The past 25 years, The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)—an education and advocacy organization with a mission of “connecting people to places”—has helped preserve sixty important landscapes around the country. Today, TCLF unveiled Landslide 2023: 25 Years/25 Saved, a report and digital exhibition showcasing 25 landscapes and landscape groupings across 40 sites throughout the U.S. that TCLF and partner organizations have preserved for future generations.
This year’s sites include the Franklin Court by Venturi Scott Brown & Associates; Bell Labs by Eero Saarinen; multiple parks by Lawrence Halprin; the intimate viewing garden at New York City’s Frick Collection by Russell Page; Bears Ears National Monument in Utah; Minneapolis’s Peavey Plaza; Park Central Square in Springfield, Missouri; the Quarry Amphitheater at the University of Southern California in Santa Cruz; and others.
Established in 2003, Landslide has showcased over 300 important, at-risk parks, gardens, horticultural features, working landscapes and other places that embody shared landscape heritage. Last year’s iteration focused on spaces by Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. while in previous years, spaces related to labor, civil, and human rights; climate change; feminism and landscape heritage; African American, Latinx, and Indigenous contributions to landscape design; were highlighted.
“Advocacy is at TCLF’s core and it’s vital in public engagement and coalition building,” said TCLF president and CEO Charles A. Birnbaum. “Reflecting on TCLF’s 25th anniversary, it’s clear that without advocacy and advocates, unique cultural landscapes that tell our shared stories would be permanently lost.”
By comparison to past years, TCLF’s Landslide this year focuses on preservation success stories rather than showcasing landscapes under threat.
25 Years/25 Saved shines a light on “advocacy efforts and the advocates, often working together in strategic partnerships, who have helped set the agenda, build public awareness and engagement, empower stewards, get a seat at the table, secure media coverage, and lead the effort to sympathetically manage change at culturally significant sites.”
Below is the full list of this year’s selected sites in the Landslide 2023 report:
Allegheny Commons | Pittsburgh
140 Broadway | New York City
Green Acres | Trenton, New Jersey
Untitled Earthwork (Johnson Pit #30) | Kent, Washington
Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks | Kent, Washington
Sudama/Marabar | Washington D.C.
Becker Estate | Highland Park, Illinois
Bell Laboratories | Holmdel, New Jersey
Dumbarton Oaks Park | Washington D.C.
Tucson Convention Center | Tucson, Arizona
Union Bank Plaza | Los Angeles
Flushing Meadows Corona Park | Queens, New York
Fort Negley | Nashville, Tennessee
Franklin Court | Philadelphia
Frick Collection Russell Page Viewing Garden | New York City
Gaiety Hollow | Salem, Oregon
Charlottesville Mall | Charlottesville, Virginia
Freeway Park | Seattle
Heritage Park Plaza | Fort Worth, Texas
Manhattan Square Park | Rochester, New York
Park Central Square | Springfield, Missouri
Hannah Carter Japanese Gardens | Los Angeles
Innisfree Garden | Millbrook, New York
Manitoga | Garrison, New York
Olana | Hudson, New York
Opus 40 | Saugerties, New York
Japanese American Confinement Sites | Multiple sites Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming
The Jay Estate | Rye, New York
Miller Garden | Columbus, Indiana
Bears Ear National Monument | Utah
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness | Minnesota
Coyote Valley | San Jose, California
Peavey Plaza | Minneapolis
Princeton Battlefield | Princeton, New Jersey
Rhode Island State House Grounds | Providence, Rhode Island
Mitchell Park | Palo Alto, California
Quarry Amphitheater | Santa Cruz, California
Sunnyside Gardens | Queens, New York
Tregaron | Washington D.C.
Cadbury Factory | Moreton, United Kingdom
Dolphin Square Gardens | London
TCLF notes that while it’s successfully saved 60 Landslide sites, 150 more are still at-risk.