Gina Talks about the Changing Legacy of Olmsted’s Landscapes with The New Yorker
“The history of these places didn’t start and stop with this man… The best landscapes adapt and evolve.”
Gina spoke with the New Yorker’s Alexandra Lange about Frederick Law Olmsted’s legacy on this 200th birthday of the “father of landscape architecture”. Gina has engaged with Olmsted-designed landscapes professionally during our ongoing action plan at Franklin Park (left) and past work on Hartford, Connecticut’s parks system (middle). In both instances, community activation and advocacy – often led by communities of color – has been central to the preservation and activation of these spaces.
She also co-taught a studio called “A Feminist Lens on Franklin” at the University of Texas-Austin with Maggie Hansen in 2020 (right).
A survey of contemporary landscape academics and practitioners including Sara Zewde, Billy Fleming, Kian Goh, and Kofi Boone, Lange’s writing probes the question: What of the Olmsted legacy do we hold onto and what do we evolve? In this context, Gina offered ways of understanding Olmsted-designed landscapes as places with many “authors” – ones that have required stewardship, programming and re-shaping over time.