Mount Lebanon Herb Festival at Historic Shaker Village

2nd annual mount lebanon herbfest finalThe Mount Lebanon Herb Festival will be held on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, rain or shine on the campus of the Darrow School in New Lebanon, NY, the historic grounds of Mount Lebanon Shaker Village.

New Lebanon has a remarkable history with herbs. Its famous warm spring feeds the Shaker Swamp in the village of New Lebanon, and that supported an extraordinary collection of wild herbs long used by Native Americans. The Shakers, who based their national headquarters in New Lebanon, expanded on the uses of these herbs and created an industry around their sales. In 1824, Elam Tilden (father of politician Samuel J. Tilden) put this knowledge toward the start of one of the nation’s first pharmaceutical companies, the Tilden Company, using herbal tinctures, extracts and compounds derived in New Lebanon that were eventually marketed around the world. Read more

NYCs Green-Wood Cemetery To Mark 175th Anniversary

556174_502184239813956_1305110578_nWhat do artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, toy merchant Frederick A.O. Schwarz and political powerhouse William Magear “Boss” Tweed have in common?

They’re all buried in Brooklyn’s Historic Green-Wood Cemetery along with abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, musician Leonard Bernstein, industrialist Peter Cooper, composer Fred Ebb, piano manufacturer Henry Steinway, decorative master Louis Comfort Tiffany – and roughly 560,000 others – many equally famous (some infamous) and hailing from the worlds of sports, the arts, entertainment, politics, the military and industry. Read more

Boscobel House &#038- Gardens Appoints New Executive Director

Steven MillerFollowing a national search, the board of directors of Boscobel House &amp- Garden in Putnam County has selected Steven Miller of Morristown, New Jersey to be the historic site’s new executive director. Miller has forty-two years of museum experience with distinguished institutions throughout the northeast. In addition, he has been a museum consultant, writer, trustee and educator.

Situated on a bluff on the east bank of the Hudson River, Boscobel House &amp- Gardens offers its visitors views of the Hudson River and the Hudson Highlands. Completed in 1808 by the States Dyckman family, Boscobel is regarded as a fine example of Federal architecture. Read more

Newburgh: Cradle of the American Lawn Mower Industry

mower ad Abraham Levitt, the man who arguably built more suburban homes in the United States than anyone else in the years following World War II once said that: “No single feature of a suburban residential community contributes as much to the charm and beauty of the individual home and the locality as well-kept lawns&#8221

The ubiquitous American suburban lawn in America began 100 years before in 1841 when a 25 year old resident of Newburg New York named Andrew Jackson Downing published a landscape-gardening book entitled, “Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.”

It counseled readers to improve themselves by improving their front yards and could well be the impetus of the self-help book craze of the later third of the 20th century. He believed that the perfect front yard had to have a large area of “grass mown into a softness like velvet.” Read more

Fort Ticonderogas Garden and Landscape Symposium

nardozzi-0016aThe King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga is presenting its second Garden and Landscape Symposium: “Enhancing Life through Gardening” on Saturday, April 13. The day-long symposium, geared for both beginning and experienced gardeners, provides insights from garden experts who live and garden in upstate New York and Vermont. This springtime event takes place in the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center and is open by pre-registration only.

The walled King’s Garden was originally designed in 1921 by leading landscape architect Marian Coffin. The formal elements – a reflecting pool, manicured lawn and hedges, and brick walls and walkways – are softened by a profusion of annuals and perennials, carefully arranged by color and form. Heirloom flowers and modern cultivars are used to recreate the historic planting scheme. Read more

Kathleen Hulser: Hurricane Sandy And The NYC Waterfront

As New Yorkers still struggle without power in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, it plunges us right into the heart of a discussion about the historic waterfront. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Vision for the 21st Century, proclaimed in 2002, the crumbling infrastructure along the Manhattan and Brooklyn waterfront that once served the port of New York should be harnessed for a variety of development schemes. Read more

Central Park’s Woodlands Stewardship Event Friday

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) and the Central Park Conservancy (CPC) will host Bridging the Nature?Culture Divide II: Stewardship of Central Park’s Woodlands conference tomorrow, Friday, October 5, 2012, at the Museum of the City of New York (registration now open).

