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Product: Book
ISBN-10: 0-8139-2329-8
ISBN-13: 9780813923291
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Country:
Year: March 31, 2005
Size: 15.49 x 22.86 x 1.78cm
Number of pages: 215
Weight: 431gr
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8139-2329-8
ISBN-13: 9780813923291
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Country:
Year: March 31, 2005
Size: 15.49 x 22.86 x 1.78cm
Number of pages: 215
Weight: 431gr
Binding: Hardcover
editions
0.) Design With Culture
Charles A. Birnbaum (Eds.), Mary V. Hughes (Eds.)
University of Virginia Press; 2005
Paperback
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Product Description
Often viewed as nostalgic and inauthentic, the work of early preservationists has frequently been underrated by modern practitioners. Rather than considering early preservation within its historical context, many modern preservationists judge their predecessors' work by contemporary standards, ultimately negating their legacy. In Design with Culture: Claiming America's Landscape Heritage, Charles A. Birnbaum and Mary V. Hughes present an introduction along with eight essays by well-known landscape historians that effectively argue against this diminution. By revisiting planning studies, executed works, and critical writings from the years 1890-1950, these authors uncover the holistic stewardship ethic that drove pioneering landscape preservation advocates, revealing their goal to be the imaginative transformation, as much as the conservation, of material culture.
Often viewed as nostalgic and inauthentic, the work of early preservationists has frequently been underrated by modern practitioners. Rather than considering early preservation within its historical context, many modern preservationists judge their predecessors' work by contemporary standards, ultimately negating their legacy. In Design with Culture: Claiming America's Landscape Heritage, Charles A. Birnbaum and Mary V. Hughes present an introduction along with eight essays by well-known landscape historians that effectively argue against this diminution. By revisiting planning studies, executed works, and critical writings from the years 1890-1950, these authors uncover the holistic stewardship ethic that drove pioneering landscape preservation advocates, revealing their goal to be the imaginative transformation, as much as the conservation, of material culture.
The essays, which range from accounts of the professional contribution made by such figures as Charles Sprague Sargent and Frederick Law Olmsted to consideration of the roles played by women's clubs and New Deal government programs, portray the spirit and tenacity of the early preservationists. In their focus on the transformation of entities such as Mount Vernon and the White House, as well as the rural countryside along the Blue Ridge Parkway, early preservationists anticipated several key issues-such as tourism, ecological concerns, and vehicle access-that confront practitioners today. Birnbaum and Hughes illustrate not only the similarity of experience between early and modern landscape preservationists but also the immense impact that their decisions had and still have on our daily lives.
landscape architects, architects, planners, amateur and professional gardeners, conservationists, preservationists, and anyone with an interest in history, travel, and national parks, Design with Culture will prove an indispensable resource for understanding the history of landscape preservation.
Contributors:
Charles A. Birnbaum, Mary V. Hughes, Catherine Howett, Phyllis Andersen, Thomas E. Beaman Jr., Elizabeth Hope Cushing, David C. Streatfield, Cynthia Zaitzevsky, Ethan Carr, and Ian Firth
reviews
Blue Ridge Girl 
Respect for the land isn't something new. It was a key part of early twentieth-century landscaping practice. What was done in the past and how American landscapes looked in the past still influence how today's designers and managers reach their landscaping decisions. All three points are behind a conference held in the Bronx in 1999. Eight presentations from that conference are brought together, as individual chapters, in the book DESIGN WITH CULTURE. The chapters cover pioneering garden club projects in the south; Mt Vernon; landscape preservationists Arthur A Shurcluff and Thomas C Vint; landscape archaeologist Morley Jeffers Williams; Frederick Law Olmsted Jr; Californio cultural landscapes; and the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's the last that most interests me, as a Blue Ridge girl, and as a master gardener because of the subtitled »road to the modern preservation movement.