What is a Historical Landscape Architect, Anyway?

If you’re scratching your head when you hear the term, “historical landscape architect,” you’re not alone. Having developed only since the 1980s, it’s a fairly new specialty area in landscape architecture.[1] The term was formally defined by the National Park Service (NPS) in 1995, when the agency published its “Employee Training & Development Strategy,” to define 16 distinct career fields in “Essential Competencies for National Park Service Employees.” There, the NPS gave historical landscape architects the primary responsibility for guiding the management of the national park system’s cultural landscapes, which involves “preserving a landscape’s physical attributes, biotic systems, and use when that use contributes to its historical significance.”

The report defines a “historical landscape architect” as a

[s]pecialist in the science and art of landscape architecture with advanced training in the principles, theories, concepts, methods, and techniques of preserving cultural landscapes… Research, planning, and stewardship are the framework for the duties of a historical landscape architect. Research defines the features, values, and associations that make a landscape historically significance; planning identifies the issues and alternatives for long-term preservation; and stewardship involves activities, such as condition assessment, maintenance, and training… .[2]

The historical landscape architect is the lead professional for these activities, often managing not only other landscape architects, but also a diverse team of allied professionals, including planners, architects, civil engineers, horticulturalists, ecologists, archeologists, and materials conservators, depending on the characteristics and needs of the site.

At the entry level, the historical landscape architect must have, at minimum:

- A professional degree in landscape architecture;

- A basic knowledge of the theories, principles, laws, practices, and techniques of historic preservation for cultural landscapes, including cultural landscape research, inventory, documentation, and analysis and evaluation methodologies and techniques;

- A basic knowledge of allied fields necessary to conduct project reviews, supervise contracts, and provide technical assistance and information;

- Ability to develop and implement cultural landscape treatment plans and preservation maintenance programs based on National Park Service policies, objectives, and design criteria necessary for cultural landscape preservation, including relevant Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and National Register criteria;[3] and

· Understanding of federal environmental policy and regulations concerning historic preservation.[4]

For example, our team for the Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial Cultural Landscape Treatment Plan (Figure 1) was managed by historical landscape architects and also included a preservation specialist, a historian, and a preservation architect. Folded into the project process was an environmental assessment of a variety of design alternatives in compliance with federal historic preservation regulations (Figure 2).

Please refer to this website’s main page at https://www.lauraknotthla.com/ for examples of projects in historical landscape architecture, as well as my resume at https://d3f5142f-7a68-4fd4-be9b-1a6cd3391217.filesusr.com/ugd/890aea _ba1343bdc7114f9c9d95a3e9f29ea85c.pdf.

View of the Perry's Victory memorial column. Laura Knott.

Design alternatives for improving accessibility. Jane Jacobs and Christina Osborn.

[1] National Park Service. “Cultural Landscape Recognition: 1981-2000.” https://www.nps.gov/subjects/culturallandscapes/cltimeline5.htm. Accessed April 28, 2020. [2] National Park Service. “Historical Landscape Architect Essential Competencies.” https://www.nps.gov/training/npsonly/RSC/cultland.htm. Accessed April 28, 2020. [3] Birnbaum, Charles A., and Christine Capella Peters, eds. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1996. https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/four-treatments/landscape-guidelines/. Accessed April 28, 2020; National Park Service. “National Register of Historic Places Program: Landscape Initiative.” https://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/guidance/NRLI/index.htm. Accessed April 28, 2020; and Wyatt, Barbara. “Cultural Landscapes and the National Register.” Forum Journal, Volume 32, Number 3, 2018, pp. 3-12 (Article) (Washington, DC: National Trust for Historic Preservation) https://muse.jhu.edu/article/732309/pdf. Accessed April 28, 2020. [4] “Federal Preservation Laws.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/historicpreservation/laws-intro.htm. Accessed April 28, 2020.