The one-day conference, co-curated by TCLF Founder and President Charles A. Birnbaum and CPC Associate Vice President for Planning Lane Addonizio examines the management of nature and culture in the stewardship of Central Park. The conference will feature speakers from public institutions and landscape architecture firms across the country, and follows up on the sold out, similarly themed conference held last year at the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, New York.

The conference will be followed on October 6-7 by What’s Out There Weekend New York City, featuring free expert led tours of parks and opens spaces in the city’s five boroughs (tours are free, registration is required).American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) CEUs will be available for the conference. The 843-acre Central Park, originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., and
Calvert Vaux, with a succession of additions and refinements by Samuel Parsons, Jr.,Michael Rapuano, Gilmore Clarke and others, is also host to 230 bird species, along with turtles, fish, and countless species of butterflies, dragonflies, and other insects. The Central Park woodlands are among the most historically significant designed landscapes in the country, providing valuable refuge for wildlife and New Yorkers alike. In the 1960s and 1970s, Central Park experienced an unprecedented decline, suffering from neglect and a lack of management. Litter filled its waterbodies- its Great Lawn was a great dust bowl- its woodlands were avoided, not celebrated. The Central Park Conservancy, a private, not-for-profit organization created in 1980, has skillfully and successfully reawakened, restored and maintained a world-class icon.

Nevertheless, managing a park that is both a culturally significant landscape and natural habitat is delicate- this conference specifically examines sustainability, the agendas of different constituencies, diversity, the role of people, and public education.

Creating a progression of varied landscape experiences was a primary goal of Central Park’s designers. Within the landscapes themselves, horticultural diversity was also a goal. In the Ramble, both exotic and native plants were to provide a sense of lushness and intricacy, realizing Olmsted’s intended &#8220wild garden&#8221effect. Neglect of the Park’s woodlands over a prolonged period resulted in a lack of horticultural and social (as well as scenic) diversity. What park stewards know is “letting nature take
its course” is not sustainable. While the woodlands serve to provide the experience of escape from urban life, they are in fact designed urban landscapes that require consistent management.

The conference features two panels addressing this stewardship dilemma- the first (the morning session) focuses on “lessons learned” by public sector stewards at Prospect Park (Brooklyn), New York Botanical Garden, and The Presidio (San Francisco)- the second (afternoon session) will be comprised of landscape architects in private practice with experience in urban parks (complete list below).
Speakers and Moderators:

• Eric W. Sanderson, Senior Conservation Ecologist, Wildlife Conservation
Society (moderator)
• Christian Zimmerman, Vice President for Design & Construction, The Prospect
Park Alliance, Brooklyn, NY
• Michael Boland, Chief Planning, Projects & Programs Officer, The Presidio
Trust, San Francisco, CA
• Todd Forrest, Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living
Collections, The New York Botanical Garden
• Elizabeth K. Meyer, Associate Professor, University of Virginia, School of
Architecture, Landscape Architecture (moderator)
• Dennis McGlade, President/Partner, OLIN, Philadelphia, PA and Los Angeles,
CA
• Margie Ruddick, Margie Ruddick Landscape, Philadelphia, PA
• Keith Bowers, Biohabitats, Baltimore, MD

Registration is $150 and is available at the conference Web site.  The Central Park Conservancy is the presenting sponsor, with additional support provided by Landscape Forms and the Museum of the City of New York.

About the Central Park Conservancy

The mission of the Central Park Conservancy is to restore, manage and enhance
Central Park in partnership with the public, for the enjoyment of present and future
generations. A private, not-for-profit organization founded in 1980, the Conservancy
provides 85 percent of Central Park’s $46million park-wide expense budget and is
responsible for all basic care of the Park. Since 1980, the Conservancy has overseen
the investment of more than $650 million into Central Park. For more information on
the Conservancy, please visit centralparknyc.org.

