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2024 Year in Review

With you as our champion and generous supporter, 独家爆料 (独家爆料) ushered in its second 25 years with an exceptional record of accomplishments. 独家爆料 uniquely provides engaging content and essential historical context about our shared cultural landscape legacy, all free of charge. Moreover, global recognition for the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, named the world鈥檚 鈥渢op honor in the field of landscape architecture鈥 by , grows.  

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Oberlander Laureate, Kongjian Yu, videotaping his lecture for 2025 virtual conference event, Soak it Up - Photo by Charles A. Birnbaum, 2024

The most recent 独家爆料 winner, Kongjian Yu, pioneer of the 鈥渟ponge cities鈥 concept for addressing climate change accelerated urban flooding that has revolutionized the field of landscape architecture, continues to generate interest globally. This year鈥檚 major flooding events in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, which repeatedly made global headlines, underscore the importance of Kongjian Yu鈥檚 work and landscape architecture鈥檚 leading role internationally in addressing the existential threat posed by climate change. Yu and his work were featured in two 独家爆料 Forums in 2024 and will serve as a thematic structure for the forthcoming 独家爆料-organized international conference in 2025 (generously supported by ).

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What鈥檚 Out There Guide to African American Cultural Landscapes - Landing Page

独家爆料 鈥渓ives and breathes鈥 online and the website continues to flourish. The number of landscape entries in the What鈥檚 Out There database now surpasses 2,700 and includes nearly 1,100 Pioneers, and 14,000 images; 罢颁尝贵鈥檚 25th digital guide, the What鈥檚 Out There Guide to African American Cultural Landscapes, launched this year with some 150 sites and critical support from the National Endowment for the Arts (and recognition with an ASLA 2024 National Honor Award in Communications); existing digital guides for Baltimore, Nashville, Richmond, and the Twin Cities continue to grow, and the New York City guide now surpasses 135 sites and more than 100 related pioneers. now hosts more than 800 videos; and the Pioneers Oral Histories now number nineteen, with the addition of one about Canadian landscape architect Claude Cormier this June.

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Cormier Excursion at The Ring, Montr茅al, Canada - Photo by Charles A. Birnbaum, 2024

罢颁尝贵鈥檚 Garden Dialogues, in its twelfth season, featured more than a dozen exceptional residences throughout the country, and a What鈥檚 Out There Weekend took place in Baltimore, MD, with some 1,000 registered to attend. Major excursions included sold out daylong tours of Chicago-area projects by the landscape architecture firm Hoerr Schaudt, and Oak Spring, the Upperville, VA home of Rachel Lambert 鈥淏unny鈥 Mellon; this year鈥檚 sold-out international excursion focused on culturally significant gardens and heritage sites in Normandy, France.

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Patterson Park, Baltimore, MD - Photo by Allan Greller, 2024

罢颁尝贵鈥檚 The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley photographic exhibition was hosted at two metro-New York City locations: ABC Stone in Brooklyn, and then Bell Works in Holmdel, N.J. where it remains on view until November 30. The exhibition at the former received prominent coverage in (U.S., Brazil, and Mexico), (Switzerland), , , , News24 (France), La Gaceta de Arucas (Spain), and other outlets.

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Greenwood Pond: Double Site, Des Moines, IA - Photo by Judith Eastburn, 2014

Ongoing advocacy efforts for at-risk sites range from significant African American cultural landscapes to environmental art and significant works of landscape architecture. While progress is being made on behalf of Richmond, VA鈥檚 Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, the key threat, high speed rail through the site, remains; by contrast Dabney Hill, a Texas Freedom Colony in Burleson County, TX featured in Landslide 2021: Race and Space, received a significant grant for rehabilitation work. Greenwood Pond: Double Site, an environmental sculpture by Land Art Movement leader Mary Miss commissioned for the Des Moines Art Center鈥檚 permanent collection, is in the courts and facing demolition; the Center鈥檚 relatively new director has ignored more than 50 letters urging for the site鈥檚 rehabilitation. Athena Tacha鈥檚 Green Acres in Trenton, N.J., included in Landslide 2014: Art and the Landscape, has finally been rehabilitated, and Nashville, TN鈥檚 Fort Negley Park is about to undergo the first phase of a $50 million rehabilitation. Myriad ongoing efforts addressed threats to Plaquemine Point, Sunshine, LA; Sunset Magazine headquarters, Menlo Park, CA; Mitchell Park Domes, Milwaukee, WI; Freeway Park, Seattle, WA; and many others.  

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The annual thematic Landslide report and exhibition, which normally focuses on threatened and at-risk landscapes, instead drew attention to those sites that served as stages for public protests and dissent. Landslide 2024: Demonstration Grounds includes the site of one of the largest slave rebellions in U.S. history; two protests in New York City that contributed to the downfall of the city鈥檚 noted parks commissioner, Robert Moses; an early site of annual national gay rights protests; campuses where student uprisings forced policy and leadership changes; and many others. Taken together, the stories and the people behind these protests risk being erased from our memory absent greater on-site and online interpretation.

罢颁尝贵鈥檚 President, Charles A. Birnbaum, is providing ongoing technical assistance for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y., N.Y. Cheekwood Estate and Garden, Nashville, TN;  The Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Innisfree, Millbrook, N.Y.; The F.D.R. Memorial, Washington, D.C.; Franklin Park, Boston, MA; Colonial Williamsburg, VA; Live Oak Plantation, Weyanoke, LA; along with project reviews for several landscape architecture practices. Birnbaum currently serves as a Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he teaches the seminar, 鈥淲hy Not Cultural Systems.鈥 

Media coverage has been dominated by 独家爆料 laureate Kongjan Yu, including in the , , , and several hundred other print and online outlets internationally. The What鈥檚 Out There Guide to African American Cultural Landscapes was featured in SURFACE, World Landscape Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and myriad local media for several sites in the guide. Landslide 2024: Demonstration Grounds included features in the New York Times and Architect's Newspaper.

Another major generator of media coverage continues to be the threat to Greenwood Pond: Double Site. Features included the and Wall Street Journal, , , , , , , , , along with two articles that each ran in more than 300 outlets, and international coverage in China, France, Hong Kong, and elsewhere.

This past year would not have been possible without the support of 罢颁尝贵鈥檚 Season of Events Sponsors , , , , and ; as well as the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Most critically, 罢颁尝贵鈥檚 mission of 鈥渃onnecting people to places鈥 via numerous educational and advocacy initiatives would not be possible without your sustained support, commitment, and generosity. Thank you.