Conference
Highlights
Over
170 interested
participants spent a beautiful spring day at the 2001 Historic Preservation
Office Annual Conference, held this year in Shadow Lawn Mansion on the grounds
of Monmouth University in West Long Branch. This years theme, Open Spaces,
Historic Places provided a day-long exploration of the issues and opportunities
surrounding historic landscape preservation.
Our
keynote speaker Rick Darke, landscape and garden consultant and author of
In Harmony With Nature: Lessons Learned From the Arts & Crafts Garden,
set the tone with an engaging and inspiring presentation. Slides of his
stunning photography accented his descriptions of the North Jersey landscape
of his youth, his studies of the Arts-and-Crafts landscape, and the need
for immediate attention to endangered landscapes such as the gardens and
grounds of Suningive in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, home of noted horticulturist
Elizabeth White.
Immediately
following the keynote address, Robert Page, Director of the National Park
Service’s Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, provided an overview
and introduction to the variety of designed and cultural landscapes and
the characteristics by which they are defined. Breakout sessions ranging
from landscape architects, gardens and parks, to battlefields, cultural
landscapes and resources for landscape preservation filled the rest of the
day.
Attendees
enjoyed lunch outdoors in the ornate formal grounds of Shadow Lawn, and
were able to take a guided tour of the National Historic Landmark mansion,
home of former
F. W. Woolworth Co. president Hubert Templeton Parson. Attendees and speakers
were able to unwind and enjoy informal conversation at a post conference
reception in the Versailles room after a very full day.