Profile

Introduction

Celebrating 22 years of exceptional work, Heritage Landscapes LLC is a woman-owned professional firm with offices and staff in Charlotte, VT, Norwalk, CT and Asheville, NC. Since 1987 we have specialized in projects focusing on culturally valuable landscapes with some 400 projects and 38 professional awards to our credit. Preservation landscape architecture works address preservation planning, implementation and management for the landscapes of communities, parks, parkways, campuses, institutions, museums, estates, historic sites, cemeteries and residential grounds. This diverse group of works addresses landscapes of various types and sizes, from a few to several hundred acres and includes individual, multiple property, city, town, neighborhood, community and linear corridor landscapes.

Our cultural landscape project scopes include historic research, existing conditions documentation, analysis, design studies, community outreach, public education and interpretation, heritage tourism, construction documents, management, maintenance and implementation initiatives. Products take the form of focused and comprehensive plans, cultural landscape reports, guidelines, signage, brochures, fund-raising materials, staff and volunteer guidance, construction documents, strategic plans, management plans, and maintenance calendars. Heritage Landscapes expertise in cultural landscape preservation and stewardship embraces all aspects of the renewal and vibrancy of these important properties for today and tomorrow.

Project Approach
We begin our projects by understanding the values inherent in and ascribed to cultural properties and studying the history and evolution of the property. From this basis we conduct our work in partnership with owners, stewards and stakeholders toward safeguarding, modifying to suit current needs, communicating about and seeking to ensure the perpetuation of historically significant cultural landscapes. Our work is fully informed by national and international preservation standards, guidelines, charters and declarations. Projects conform to the precepts and treatment concepts set for the federal guiding documents, as well as local and regional legislation, as appropriate. Though treasured for their tangible and intangible values, the viability of cultural landscapes depends on planning and projects that bring them to full use, enjoyment, and sustainability for the people of today and tomorrow.

In addition to recognizing cultural landscape values, our work is grounded in principles of landscape sustainability, functionality, and aesthetics. Preservation is a deeply sustainable practice. The convergence of cultural and natural resource considerations is an important element in Heritage Landscapes work. Our projects incorporate a solid understanding of natural systems and promote sustainable places. A holistic approach to sustainability addresses multi-functional aspects of planning and implementation. To provide visitor access, safety and comfort projects resolve issues of arrival, parking, circulation and ease of movement. Our design approach addresses functions and aesthetics simultaneously using traditional, durable materials with a grace of application and simple elegance of detail. We draw on the unique character of the place for design inspiration. Based on our extensive work in landscape management we provide our clients with designs that incorporate maintenance concerns, tools to manage change and schedules to direct maintenance efforts.

Another hallmark of Heritage Landscapes work is the importance we place on clearly conveying information about the heritage property and its cultural or historic values to users and visitors. We seek to communicate appropriate messages to the public through an array of media, including layout and design cues, focal elements, signs, brochures, etc. Because we believe that public landscapes are places for people of all abilities to experience and enjoy, we are committed to providing universal access by upgrading circulation systems in a manner that respects historic landscape character while accommodating access.

A Context for Successful Projects

Over the past 22 years, through some 400 projects, we have focused on the diversity of values that arise in heritage landscapes shaped by human culture. Our interest is in visionary yet realistic planning that is readily implemented. Our knowledge of United States landscape history has been enriched over time with the varied types, scales and significance of landscapes we have researched and addressed in planning and implementation efforts undertaken. As a result, we have a facile capture of origins and evolution of numerous historic sites, designed and vernacular landscapes that provide us with a deeply researched basis of historic landscape context that applies to all works. For American country estates our projects addressing the Vanderbilt Estate at Hyde Park, an evolved design of Andre Parmentier, James Greenleaf, and others; Longue Vue House and Gardens, an Ellen Biddle Shipman masterwork; Dumbarton Oaks, the work of Beatrix Farrand with client Mildred Bliss; Bamboo Brook, Martha Brookes Hutcheson's property; Oldfields, the design of Percival Gallagher, Olmsted Brothers; and other such works provides a context for any estate property. Similarly institutions and government campuses have a rich history. Teamwork at the Virginia Capitol and Capital Square, the West Virginia Capitol, and the Camden Library Grounds and Camden Amphitheatre have provided a strong basis in adapting valued public institutions for vibrant stewardship that serves the people of today and tomorrow.

Our work on systems of parks, boulevards and parkways for Baltimore, Rochester, Fort Wayne, Louisville and Pittsburgh have provided opportunities for detailed research, conditions assessment, analysis and planning and implementation projects that address the legacy of national and local design professionals, parks superintendents and the contributions of philanthropists. In the same manner, investigations of early parks and squares in Rochester, New York, informed mid-19th century city development, while later evolution under designs by both Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and Olmsted Brothers contributed to the city evolution and refinement. Projects addressing historic city parkways and modern inter-city parkways have built a context for parkway design principles and evolution. The recognition of modern works is another area of expertise we have gained through commissions addressing Fletcher Steele's Garden Amphitheatre, Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff, Louis I. Kahn's Bathhouse and John O. Simonds Mellon Square.

For historic sites, our work on military properties, like Valley Forge, the Continental Army Winter Encampment; Conanicut Battery, a Narragansett Bay Revolutionary War site; Redoubts at West Point evolved through time; and Yorktown and Jamestown, Revolutionary and Civil War sites, informs our understanding of military history and military landscape character. Similarly, historic sites where important persons were present and notable events took place, to include the Lincoln Home, Lincoln Cottage, Jefferson's Poplar Forest among others, have provide opportunities to understand the as-built character, evolution and interpretive potential of significant places linked to people and events. Likewise, places of memory and commemoration, cemeteries, monument grounds and religious pilgrimage sites embody enduring values that are expressed in the landscape. Our recent planning and management work at Mount Hope Cemetery and the Joseph Smith Birthplace seek to renew, sustain and enhance the experience of these valued places. We bring this depth and breadth of experience to each new project.

Teamwork & Collaboration

Collaboration is the key to excellent results. Our diverse clients include not-for-profit entities, citizen advocacy groups, museums and institutions, private owners and municipal, state and federal agencies. We consider clients as full partners in project work, articulating goals, shaping project programs, providing data on staffing and funding capabilities, clarifying community and visitor issues, weighing alternatives, and making decisions. As effective members of inter-disciplinary teams, we serve in both team leader and subconsultant roles. Award-winning work is an outcome of a well-informed, talented, creative, and dedicated team. Working with our partners: clients; teams; stakeholders; community leaders; and the involved public; Heritage Landscapes envisions a positive, informative, sustainable and satisfying future for heritage landscapes of all types. Our plans, implementation strategies, sustainable practices and management guidance all ensure that multiple needs are met as cultural, fiscal, environmental, social, and recreational values are incorporated.