EARLY-BIRD ENDS JULY 31: Oberlander Prize Forum V: RE: SEARCH at Longwood Gardens

Join TCLF and Longwood Gardens to examine how landscape architects are redefining the relationship between research and design.

What makes a great and memorable landscape? Leading experts, including 2025 Oberlander Prize laureate Mario Schjetnan, Walter J. Hood, and MIT's Anne Whiston Spirn, will examine the vital role of research in landscape design in a thought-provoking symposium at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA.

Inspired by the depth of research that informs the design work of Schjetnan and his firm, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), panelists will explore prime examples of research-driven landscape designs that reveal, honor, and integrate cultural systems and lifeways into landscapes in the face of inevitable change, including the recent transformation of Roberto Burle Marx's Cascade Garden at Longwood Gardens by landscape architecture firm, Reed Hilderbrand, and architecture firm, Weiss/Manfredi. Conference abstracts are now available.

Speakers include: Claire Agre, Unknown Studio, and 2025 Jury Chair Oberlander Prize; Ross Altheimer, TEN x TEN; Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF; Kofi Boone, North Carolina State University; Nina Chase, Merritt Chase; Lydia Gikas Cook, Reed Hilderbrand; Marc Hallé, CCxA (Canada); Walter Hood, Hood Design Studio; Eric Kramer, Reed Hilderbrand; Jennifer Lauer, Nelson Byrd Woltz; Chris Merritt, Merritt Chase; Elizabeth K. Meyer, University of Virginia; Paul B. Redman, Longwood Gardens; Maura Rockcastle, TEN x TEN; Mario Schjetnan, Grupo de Diseño Urbano and 2025 Oberlander Prize Laureate (Mexico); Anne Whiston Spirn, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Order of Events:

OCTOBER 28 | OPENING RECEPTION & KEYNOTE
An energetic and inspiring keynote address by Mario Schjetnan. 

OCTOBER 29 | CONFERENCE 

More than a dozen top practitioners and rising stars from the U.S. and Canada will reveal how probing research leads to great design.

OCTOBER 30 | MOBILE WORKSHOPS

Explore several sites that reveal how broad, multi-system-based research is informing present-day design and stewardship decisions. Included sites are the garden at Winterthur, the former estate of the Henry Francis du Pont family from 1839 to 1969; the historic Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, PA; and Mt. Cuba Center, a 1,000-acre botanical garden in the eastern Piedmont region of Delaware.

Don't miss out on early-bird pricing, which ends July 31-secure your spot here. LA CES credits will be available for all conference events, pending approval.