Genius of Place: Regional and Vernacular Landscape Architecture

Highlight the significance of your community's local landscape architecture works as contributions to a recognizable local or regional style.

by the ASLA Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) Leadership Team

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, 54 Elm Street, Woodstock, Windsor County, VT. Significance: Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is the only national park to focus on the conservation history and the evolving nature of land stewardship in the U.S.

What makes a landscape distinctly of its place? Looking at designed and vernacular landscapes of the late twentieth century all the way back to the landscapes that were modified before the nation was formed, what are the stories of these significant landscapes and how were they shaped by regional and cultural factors? How have these regional landscape characteristics endured and transformed on specific sites, in specific projects and resulted in regional styles?

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw American landscape architects increasingly seek alternatives to imported European landscape traditions. Across the country, designers responded to regional climate, vegetation, geology, topography, cultural traditions, and patterns of settlement. The result was not a single American landscape style, but a range of regional approaches that were not purely professional inventions. Vernacular landscapes-shaped over generations by farmers, gardeners, community builders, and indigenous stewards-established the patterns that designers would later interpret and carry forward.

Together, designed and vernacular landscapes demonstrate how communities have read and responded to their particular place in the American land: the Prairie landscape of the Midwest, the distinctive landscapes of Northern and Southern California, the pastoral traditions of New England, the woodland landscapes of the Mid-Atlantic, the subtropical and plantation landscapes of the South, the seasonal recreational landscapes of the northern Minnesota lakes, and the arid landscapes of the Southwest, among others.

This is an open call to complete a historical report that highlights the history, significance, and character-defining features of a selected landscape. Optional measured drawings or large-format photographs may accompany the report. All completed reports become part of the HALS Collection at the Library of Congress, contributing to the most comprehensive archive of American designed and vernacular landscapes.

ASLA challenges the larger landscape architecture community to celebrate the plurality of place by contributing to the Historic American Landscapes Survey and build up our national archive in the Library of Congress. To answer the call to action is to strengthen the role and presence of the landscape architecture profession in shaping our country by bringing light to landscape histories and our shared American heritage.

Through this year's optional theme, we seek to honor the diverse stories that define the American landscape. The theme is meant to serve as a suggestion to help you select a landscape, but this is not a competition, so all historic landscape submissions are welcome. We will recognize all submitted reports at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in September 2027. All are welcome to submit a report.

Valley of the Moon, 2544 East Allen Road, Tucson, Pima County, AZ. Significance: Valley of the Moon is a unique fantasy landscape designed in accord with the Spiritualist philosophies of George Phar Legler and is a handcrafted vernacular storybook style landscape built out of stone, cement, metal, wood, and glass.

Submission Details

Information on how to describe and analyze historic landscapes for the HALS collection can be found in the HALS History Guidelines. Contact your state ASLA Chapter's volunteer HALS Liaison for assistance and to ensure there is no duplication of documentation efforts.

If you've already compiled a cultural landscape report or history on a local project of importance, converting this into a HALS report is a relatively quick process with the result of the history living on in the public domain of the Library of Congress.

Complete submissions should include the following elements:

HALS Short Format Historical Report
Use the HALS Short Format Report Template to describe the history, significance, and character-defining features of the documented landscape.

Copyright Release Form
All entries should include a signed Copyright Release Form acknowledging that all materials in the submission will be dedicated to the public domain. Since the copyright status of some materials is uncertain, please do not reproduce any graphics in your HALS documentation unless they are covered by a signed copyright release or clearly in the public domain.

Supplemental Measured Drawings or Photographs
While not required, HALS historical reports can be supplemented with measured drawings or large-format photographs of the documented landscape. Drawings must comply with the requirements of the HALS Guidelines for Drawings; large-format photographs must comply with the HABS/HAER/HALS Photography Guidelines. Electronic copies of the drawings or photographs should be included in the submission.

