Landscape Foundation assured that its future would be set in stone.

Artist Elyn Zimmerman’s massive granite Marabar installation has found a new home after a planned modernization at D.C.’s National Geographic Society previously caused uncertainty about its future.

The New York Times is reporting that the million-pound installation will now be relocated to the campus of American University following an agreement between the two institutions. The university’s art museum is taking the piece that served as the centerpiece of the David Childs-designed building since its inception in 1984.

The Society had previously announced its intention to do away with the piece in lieu of a new plaza from Hickock Cole and OLIN which featured a pavilion and trendy rooftop garden. The installation seemed doomed after the city’s Historic Preservation Board okayed the removal be...

Prolific landscape architect Julie Bargmann wins inaugural Oberlander Prize

2021-10-14T13:54:00-04:00

Pioneering landscape architect Julie Bargmann has been announced as the inaugural winner of the newly-formed Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.

Known for her work in regenerative landscapes, the University of Virginia faculty member now has the honor of being named as the first-ever recipient of the Prize, which includes a $100,000 cash award.

The award celebrates landscape architects working at the intersection of design and social justice causes. Critic Paul Goldberger said it was about the “importance of the public realm” at a 2019 keynote address announcing the prize, adding that, in his view, attempting to improve public building itself constitutes “a testament to belief in the social good.”

Introducing Julie Bargmann, the 2021 Oberlander Prize Laureate. Video via The Cultural Landscape Foundation on YouTube.

Bargmann has been a leader in urban reclamation projects since founding her D.I.R.T. (Dump It Right There) Studio in Minnesota in 1992....

Hirshhorn Museum: revised sculpture garden designs and Sugimoto threatening to quit

2021-03-17T13:27:00-04:00

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announced today the completion of a sixth public consultation meeting for the revitalization of the Sculpture Garden by artist/architect Hiroshi Sugimoto. The public forum, held March 10 via Zoom, presented the goals of the project, the programmatic rationale and revised designs for the reflecting pool.

The Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden revitalization saga is entering a new chapter: while the museum recently released revised designs for the reflecting pool, the centerpiece of the sunken sculpture garden completed in 1974 by Gordon Bunshaft, during a March 10 Section 106 online meeting, the Cultural Landscape Foundation points out that the overhaul's designer, Hiroshi Sugimoto, had threatened to resign from the project over a key design element — the introduction of stacked stone walls in the current modernist landscape.

Site-specific installation MARABAR, threatened by National Geographic expansion, to be moved to new site

2021-03-05T19:42:00-05:00

In a defeat tinged by cautious hope, an accord has been reached to remove Elyn Zimmerman’s 1984 sculptural installation Marabar from the headquarters of the National Geographic Society (NGS) in Washington, DC, but to keep it intact and move it to a new location.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, advocating for the preservation of the threatened sculptural installation by the artist Elyn Zimmerman, announced that the newly reached resolution expects the acclaimed artwork to be moved and reinstalled on a new site.

Previously on Archinect: Polished stone sculpture threatened by National Geographic expansion prompts reconsideration

"I have been assured by NGS that I will have an active role in overseeing the removal, transportation and eventual installation of the components of MARABAR on a new site which will be carried out at National Geographic’s expense," said Elyn Zimmerman, an Isamu Noguchi Award recipient.

Weyerhaeuser Campus: criticism is mounting against planned development of historic HQ

2021-02-10T16:54:00-05:00

Controversy over the former Weyerhaeuser campus in Federal Way continues, as those interested in preserving the historical site urge for “responsible” development while the owners hold firm to current development designs. The site [...] was purchased by Industrial Realty Group in 2016 for $70 million. [...] the nonprofit Save Weyerhaeuser Campus organization has advocated for environmental and historical preservation of the campus.

Completed in 1972, the Weyerhaeuser Company's iconic former corporate campus in Federal Way, WA was designed by landscape architect Peter Walker, founding principal of Sasaki, Walker and Associates (SWA) and PWP Landscape Architecture, and Edward Charles Bassett, partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

Photo: Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons

The Cultural Landscape Foundation has been advocating against the planned redevelopment, collecting letters of support from noteworthy institutions, landscape architects, architects, historians, scholars, and members of the public. A microsite was launched in support of the campaign.

