The Daily Bulletin Archive

The Graycliff Conservancy Inc. will present three of the foremost experts on garden and landscape design of the early twentieth century in a roundtable discussion on Wednesday, October 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Appearing will be Patricia O’Donnell, Pradnya Martz, and Laura Burchfield, introduced by moderator Terrence Robinson. This wide-ranging discussion will cover both the "big picture," such as trends during the early part of the century, and more specific topics, such as developments in design and layout, and the historical plant materials used to create certain effects—many of which are still in vogue today.

The roundtable will also touch on the variety of design and plant materials in early-twentieth-century gardens in the United States; the landscape designs of Frank Lloyd Wright during this period; and increased mobility in the United States during the early twentieth century, and its impact on gardens and landscapes.

Since 1987, Patricia M. O’Donnell has been the principal and founder of Heritage Landscapes: Preservation Landscape Architects & Planners. She has completed more than 450 cultural landscape preservation and sustainability projects with attention to historical character, community engagement, sustainability, environmental quality, accessibility, education, and interpretation. Her extensive résumé includes 66 professional awards, including the Virginia Historic Preservation Award and awards from the National Trust for Historic Preservation; the American Society of Landscape Architects and its separate chapters in Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Rhode Island, and Vermont; the Preservation League of New York State; and the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. O’Donnell has a master of landscape architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Pradnya Martz has served as the curator for the Weltzheimer/Johnson House in Oberlin, Ohio, since 1998. The house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as its landscape were the subject of an article by Martz that appeared in the spring 2013 issue of SaveWright, published by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. She received her master's degree in architecture from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The coauthor of American Home Landscapes: A Design Guide to Creating Period Garden Styles, Laura L. Burchfield (no relation to Charles Burchfield) teaches residential design, plant selection, and landscape management at the Ohio State University. She has master's degrees in both landscape architecture and horticulture from the Ohio State University, and she lectures and writes on many aspects of horticulture and landscape design.

Admission is $10; $5 for Graycliff and Burchfield Penney members.

This event is made possible with support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and the New York State Legislature; the County of Erie, County Executive Mark Polancarz, and the Erie County Legislature; and the Baird Foundation.