What’s Out There Weekend Cleveland Sep. 9-10 Features More Than Two Dozen Free, Expert Led tours of Parks, Gardens, and Open Spaces
Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553 | M: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org
Part of a nationwide program that reveals the stories of places that are part of our daily lives
Washington, D.C. (August 1, 2023) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) announces What’s Out There Weekend Cleveland September 9-10, 2023, featuring more than two dozen free, expert-led tours of parks, gardens, and open spaces in the Cleveland area. These tours enable people to discover the design history of places they may pass every day but don’t necessarily know about. Expert guides provide rich stories, personal anecdotes, and keen observations about each site, landscape architecture, city shaping, and garden design (all tours are free, but attendance is limited and registration is required). Cleveland’s landscape legacy includes myriad parks and plazas, cultural institutions, and historic sites and neighborhoods, including Acacia Reservation, the Cleveland Lakefront, the Cleveland Museum of Art Fine Arts Garden, Lake View Cemetery, Ohio & Erie Canalway, and others.
In addition to the tours, TCLF will produce a printed What’s Out There Cleveland guidebook that includes all of the tour sites (available for purchase and free as a downloadable PDF), and a more expansive and ever growing digital What’s Out There Cultural Landscapes Guide to Cleveland (which TCLF maintains in perpetuity). The ever growing digital City Guide includes an illustrated history of the city’s cultural landscape heritage, more than 40 individual site entries, and biographies of more than 40 designers who collectively shaped the landscapes that Clevelanders move through every day. “By making the people and stories behind these landscapes visible, and bringing to life their unique value and civic contributions for all, we can better understand where we’ve come from as a community and where we are going,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s President and CEO.
Research gathered for the tours will have a long-lasting legacy, becoming part of TCLF’s permanent What’s Out There database of more than 2,600 sites across North America, 1,200 designer profiles, and 13,000 images. The GPS-enabled database is a go-to resource for everyone from schoolchildren to scholars seeking trustworthy online information.
TOUR SCHEDULE – All tours are free, but attendance is limited and registration is required.
SATURDAY – September 9
• Cleveland History Center (Bingham-Hanna House) | 10:00 – 11:00 AM | led by Chris Lynn (AECOM) and Ann Sidelar (Western Reserve Historical Society);
• Nord Family Greenway | 10:00 – 11:00 AM | led by Andrew Gutterman (Sasaki);
o Tour participants are invited to register and attend the subsequent continue tour of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Fine Arts Garden at 11:00 AM (please register for both tours);
• Ohio & Erie Canalway | 10:00 – 11:30 AM | led by Meghan Tinker (Canalway Partners) and Mera Cardenas (Canalway Partners);
o This is a bicycle tour; Attendees must supply their own bicycle;
• Woodland Cemetery | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | led by Dorothy Salem (Woodland Cemetery Foundation);
• Cleveland Museum of Art Fine Arts Garden | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | led by Matt Langan (STIMSON) and Jeffrey Strean (Cleveland Museum of Art);
o Tour participants are encouraged to attend the preceding tour of the Nord Family Greenway at 10:00 AM (separate registration required for each tour);
• Cleveland Lakefront | 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM | led by Cleveland Metroparks;
o Tour will explore the Cleveland Harbor Eastern Embayment Resilience Strategy (CHEERS);
• Norma’s Garden at The Gathering Place | 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM | led by Virginia Burt (Virginia Burt Designs);
• Cleveland Mall | 1:00 – 2:00 PM | led David Ellison (D.H. Ellison Co.) and Jim McKnight (City of Cleveland);
o Tour participants are invited to register and attend the subsequent tour of the Cleveland Public Library’s Eastman Reading Garden at 2:00 PM (separate registration required for each tour);
