2022 Olmsted Green Dreams Series
This year marks the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, considered by many to be the founder of professional landscape architecture and the American parks tradition. Of course, history is always complicated. And, so as we celebrate the Olmsted legacy, we also want to look at the more complex histories that shape our parks—past, present, and still to come.
Greening Democracy: Frederick Law Olmsted, Slavery, & American Park Design
March 7, 6pm
Online Event: Zoom
As Frederick Law Olmsted was submitting his entry to design Central Park in the 1850s, the New York Times sent him on a research trip throughout the American South. The country stood on the precipice of civil war. Olmsted, a budding landscape designer, but also a gifted observer and writer wrote about the practices of slavery--and about the slaves themselves. His writings helped crystalize the northern states' opposition to slavery.
In the summer of 2019, landscape architect Sara Zewde embarked on a road trip of her own, retracing Olmsted’s steps to understand how his travels and observations led to the formation of landscape architecture as we know it today, and how her nascent practice fits into it. Zewde, is the founder of Studio Zewde, a landscape architecture, urban design, and public art practice based in Harlem, New York City. Named a 2021 Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York, the studio’s work is lauded for its design methodology that syncs site interpretation and narrative with a dedication to the craft of construction. She is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and is working on a book on Olmsted and the Cotton Kingdom.
Please note: this event is live only and will not be recorded.
Parks and Consequences—Hidden Histories of Olmsted Parks Tradition, from New York to Portland.
March 14, 6 PM
Steeplejack Brewing Company, 2400 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232
In Person Tickets: $5-20 sliding scale; Zoom Free
Catherine McNeur, professor of history, PSU, and author of Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City, will probe the beginnings of Central Park and how its development influence our attitudes and practices with parks today, Carl Abbott, emeritus professor of urban studies and planning, PSU, and author of Portland in Three Centuries and many other books about Portland, will reflect on how the Olmsted firm's work in Portland shaped the city in both good and questionable ways.
In person event capacity: 85 seats
Street parking is available near Steeplejack Brewing Company.
Beyond Recreation: Climate, Social Justice, and the Urban Landscape Ahead
March 28, 6 PM
Steeplejack Brewing Company, 2400 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232
In Person Tickets: $5-20 sliding scale; Zoom Free
Vivek Shandas, professor in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and founder of the Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab at PSU, and chair of Portland’s Urban Forestry Commission and CNE Corbin, assistant professor of Urban Political Ecology, PSU, will discuss how our outlook on parks and parks programming can adapt to better serve the goals of social justice and the critical needs wrought by climate change.
In person event capacity: 85 seats
Street parking is available near Steeplejack Brewing Company.
Indigenous Landscapes: Past, Present, Future
April TBD, 6 PM
In Person Tickets: $5-20 sliding scale; Zoom Free
Jose Leal will gather local thinkers and activists who are building one of the country's most important Indigenous restorative landscape clusters in the country. Details coming soon.
Green Dreams is an ongoing discussion series with Portland leaders on the future of the city’s parks, open spaces, and urban design.
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