Saving Landscapes

Landscapes often get the short shrift when it comes to historic preservation, although the contributions of landscape architects and designers are just as important to the country's cultural legacy as historic buildings and monuments. Now,The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has released it's third biennial list of endangered properties, Landslides 2006, which focuses on American Gardens at risk.

The 18 unique gardens on this year's list include public and private landscapes designed by some of America's most famous landscape architects as well as others designed by horticulturists or homeowners.  The gardens at Gibraltar  in Wilmington, DE, were designed by Marian Coffin in 1916.  She was one of the best known landscape architects during the "Country Place Era" from the late 1800's until World War II.  This garden, with Italianate design and English planting style, is laid out in a series of terraces that descend 30 feet, connected by a curving marble staircase.  Now a public garden, Gibraltar needs volunteers and money to continue restoration and to maintain the garden for future generations.

In Yachats, Oregon, Jim & Janis Gerdemann have spent 25 years creating a masterpiece woodland garden on three and a half acres right next door to the Siuslaw National Forest and facing the Pacific ocean.  The garden is filled with native perennials (trillium, viola, columbine, Western lily); rare rhododendrons; and unusual plants from abroad, including New Zealand tree ferns, the Chilean flame tree, Grevillia from Australia, and many more. It's also home to a variety of wildlife, and the rare Giant Pacific Salamander has been sighted three times.  The Gerdemanns are now in their 80's and in declining health. The garden could be subdivided upon their deaths, but they are seeking ideas on ways to preserve it for the future.

(photos: TCLF)

Commercial properties are often developed and then redeveloped, and significant landscapes are often the victims.  NationsBank Plaza in downtown Tampa, FL, built during the 1980's, is considered to be one of the finest works by Dan Kiley (1912-2004), probably the most important landscape architect of the 20th century.  Kiley used the same mathematical proportions in the landscape that the architect (Harry Wolf) used to design the building.  The result is a very powerful and exceptional visual synthesis of building and garden.

Because of his significance as a landscape architect, there's not a single Kiley project that's not worth saving, but this one is among his very best.  The landscape has already suffered by the removal of some key design elements, including three reflecting pools and a glass-bottomed canal.  Now, builders want to construct an art museum along one side of the site, a riverwalk along another side, and a park along the northern boundary.  Preservationists are working hard to place the site on the National Register of Historic Places and to give it local historic protection as well.

Natural disasters, of course, are always a threat to historic landscapes, and many important gardens were devastated last year by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 
Longue Vue Gardens in New Orleans dates back to 1935, when renowed landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman was hired by the owners to design the gardens. She worked on the property for 15 years in collaboration with the owners until her death in 1950, and Longue Vue is one of the few remaining Shipman designs that was, until recently, essentially intact. Winds and flooding killed two-thirds of the plantings and ruined the mechanical systems that power the fountains throughout the property.  Insurance did not begin to cover the cost of damage, and funds and people are need to restore the gardens to their former glory.

All 18 endangered landscapes can be viewed on the website of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF). According to the organization's founder, Charles Birnbaum, "many gardens are in fact nationally significant and beloved treasures susceptible to inappropriate change." TCLF's biennial Landslide list, he said, "comes to the rescue and raises a red flag for the whole country to see."  The gardens will also be featured in the June issue of Garden Design Magazine.   

Others include:
Laura Plantation. Vacherie, LA
New Orleans Botanical Garden, New Orleans, LA
Oak Alley Plantation, Vacherie, LA
Russel Wright's Manitoga , Garrison, NY
Latham Park, Sioux City, IA
The Dunn Garden, Seattle, WA
Dumbarton Oaks Park, Washington DC
Baldwin Hills Village, Los Angeles, CA
Nehrling's Gardens, Gotha, FL
The Becker Estate, Highland Park, IL
Peachtree Heights West, Atlanta, GA
Greatwood Gardens, Plainfield, VT
Gardens of Jajome, Cayey, Puerto Rico
Margaret Thomas' Garden, Herndon, VA

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