About What's Out There
The foundational cornerstone of the What’s Out There database is a concise glossary organized under 27 types (e.g. Park), 58 sub-types (e.g. Vest Pocket Park) and 14 styles (e.g. Modernist). Authored by leading scholars and academics (see project Acknowledgments), these are presented as drop-down menus. These fields, along with the name of the designer and the location, will allow you to frame your individual research queries.
The database currently contains over 380 designer profiles. Some of these are further illustrated with 200-word essays which are linked to considerably longer 1400-word biographical profiles. A complement to these biographies is the collection of 300 profiles in the Cultural Landscape Foundation’s publications Pioneers of the American Landscape (2000) and Shaping of the American Landscape (2009) and oral history modules which place a spotlight on a select group of influential postwar practitioners.
At launch, the database contains hundreds of site entries, many of these illustrated with up to five images, inventorying some of our country’s most important designed landscapes through 1976 and in some instances, post-Bicentennial landscapes designed by a master whose career has been realized. Currently, more than 150 entries are complete with a concise site description, relevant links, and images. It is anticipated that this number will grow weekly.
What’s Out There incorporates historic designed landscapes from all 50 states. It contains National Historic Landmark (NHL) properties which are designated with significance in landscape. In addition it culls from the approximately 1,900 National Register of Historic Places sites listed with landscape significance to include those which relate to the designed landscape. It will not include vernacular landscapes (e.g. Storyland in Jackson, NH).
The What’s Out There database will grow richer through an ongoing conversation with our audience and a series of carefully constructed partnerships with professional colleagues, like-minded institutions, and landscape architecture programs within university communities. Submissions will be crafted in accordance with concise guidelines and will be vetted by staff.
Images included in the database are property of the Cultural Landscape Foundation and should be attributed as such, please also credit the photographer when noted. In the coming weeks images will be made available in a high-resolution, downloadable format and a form for obtaining images, free of charge, will be posted.