2022 is here— and so is the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted! Olmsted 200 invites you to ring in the Year of Olmsted by attending the fifth webinar in our Conversations with Olmsted series.

On January 25, Conversations with Olmsted: Reimagining Public Spaces will explore the creative collaboration of Frederick Law Olmsted, architect Henry Hobson Richardson, and horticulturist Charles Sprague Sargent. We’ll set the stage by visiting “Mr. Olmsted’s Neighborhood” where these individuals regularly interacted and challenged each other. We’ll then examine how their practices and approaches can inform design today. Four professionals uniquely acquainted with these individuals and their ground-breaking work will shape our conversation.

Speakers include:

Rosetta S. Elkin, Associate Professor at McGill University and Research Associate of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. Rosetta is a designer and scholar focusing on how societies represent, respect, and cultivate the earth. Her work suggests that practices that unite people and place are entrenched in their relationship to plants, a topic explored in Plant Life: The Entangled Politics of Afforestation to be published by the University of Minnesota Press. Rosetta was the recipient of The Garden Club of America Rome Prize Fellowship in 2017.

Hugh Howard, author of more than twenty acclaimed books about architecture and landscape, presidents and painting. In his newest book, Architects of an American Landscape (Atlantic, January 2022), Hugh traces the careers of Henry Hobson Richardson, who, though dead at just forty-seven, is still regarded by many as the nation’s most influential architect, and Frederick Law Olmsted. The book follows the two visionaries as they reimagine the American landscape during the radical changes of the post-Civil War era.

Dan Marriott, licensed landscape architect and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. Dan is Principal and founder of Paul Daniel Marriott + Associates, a Washington, DC-based consultancy that specializes in projects at the intersection of landscape, transportation, preservation and planning. Prior to establishing the firm, Dan was Director of the Rural Heritage/Historic Roads Program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is currently on the board of the National Association for Olmsted Parks.

Moderator: Keith N. Morgan, professor emeritus of History of Art & Architecture and of American & New England Studies at Boston University, where he taught from 1980 until 2016.  Keith served as the Director of Preservation Studies, the Director of American & New England Studies, and the Chairman of the Art History Department at BU. His books include Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, MA (with Hope Cushing and Roger Reed); and an introduction to a new edition of Charles Eliot: Landscape Architect.

Register today to join the conversation!

Share your thoughts and questions about the event using #ConvoswithFLO. Also, don’t forget to follow us and tag us @Olmsted200.

To learn more about the Olmsted 200 bicentennial celebration and find nationwide events honoring the life and legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted, please visit olmsted200.org.

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