The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 by Charles A. Birnbaum with a mission of “connecting people to places.”

Mission

TCLF educates and engages the public to study landscapes and better understand the individuals who created them. Its website provides a search portal to a database of hundreds of pioneers of American landscape design and their built works. TCLF's catalogue of entries ranges from profiles of 19th century icons like

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...

to modernist masters like

Dan Kiley Daniel Urban Kiley (2 September 1912 – 21 February 2004) was an American landscape architect, who worked in the style of modern architecture. Kiley designed over one-thousand landscape projects including Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis ...

. As an advocate for threatened landscapes, the organization has also stopped the destruction of over 50 important gardens and landmark parks through its highly publicized annual Landslides list. Its goal is achieved through outreach and education including tours and photo exhibits about "What's Out There."

History

Charles Birnbaum began his career with 15 years as the coordinator of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

's Historic Landscaping Initiative (HLI) and then 10 years focusing on landscape preservation and urban design through a private practice Birnbaum started The Cultural Landscape and Design Foundation (TCLF) while he was working at the National Park Service and later in 2008 became the President and CEO of the TCLF. Over the course of its life the TCLF has created several publications and awards available to those involved in landscape design. Publications include “What’s Out There”, “Pioneers of American Landscape Design”, and “Landslide. Their main award is the biennial “The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize”. Awards also include the “Stewardship Excellence Award” and fellowships like the “Sally Boasberg Founder’s Fellowship”, and “Danette Gentile Kauffman Cultural Landscape Fellowship”. “What’s Out There” is an online database that can be searched by content, landscape, style, and region. Entries can be identified as “At-Risk”, “Saved”, or “Lost” based on the current state of the area. This database then led to the creation of the “What’s Out There Cultural Landscapes Guides”. These guides were created in partnership with the National Park Services’ Northeast Regional Office in 2016 to celebrate its 100th anniversary. In 2019 these guides were given an honorary award by the

American Society of Landscape Architects The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship. ...

(ASLA) in the Communications category. TCLF launched the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize in 2021, which includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities. Its first recipient was Julie Bargmann.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cultural Landscape Foundation 501(c)(3) organizations Non-profit organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 1998 Landscape architecture organizations