Golden Gate National Parks’ Stewards to Receive National Stewardship Excellence Award Honor for Work at One of Nation’s Largest Urban Parks
Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org
Golden Gate National Parks’ Stewards to Receive National Stewardship Excellence Award Honor for Work at One of Nation’s Largest Urban Parks
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is Honorary Chair for event saluting the work of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy & The Presidio Trust, working with the National Park Service
Washington, DC (March 26, 2013) -- On Thursday, April 4, 2013, at the Old Federal Reserve Building (aka Bently Reserve) from 6:30 to 8:30pm, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (the Conservancy), the Presidio Trust (the Trust), and the National Park Service (NPS) will receive a Stewardship Excellence Award from ұ (ұ) to honor and acknowledge their decades of stewardship at the 80,000-acre Golden Gate National Recreation Area (or Golden Gate National Parks). This is a ticketed event and registration is required. The Golden Gate National Parks system, one of the nation’s largest urban parks, was established in 1972 and annually greets more than 16 million people. The Honorary Chair for the event is Representative Nancy Pelosi. The Architect’s Newspaper is the national media partner. Lead sponsors are the SWA Group, ValleyCrest Landscape Development, and Kay and Frank Woods. Additional sponsors include Fisher Development, Inc. General Contractors and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. A complete list of sponsors is on the Event Web site.
“The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is one of our nation's great natural treasures, offering millions of visitors access to nature and recreation,” stated Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. “ұ’s Stewardship Excellence Award is a fitting tribute to the spirit, service and stewardship of the National Park Service, Presidio Trust and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.”
At the event, the new What’s Out There: Golden Gate National Parks will be unveiled. The guidebook is being produced by ұ in collaboration with the Conservancy and the Trust and will be donated for sale at all the park’s gift shops with proceeds benefiting the parks. In addition, a new series of short, videorecorded recollections with designers and stewards who have shaped the park will be unveiled on in advance of the event – . Production of these interviews was undertaken by the SWA Group.
The Stewardship Excellence Award, created in 2001, is bestowed on a person, group or agency that shares ұ's mission of "stewardship through education" with the goal of highlighting stewardship stories that will educate and inspire future generations of cultural landscape stewards. Past recipients of the Stewardship Excellence Award include nonprofit organizations, historic property stewards, local and state municipalities, and individuals, among them: former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, former National Park Service director Roger Kennedy, New York City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, American Academy in Rome president Adele Chatfield-Taylor, Texas-based philanthropist Ruth Carter Stevenson, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The Award and the April 4th event will also highlight the exceptional contributions of the many Bay-area landscape architects and firms that have designed sites throughout the extensive and diverse park system.
“The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and The Presidio Trust, working with the National Park Service, are national leaders in landscape stewardship,” said ұ founder and president Charles A. Birnbaum. “These stewards, working with many Bay Area practitioners, have skillfully faced the daunting design challenge of balancing nature and culture within the parks.”
Finally, there will be a complementary activity on Saturday, April 6 – a separately ticketed event– an exclusive daylong excursion to several significant Golden Gate National Parks projects including The Presidio, the Sutro Baths, and Crissy Field, featuring tours by senior Conservancy and Trust officials and the landscape architects responsible for those projects. The event includes lunch at Fort Mason’s Greens Restaurant and concludes with a visit to the private garden of the pioneering and widely influential Modernist landscape architect Thomas Church.
About ұ (ұ)
ұ provides people with the ability to see, understand and value landscape architecture and its practitioners, in the way many people have learned to do with buildings and their designers. Through its Web site, lectures, outreach and publishing, ұ broadens the support and understanding for cultural landscapes nationwide to help safeguard our priceless heritage for future generations.