Polished stone sculpture threatened by National Geographic expansion prompts reconsideration

2020-05-29T14:49:00-04:00

A District of Columbia preservation panel told the National Geographic Society on Thursday to suspend its current campus redesign plan pending further review of the proposed removal of an acclaimed sculptural installation on the site.

A controversial plan to demolish an existing stone sculpture located at the National Geographic headquarters complex in Washington, D.C. has hit a road block as the city's preservation board has asked the project team to reconsider their designs in an effort to save or repurpose the artwork.

Rendering of the proposed campus entry lobby situated where the Marabar sculpture is currently installed. Image courtesy of Hickock & Cole.

Architects Hickok & Cole and OLIN are behind the new proposal, which would require demolishing the 1980s-era "Marabar" sculpture created by artist Elyn Zimmerman. David Childs of SOM, the architect who commissioned the sculpture as part of an SOM-led expansion of the headquarters in 1984, has come out against the demolition, as have over a dozen other design, museum, and cultural heritage professionals and organizations, including The Cultural Landscape Foundation, which has led efforts to save the sculpture.

Educator and historian John Beardsley selected to curate inaugural Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize

2020-02-11T13:06:00-05:00

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has named arts curator and landscape educator John Beardsley as the inaugural curator for the forthcoming Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.

The prize, which is set to be awarded for the first time in 2021 and will come with a $100,000 cash award as well as the resources for conducting two years' worth of "public engagement activities," was launched in 2019 by TCLF.

The prize is named after Canadian landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, a designer of dozens of widely acclaimed works, including the birch tree-filled 4,900-square-foot lobby garden located at the base of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop-designed New York Times Building in Manhattan.

Previously on Archinect: "Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize set to launch in 2021." Cornelia Hahn Oberlander is the namesake for a new international landscape architecture prize. Image courtesy of Province of British Colum...

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize set to launch in 2021

2019-10-02T15:00:00-04:00

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has recognized influential Canadian landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander as the namesake for a new international landscape architecture prize.

The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize is set to be awarded for the first time in 2021 and will come with a $100,000 award as well as two years of public engagement activities, according to a TCLF press release.

In a statement announcing the new name for the Oberlander Prize, Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s president and CEO, writes, “It was the consensus of the Prize Advisory Committee, which helped shaped the Prize, and TCLF’s Board of Directors that Cornelia Oberlander’s inspiring and trailblazing career in the field of landscape architecture exemplifies the critical values and ideals of the Prize, and that she is someone who embodies the Prize criteria of creativity, courage, and vision.”

During a ceremony announcing the announcement of the prize this week, ...

The Cultural Landscape Foundation organizes tour of San Francisco's finest public spaces

2019-09-10T10:00:00-04:00

Drawing on the Bay Area's rich cultural landscape legacy, this weekend of free, expert-led tours will feature dozens of sites, including gardens, campuses, plazas, public parks, and cultural institutions. An online city guide and printed guidebook will be produced in tandem with the Weekend.

The tours, scheduled for September 14 and 15, include visits to the Makoto Hagiwara-designed Golden Gate Park Japanese Tea Garden, the first public Japanese garden in the U.S., and to San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, a site currently undergoing substantial renovations.

At-Risk: the Weyerhaeuser Corporate Headquarters

2016-11-01T23:45:00-04:00

However, the open-ended zoning agreement the city and Weyerhaeuser Company signed 22 years ago allows new development to be governed by codes from that era, which would permit up to 70 percent of the campus to be covered with impervious surfaces and gives a city department director the power to determine what unlisted uses can be allowed.

Weyerhaeuser Corporate Headquarters, Federal Way, WA - Photo courtesy of SWA

ICYMI, last month TCLF announced their latest Landslide: for a Northwestern Modernist Gem. The concern? Weyerhaeuser Corporate Headquarters designed by Sasaki, Walker & Associates, sold earlier this year, to Industrial Realty Group (IRG) for $70.5 million.

California's 'at-risk' cultural landscapes include Watts Towers

2014-10-29T14:31:00-04:00

Three sites in California — the Watts Towers, Noah Purifoy's Outdoor Desert Museum in Joshua Tree and the "Bay Lights" installation on the Oakland-Bay Bridge — have been named to a list of 11 "at-risk" sites by The Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington, D.C. [...] "Landscapes often die quiet deaths when you're dealing with the elements," says foundation President Charles Birnbaum.