Vermont Business Magazine At the annual ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Diego this past week, the American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA) presented one of its highest honors, the Landscape Architecture Firm Award, to Heritage Landscapes, LLC headquartered in Charlotte, Vermont.
The ASLA Landscape Architecture Award recognizes the Heritage Landscapes distinguished body of work, with a litany of successful projects addressing landscapes of great historic significance throughout the United States and abroad. In collaboration with ASLA, the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the National Park Service, state and local government agencies, non-profits, and talented colleagues, Heritage Landscapes has had a significant, transformative and beneficial impact on the fields of landscape architecture and historic preservation over a period of 32 years.
When Patricia O’Donnell, FASLA, founded Heritage Landscapes, LLC in 1987, there were virtually no official guidelines for historic landscape preservation works. Historic preservation traditionally focused on buildings; few people thought of landscapes as having heritage value. Heritage Landscapes stepped into that void, becoming the first landscape architecture firm in the world to focus solely on landscapes that make up our shared public heritage – places that already matter but need aid and guidance.
Today, their work is fully informed by national and international preservation standards, guidelines, charters, and declarations, many of which they helped develop. Heritage Landscapes strives for integration, with interventions discernible only to the trained eye, purposely in character with historic origins.
Heritage Landscapes has completed over 500 projects nationally and internationally, including four World Heritage sites and 44 National Historic Landmarks, and have won 89 professional awards to date. During Heritage Landscapes’ more than three decades of work, they have contributed to the revitalization of public parks and civic landscapes in Baltimore, Buffalo, Fort Wayne, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Seattle, and Washington DC. Notable projects include Camden Harbor Parks, Camden ME; Mellon Square, Pittsburgh, PA; Jackson Park, Chicago IL; Longue Vue Gardens, New Orleans LA; Oldfields, Indianapolis, Indiana; Joseph Smith Birthplace, South Royalton, VT; Formosa, Auston TX; Virginia Capital Square, Richmond, VA; Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, VT; Kahn Bath House and Community Green, Princeton, NJ; and the National Mall and Capitol Grounds, Washington, DC.
“We here in the Vermont Chapter of ASLA are extremely proud of Patricia and her team at heritage Landscapes and very glad that they are getting the national recognition that they deserve.” said Jim Donovan, FASLA, President of the Vermont Chapter of ASLA. “We congratulate Heritage Landscapes, LLC on their incredible achievements.”
Background
The ASLA Firm Award is the highest honor that the American Society of Landscape Architects may bestow on a landscape architecture firm. The purpose of this award is to recognize one firm a year that is at least ten years old and has produced bodies of distinguished work influencing the professional practice of landscape architecture.
Source: Charlotte, Vermont – Heritage Landscapes, LLC