About The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The Cultural Landscape Foundation provides people with the ability to see, understand and value landscape architecture and its practitioners, in the way many people have learned to do with buildings and their designers. Through its Web site, lectures, outreach and publishing, TCLF broadens the support and understanding for cultural landscapes nationwide to help safeguard our priceless heritage for future
generations.

Wildersteins Contemporary Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit

Wilderstein Historic Site will host a second exhibition of contemporary outdoor sculptures by emerging Hudson Valley artists beginning June 3. A preview party will be held on Saturday, June2, from 5 to 7 pm.

Participating artists include: Jan Abt, Benjamin Ayers, John Belardo, Andy Fennell, Sarah Haviland, Richard Heinrich, Jeremy Holmes, Steve Keltner, Malcolm MacDougall, J. Pindyck Miller and Craig Usher.

Wilderstein is a historic house museum in Rhinebeck, New York. The estate, with its exquisite Queen Anne mansion and Calvert Vaux designed landscape, is widely regarded as the Hudson Valley’s most important example of Victorian architecture. The last person to reside at Wilderstein was Margaret (Daisy) Suckley, whose relationship with Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been well-chronicled and is the subject of much interest. Gift shop, hiking trails, and spectacular Hudson River views.

The exhibition will be open daily between 9 am and 4 pm through the end of October. Sponsored by Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp.

Tickets for the preview party are $25 and reservations are encouraged. RSVP to 845.876.4818 or [email protected]

Vanderbilt Landscape and Garden Tours

Enjoy free grounds tours offered by the National Park Service and their partner, the Frederick W. Vanderbilt Garden Association will offer free grounds tours on Sundays, June 27, July 15, August 19, September 16 and October 21. Interpreter-guides will discuss the history of the gardens, Vanderbilt ownership and the on-going work by the Vanderbilt Garden Association which was formed in 1984 to rehabilitate and maintain the garden plantings.

Participants should meet at 1:00 pm at the Vanderbilt Mansion visitor parking area for tour led by an NPS Ranger. The tour concludes at the Formal Gardens where visitors may join FWVGA volunteers between 1:00 pm and 3:30 pm for an additional 30-minute tour.

Park in the Vanderbilt Mansion visitor parking lot and follow the gravel path on the south side of the mansion. Tours will be cancelled if it rains. Please call 845-229-7770 or 845-229-6432 for status if the weather is questionable.

For additional information call or email Suzanne Gillespie at 845-473-5957, [email protected]

Cultural Landscape Workshop Set for Lorenzo SHS

Lorenzo State Historic Site, in Cazenovia, Madison County, NY, will host a one-day workshop for preservation planners, cultural resource managers and stewards of historic properties.

The day’s agenda will include defining the types and characteristics of cultural landscapes- documenting historic and current conditions including preparation of period and contemporary plans- developing treatment plans within an historic preservation context- examples of cultural landscape reports and their various components- interpreting the cultural landscape- what resources to consult and what steps to take in establishing a cultural landscape preservation program- and touring the historic landscape at Lorenzo.

Presenting cultural landscape experts:

John Auwaerter, Co-director of the Center for Cultural Landscape Preservation, SUNY ESF, and a National Park Service Partner with the Olmsted Center in Boston

Christine Capella-Peters, member of the technical staff for the NYS Historic Preservation Office, a division of OPRHP

George Curry, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, SUNY ESF and cultural landscape Project Director at SUNY ESF

The registration deadline is May 15, 2012. The cost is $40 for MAAM members- $50 non-MAAM members (payment accepted by check or credit card). More information can be found online.

The program is presented by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums in cooperation with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP), the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science & Forestry (SUNY ESF), and the National Park Service Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation.