Susan Child Oral History
In 2025 the Pioneers of American Landscape Design® Oral History series will highlight the life and career of landscape architect Susan Child, FASLA (1928-2018).
The Pioneers Oral History series is an ever-growing, award-winning collection of richly produced videotaped first-person interviews with significant practitioners that currently features twenty oral histories. Each profile in the series examines each designer’s personal and professional history, their overall design philosophy, and how that approach was carried out in their most emblematic projects. The richly edited video segments include never-before-seen archival footage, new photography, and on-location videography. The final product also includes a complete transcript and a collection of approximately twenty illustrated personal recollections written by colleagues, collaborators and friends.
Unlike the majority of the foundation's past oral histories that were undertaken with the participation of the pioneering subject, Child’s story will be documented and recounted via colleagues, scholars, clients and family.
The oral history will highlight selections from Child’s diverse portfolio, ranging from the rehabilitation of Stan Hywet Hall Estate and Gardens in Akron, Ohio, and The Mount, Edith Wharton’s country place in Lenox, Massachusetts, to groundbreaking designs for residences, institutions, and parks, including South Cove in Battery Park City, New York.