« The Blue Ridge Parkway is a stunning 469 mile link between the Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountain national parks. It was begun in 1933, as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's ending the Depression by creating jobs and encouraging people with money to travel and buy locally along the way. The parkway was two-thirds done when work was stopped in 1942, with the United States being pulled into World War II. Most of the rest of the work was done by 1967. The remaining Grandfather Mountain part was finished in 1987. Landscape architect Stanley W Abbott planned the parkway as a gracefully curving road. He also was behind the locally quarried stonework along the way, as well as the 19 recreational areas, the native plant and tree use, and the local color. Four highly successful examples of this last were the fixed-up log cabins – Puckett and Trail in Virginia, and Brinegar in North Carolina – as well as the Mabry Mill. All four brought tourists in droves, because of quality historical exhibits and local crafts and products. However, three criticisms remain of the parkway. One, the picturesque was chosen over the authentic. For example, area farmers might have liked the split-rail fences built for them. But on their own, would they have grown picturesque buckwheat, fall covercrops, linen flax, and pumpkins? Or would they have kept limited grazing of dairy cattle and sheep? Two, the landscape was frozen in time. Area farmers grew picturesque crops by using picturesquely traditional methods, such as horse-drawn equipment. Three, the decisions weren't home grown. For example, Abbott was a Cornell graduate. His experiences were with Westchester county parkways in New York. One of the worse case scenarios from building this beautiful parkway centered on the Peaks of Otter. The peaks look the way they do today, because an entire people were forced to leave their homes. These three points are behind the challenge to today's preservationists. How do we preserve landscapes and their communities while allowing for natural change? It's not just what the place looks like. It's also what the life – human and otherwise – wants from the place. That concern is also at the heart of Virginia Tech's advanced master gardening program. One of the advanced areas of concern is land care use, particularly when people meet nature, in the wildland-urban interface. In other words, how do we keep nature as much as possible nature while also making sure that people and their homes and land will be safe from natural forces such as forest fire?
Respect for the land isn't something new. It was a key part of early twentieth-century landscaping practice. What was done in the past and how American landscapes looked in the past still influence how today's designers and managers reach their landscaping decisions. All three points are behind a conference held in the Bronx in 1999. Eight presentations from that conference are brought together, as individual chapters, in the book DESIGN WITH CULTURE. The chapters cover pioneering garden club projects in the south; Mt Vernon; landscape preservationists Arthur A Shurcluff and Thomas C Vint; landscape archaeologist Morley Jeffers Williams; Frederick Law Olmsted Jr; Californio cultural landscapes; and the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's the last that most interests me, as a Blue Ridge girl, and as a master gardener because of the subtitled »road to the modern preservation movement.« The Blue Ridge Parkway is a stunning 469 mile link between the Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountain national parks. It was begun in 1933, as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's ending the Depression by creating jobs and encouraging people with money to travel and buy locally along the way. The parkway was two-thirds done when work was stopped in 1942, with the United States being pulled into World War II. Most of the rest of the work was done by 1967. The remaining Grandfather Mountain part was finished in 1987. Landscape architect Stanley W Abbott planned the parkway as a gracefully curving road. He also was behind the locally quarried stonework along the way, as well as the 19 recreational areas, the native plant and tree use, and the local color. Four highly successful examples of this last were the fixed-up log cabins – Puckett and Trail in Virginia, and Brinegar in North Carolina – as well as the Mabry Mill. All four brought tourists in droves, because of quality historical exhibits and local crafts and products. However, three criticisms remain of the parkway. One, the picturesque was chosen over the authentic. For example, area farmers might have liked the split-rail fences built for them. But on their own, would they have grown picturesque buckwheat, fall covercrops, linen flax, and pumpkins? Or would they have kept limited grazing of dairy cattle and sheep? Two, the landscape was frozen in time. Area farmers grew picturesque crops by using picturesquely traditional methods, such as horse-drawn equipment. Three, the decisions weren't home grown. For example, Abbott was a Cornell graduate. His experiences were with Westchester county parkways in New York. One of the worse case scenarios from building this beautiful parkway centered on the Peaks of Otter. The peaks look the way they do today, because an entire people were forced to leave their homes. These three points are behind the challenge to today's preservationists. How do we preserve landscapes and their communities while allowing for natural change? It's not just what the place looks like. It's also what the life – human and otherwise – wants from the place. That concern is also at the heart of Virginia Tech's advanced master gardening program. One of the advanced areas of concern is land care use, particularly when people meet nature, in the wildland-urban interface. In other words, how do we keep nature as much as possible nature while also making sure that people and their homes and land will be safe from natural forces such as forest fire?
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