• Lake View Cemetery | 1:00 – 3:00 PM | led by Kathy Goss (Lakeview Cemetery);
o Tour participants are encouraged to register for and join the subsequent tour of nearby Forest Hill Park at 3:30 PM (separate registration required for each tour);
• Cleveland Public Library Eastman Reading Garden | 2:00 – 2:45 PM | led by Melissa Carr (Cleveland Public Library) and John Skrtic (Cleveland Public Library);
o Tour Participants are encouraged to attend the preceding tour of the Cleveland Mall at 1:00 PM (separate registration required for each tour);
• Cleveland Botanical Garden: How does your Garden Grow…and evolve | 2:30 – 3:30pm | led by Cleveland Botanical Garden staff
o Walking tour of Annuals Allee, Rose Garden, Restorative Garden, Woodland Garden
• Public Square | 3:00 - 4:00 PM | led by Nora Romanoff (Bedrock) and Rick Grospitch (Group Plan, Public Square)
o Tour participants are encouraged to register for and join the preceding tours of nearby Cleveland Mall and Cleveland Public Library Eastman Reading Garden, beginning at 1:00 PM;
• Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens | 2:00 – 3:00 PM | led by Stan Hywett Hall Docents;
• Garfield Park | 2:00 – 3:30 PM | led by Chris Cheraso (Cleveland Metroparks);
• Dunham Tavern Museum and Gardens | 3:00 – 4:30 PM | led by Chris Merritt (Merritt Chase) and Lauren Hansgen (Dunham Tavern Museum and Gardens);
• Forest Hill Park | 3:30 – 5:00 PM | led by TBD;
o Tour participants are encouraged to register for and join the preceding tour of nearby Lake View Cemetery at 1:00 PM (separate registration required for each tour).
SUNDAY – September 10
• Cleveland Cultural Gardens | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | led by Lori Ashyk (Cleveland Cultural Gardens);
• Shaker Lakes (Horseshoe Lake) | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | led by Matt Langan (STIMSON), Glen Valentine (STIMSON), and Roy Larick (Bluestone Heights);
• Holden Arboretum: Gardens designed with intentional diversity and succession | 10:30 AM – 12:15 PM | led by CBG Staff
o Walking tour of Tree Allee, Rhododendron Garden, Holden Grove and Streamside Meadow
• Cleveland Lakefront | 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM | led by Cleveland Metroparks;
o This is a bus tour; Cleveland Metroparks will provide the transportation;
• Ralph J. Perk Plaza | 1:00 – 2:00 PM | led by Jim McKnight (City of Cleveland);
• Cuyahoga Valley National Park | 1:00 – 3:00 PM | led by Rebecca Jones (National Park Service);
• Acacia Reservation | 1:00 – 3:00 PM| led by Jenn Grieser (Cleveland Metroparks);
• Southside Conservation Easement (Formerly part of Gwinn Estate) | 2:00 – 3:30 PM | led by Renee Boronka (Western Reserve Land Conservancy).
What’s Out There Weekend Cleveland dovetails with TCLF’s web-based What’s Out There, the nation’s most comprehensive searchable database of historic designed landscapes. The database currently features more than 2,600 sites, 13,000 images, and 1,200 designer profiles. What’s Out There is optimized for iPhones and similar handheld devices, and includes What’s Nearby, a GPS-enabled feature that locates all landscapes within a given distance, customizable by mileage or walking time.
TCLF is pleased to partner with the Ohio Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and to collaborate with other local partners in organizing the What’s Out There Weekend Cleveland tours, the creation of new print guide, and the digital What’s Out There Cultural Landscapes Guide to Cleveland.
What’s Out There Weekend Cleveland is made possible by Lead Sponsors ASLA Ohio, Danette (Dani) Gentile Kauffman, and the Cleveland Browns Foundation; Presenting Sponsors ABC Stone, Behnke Landscape Architecture, Cleveland Metroparks, Cleveland Restoration Society, Lapitec, Mary Ann Lasch, the Nathan and Fanny Shafran Foundation, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, Sasaki, and SWA/Balsley; along with many Supporting Sponsors and Friends.
About The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 with a mission of “connecting 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. TCLF is also home to the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.
Editors: Click here for hi-res press images.
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