Help Wanted: University Partnerships to Expand What’s Out There

University of Washington students site visit to Gas Works Park, photo by Biruk Y. Belay

"For me the value of working with the What's Out There Database was really the hands-on nature of it: getting out there in a landscape, hearing it, smelling it, experiencing it rather than just reading about it in a book."
-Zachary Lifton, Columbia University 2011 graduate
Master of Science in Historic Preservation

Columbia University's Design with Culture class at Grand Army
Plaza, Prospect ParkUniversity partnerships are one of the great sources of content for TCLF’s What’s Out There database of America’s designed landscapes, and we’re looking for more partners. Students find it invigorating because they’re doing practical research, professors say it’s valuable for teaching, the database benefits from more diverse content, and all WOT users benefit by having access to a richer selection of entries, which now exceeds 1200 sites. Here’s what some of the students in TCLF President Charles Birnbaum’s graduate seminar at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation had to say about their experience:

• 
  Richard Haag takes students on a tour of
  Seattle's Gas Works Park, photo by Biruk Y. Belay"Writing about the Wave Hill estate, one of New York’s great Country Place Era gardens, for the What’s Out There database, challenged me to critically assess an entire program rather than “just” the architecture. That holistic perspective is invaluable for students because it fosters an awareness and appreciation for the synergy between landscape and architecture which subsequently elevates discourse and informs design."
  Kaity Ryan, second year graduate student, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation;
• "Knowing that my work would be publicly available on the What's Out There Database really pushed my drive toward clarity and interest in both writing and photography: its real-world nature vastly improved my skills and sense of ownership over my contribution."
  Zachary Lifton, Columbia University 2011 graduate, Master of Science in Historic Preservation.

TCLF has established a successful program to encourage greater university participation in What’s Out There, and it’s already yielding results with students in landscape architecture, architecture, planning and historic preservation programs. Last Spring, Lake Douglas, PhD, with Louisiana State University’s School of Landscape Architecture, incorporated What’s Out There research and content creation into his Graduate-level Research Methods seminar. And in both Spring 2011 and 2012, Thaisa Way, PhD, at University of Washington’s Department of Landscape Architecture has included What’s Out There as the first assignment in her History of Modern Landscape Architecture course.

Oak Alley Plantation, photo by Spencer McNab and Lucas Frey,
Louisiana State UniversityWhat these university partnerships achieve, which is difficult otherwise, is a density of content in a particular city, region, or state. For example, Douglas’s Research Methods class generated almost fifty new landscape entries, all within 150 miles of Baton Rouge. Sites range from the iconic Oak Alley Plantation outside of New Orleans to lesser known gems like Windrush Gardens, the former garden estate designed by Steel Burden and now owned by LSU. And similarly for Way’s UW students, What’s Out There will grow to include more than 30 new entries, from Richard Haag’s Gas Works Park to several parks identified in the Olmsted Brothers’ plan for Portland, Oregon. In the coming months, each of these new entries will be posted with photographs and text created by the students and vetted in-house at TCLF.

We want to know What’s Out There! If you would like more information on how to participate, whether as a professor or a student, please contact Matthew Traucht at matthew@tclf.org.