Oberlander Prize Forum V: RE: Search
Registration opens April 14.
RE: SEARCH: This full day symposium on October 29 explores how landscape architects are reclaiming and redefining their relationship between research and design. It is bracketed by a plenary keynote reception the evening prior (October 28) and mobile workshops the day following (October 30).
The depth of research that informs the design work of Oberlander Prize laureate Mario Schjetnan and his firm Grupo de Diseño (GDU), is the impetus for the event. At Longwood Gardens, the recent transformation and reconstruction of Roberto Burle Marx’s Cascade Garden by landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand and architects Weiss and Manfredi is a prime example of a holistic research-driven design process that values both natural/ecological and historic/cultural systems. Surveying the work and measuring the success at Longwood, and elsewhere in North America—the focus of this symposium and related events—provides the ideal opportunity to explore how today’s practitioners are building and sharing knowledge with the joint quest of revealing, honoring, and integrating cultural systems and lifeways in the face of inevitable change.
Order of Events:
October 28: Evening Reception and Plenary Keynote
Paul Redmond, President and Chief Executive Officer, Longwood Gardens
Claire Agre, ASLA, Principal, Unknown Studio, Baltimore, MD, and Jury Chair 2025 Oberlander Prize in Landscape Architecture
Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, Founder, Grupo de Diseño (GDU), Mexico City, Mexico and 2025 Oberlander Prize Laureate
October 29: RE:SEARCH Conference
Opening Keynote: Reclaiming and Redefining our Relationship Between Research and Design through a Cultural Systems Lens
Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, Founding President + CEO, The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Panel I: RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE | Re: Discover, Re: Appraise and Re: Acknowledge
Elizabeth K. Meyer, FASLA, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at University of Virginia School of Architecture, Charlottesville, VA, moderator. Speakers: Kofi Boone, FASLA, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Scholar NC State, Raleigh-Durham, NC; Jenny Lauer, Project Designer and Cultural Landscape Historian, Nelson Byrd Woltz, Charlottesville, VA, and Lydia Gikas Cook, Senior Associate, Reed Hilderbrand, Cambridge, MA
Plenary Provocation I: Table Setting for DESIGN PROPOSITIONS
Anne Whiston Sprin, author, landscape architect, photographer, scholar. Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at MIT
Plenary Provocation II: REALIZING THE WORK
Walter Hood, artist, designer educator. Hood Design Studio and Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design, Berkeley, CA
Panel II: GROUNDING RESEARCH | Re: Design, Re: New and Re: Activate
Eric Kramer, FASLA, Principal, Reed Hilderbrand, Cambridge, MA, moderator. Speakers: Nina Chase and Chris Merritt, Founding Principals, Merritt Chase, Pittsburgh, PA, and Indianapolis, IN; Ross Altheimer and Maura Rockcastle, Principals and Co-Founders, Ten x Ten, Minneapolis, MN, and Marc Hallé, Co-President and Partner, CCxA, Montreal, Canada
Closing Panel Discussion | REFRAMING THE NARRATIVE
Mario Schjetnan, Anne Whiston Spirn, and Walter Hood in conversation. Moderated by Charles A. Birnbaum
October 30: Mobile Workshops
Explore how a commitment to research, recordation, and holistic site analysis have impacted management and design decisions. Check back to see the complete Mobile Workshop schedule coming soon. Potential tours include: Longwood Gardens' Cascade Garden, Granogue, Hagley, Nemours, Winterthur, Chanticleer, and Mt. Cuba.