La Bajada Community Ditch and Mutual Domestic Water Association, Acequia, La Bajada, Santa Fe County, NM. Significance: La Bajada village with its long lots and adjacent acequia is a typical example of a New Mexican vernacular landscape. The acequia system is perhaps the most significant feature of the village, as all other features exist in relation to it.

Backstory

For 16 years, ASLA has collaborated with the National Park Service to host the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) Challenge, a competition to document historic landscapes that tell the stories of our nation. As of 2026, the National Park Service Heritage Documentation Programs division has suspended all competitions. In these extraordinary times of Federal cuts, the ASLA HALS Leadership Team is calling on ASLA members, students, historians, and other practitioners to submit documentation of historic landscapes in our communities. HALS began in 2000 and builds off the longstanding legacy of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) program, which has been running since 1933. With approximately half of the HALS documentation coming from donated reports, we want to emphasize the importance of this community's work in preserving the diversity and plurality of documented landscapes in the country.

Moanalua Shopping Center, Stewart Avenue & Spence Street, Honolulu, Honolulu County, HI. Significance: Designed by the prominent Hawai'i architect Alfred Preis, it was the largest and most modern International Style shopping complex with a pedestrian mall on the island of O'ahu. Unique to Hawai'i, lava rock was incorporated into the structures and landscaping.

Celebration & Acknowledgement Deadline

Completed submissions must be received by August 31, 2027, to be recognized at the ASLA 2027 Conference on Landscape Architecture in September.

If you don't meet this deadline, please continue to work on your report and submit it when you're finished! This too, is worthy of a celebration!

Following the Donated Documentation guidelines for addition to the Library of Congress collection, please email completed submissions to both ASLA and Scott Keyes, Chief, Heritage Documentation Programs, at the National Park Service:

• [email protected] for acknowledgement at the ASLA Conference and
• [email protected] for addition to the Library of Congress collection.

Sunset Magazine Demonstration Desert Garden, 2021 North Kinney Road, Tucson, Pima County, AZ. Significance: The Sunset Magazine Demonstration Desert Garden (Sunset Garden) was envisioned as an experiment to explore the design and practicable possibilities of using native plants in a contemporary home setting.

River View Farm, 1780 Earlysville Road, Earlysville, Albemarle County, VA. Significance: Situated on a hill above the South Rivanna Reservoir five miles from the center of Charlottesville, Virginia, River View Farm affords an unusual opportunity to understand an African American family farm of the post-Emancipation era.

Merritt Parkway, beginning in Greenwich and running 38 miles to Stratford, Greenwich, Fairfield County, CT. Significance: The Merritt Parkway was the first divided-lane, limited-access highway in Connecticut. As one of the first roads to combine the aesthetics of scenic and recreational parkways with the efficiency of high-speed motorways, the Merritt Parkway represents a significant development in the evolution of American highway design.

2023 HALS Challenge Honorable Mention: Ritchie Farm, HALS NC-11, Mt. Pleasant, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, by William Lutrick, ASLA, and David Driapsa, FASLA. The Jacob Ritchie farm is a remaining vestige of the Dutch Buffalo Creek German Lutheran Community, an early European settlement of Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Jacob Ritchie established the farm in 1764. Today the landscape contains vestiges of eight generations of the Ritchie family that farmed it for over three centuries.

For more about the Heritage Documentation Programs-documented (Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS)) landscapes and sites featured in this post's images:

• Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, HALS VT-1-17
• Valley of the Moon, HALS AZ-21-7
• La Bajada Community Ditch and Mutual Domestic Water Association, Acequia, La Bajada, HAER NM-18
• Moanalua Shopping Center, HABS HI-509
• Sunset Magazine Demonstration Desert Garden, HALS AZ-18
• River View Farm, HALS VA-87
• Merritt Parkway, HAER CONN,1-GREWI,2-
• Ritchie Farm, HALS NC-11

Explore the historic landscapes documented for HALS in 2026, recognized at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in Los Angeles and highlighted on The Field.

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