CCLP Center for Cultural Landscape Preservation
The ESF Center for Cultural Landscape Preservation, based in the Department of Landscape Architecture, supports the education of landscape architects and students in related professions as best stewards of the cultural environment. The Center brings together interdisciplinary expertise from across ESF, the National Park Service, state parks, and other partners to address challenges in preserving our landscape heritage.
Acadia National Park, Maine: Students of the NPS-ESF Cultural Landscape Preservation Summer Field School, 2012. The students inventoried the landscape of Acadia's historic carriage road system while learning about how the park manages its historic landscape resources.
Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, Auburn, New York: CCLP Summer intern Claire Fisher inventorying existing conditions 2016. The inventory data is being used to identify historic landscape features and develop maps for a cultural landscape report.
Marin Headlands, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Sausalito, California: CCLP Intern Laura Roberts with ESF and NPS staff, 2009. Laura assisted with site inventory and mapping as part of a cultural landscape report.
Gettysburg National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Simulation by CCLP research assistant Chris Anderson of proposed treatment for the main entrance gates, 2016. The simulation illustrated one of the treatment recommendations in a cultural landscape report for the cemetery.
Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, Auburn, New York: Natural resource assessment with Dr. James Gibbs of the SUNY ESF Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, 2016. The assessment was undertaken as part of existing conditions documentation for a cultural landscape report being developed through the CCLP.
Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, Hyde Park, New York: Students, ESF faculty, and NPS staff participants in final review of cultural landscape preservation studio at ESF, 2008. The studio produced design concepts for the restoration and rehabilitation of the historic landscape as part of a cultural landscape report.
Chancellorsville Battlefield, Spotsylvania, Virginia: ESF students in a landscape architecture studio being introduced to the site by NPS park staff, 2015. The studio produced design concepts for the historic battle held as part of treatment recommendations for a cultural landscape report prepared through the CCLP.
Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor, Port Byron, New York: CCLP Research assistant Nate Ogdahl on a site visit with ESF and Canal Society of New York State staff, 2010. Nate produced a digital model of proposed site improvements as part of a research project for the Canal Society completed through the CCLP.
Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, California: CCLP Research Assistant Haichao Wang with CCLP Co-Director John Auwaerter and NPS Olmsted Center Director Bob Page, 2014. The inventory done that summer was part of a cultural landscape report developed through the CCLP.
Poplar Grove National Cemetery, Petersburg, Virginia showing reconstruction in 2016 of the historic upright Civil War headstones that were laid flat by the NPS in the 1930s. This recommendation was part of a comprehensive treatment plan for rehabilitation of the historic Civil War-era national cemetery produced by the CCLP through a cultural landscape report completed in 2009.
News and Updates Summer 2018
Gettysburg National Military Park
In support of a Cultural Landscape Report for the First Day Battlefield at Gettysburg National Military Park, Landscape Architecture Professor Doug Johnston led a special topics class this past spring that produced proposals for restoring a portion of the battlefield landscape. The class focused on restoring the natural systems and introducing new circulation into the former Gettysburg Country Club golf course, a ninety-seven acre portion of the battlefield that was the site of the Confederate advance against Union regiments on July 1, 1863, the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The golf course, built in 1947, was acquired by the National Park Service in 2011 with the intent of restoring the rural battlefield character of the landscape and making it accessible to park visitors.
The class provided an opportunity for eight undergraduate landscape architecture students to apply methods of landscape restoration to both natural and cultural resources. After learning about the battle and the history of the golf course property, the students spent two days in February visiting the site and meeting with National Park Service resource managers to understand the park's vision for the property. The students spent the rest of the semester analyzing the site and developing design proposals that returned the field patterns, topography, and creeks to their 1863 character, while also addressing the modern suburban context and visitor needs. Their work will help the park decide upon a plan for the restoration and rehabilitation of the golf course property through a treatment plan that is part of the CCLP Cultural Landscape Report research project.
Simulation of proposed battlefield landscape rehabilitation (Ethan Appelgren, George Beinetti, and Keenan Porter) — current above, proposed below
