Open Season on Open Space – The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s Landslide 2017 theme of Threatened and At-Risk Landscapes – Call for Nominations
Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553 | M: 202.225.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org
In North America, urban & rural open space face pressures from inappropriately scaled construction to resource extraction
Washington, DC (March 9, 2017) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has issued a call for nominations for Landslide® 2017 – Open Season on Open Space. Landslide is an annual thematic compendium of landscapes and landscape features threatened with destruction or irreversible damage. Throughout North America there's a growing trend in parks and open spaces today: land held in public trust is being confiscated for new construction projects and other incompatible uses. This is especially problematic when viable alternatives exist. Landslide is designed to make the threats to these sites visible and promote informed stewardship. This year’s list, to be unveiled in Fall 2017, will be featured on a dedicated section of TCLF’s website. Nominations forms are available here and can be submitted to Nord Wennerstrom, at nord@tclf.org. Deadline is June 30, 2017.
Landslide, first issued in 2003, has highlighted more than 200 significant at-risk parks, gardens, horticultural features, and working landscapes–collectively, places that embody our shared landscape heritage. In 2017 increased pressure on parks and open spaces from the local level to the national, and ranging from neighborhood parks to thousands of acres of open lands – often with significant scenic, ecological and cultural values – are evidencing unprecedented development pressures.
Recent U.S. and Canadian examples range from the confiscation of pastoral parkland to threats to tribal lands for pipeline construction and resource extraction. In the U.S. parks such as Rahway River Park in Clark, NJ, and Overton Park in Memphis, TN, both listed in the National Register of Historic Places and works of celebrated landscape architects, (Olmsted Brothers and George Kessler respectively), have been targeted for a sports complex and parking facility. Meanwhile, pipeline construction is proposed through a portion of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia and under the Missouri River adjacent to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Moreover, recent proposals have surfaced that would give away federally owned and protected land to states, which could result in mining and other resource extraction. The threats to Canadian cultural landscapes are equally significant.
“Threats to cultural landscapes are not new, but their intensity and frequency seems to be increasing,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s president and CEO. “As the nation’s urban renaissance continues, development pressures grow on local and municipal parkland. The innate values of open space are downplayed and proposals move forward to confiscate irreplaceable parkland and fill it with often incompatible structures and facilities.”
Landslide is one of many TCLF initiatives that collectively highlight the importance of the nation’s rich and diverse landscape legacy. TCLF has also created What's Out There®, a free, searchable online database of the nation’s designed landscapes, that currently includes more than 2,000 sites, 11,000 images and 900 designer profiles; the Pioneers of American Landscape Design® with extensive biographies and profiles of hundreds of practitioners: Pioneers video oral histories with significant practitioners; along with tours, symposia, books, and lectures.
2017 Landslide nominations can be submitted to Nord Wennerstrom, at nord@tclf.org. A nomination form is available for download here. The deadline for submission is June 30, and the list will be announced in Fall 2017.
Landscape Architecture Magazine is the media partner.
About The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 to connect people to places. TCLF educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures and other events, TCLF broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes.