Soak It Up: Combating Climate Change with Landscape Architecture is a global summit organized by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a Washington, D.C.-based education and advocacy non-profit, addressing biodiversity loss, climate change, and social inequities. TCLF’s information-rich website offers in-depth research, critical analysis of threatened landscapes, and a comprehensive database of shared cultural landscape heritage that might otherwise go unrecognized. While the fight to protect certain landscapes often seems futile—erasure being the keystroke of development—TCLF’s passionate advocacy has nevertheless saved dozens of landscape gems, keeping their design legacy and cultural continuity alive.
Run by a dedicated team, TCLF’s efforts have led to numerous impactful initiatives. These include the biennial Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, awarded to outstanding professionals in landscape architecture, and Landslide, an advocacy initiative with an annual thematic report highlighting at-risk landscapes. The 2024 report, Demonstration Grounds, highlights thirteen historically significant sites of protest and democratic action, ensuring these protests are not lost to memory. Beyond these, TCLF also offers Fellowships, Excursions, and Forums, including Soak It Up, fostering dialogue and engagement in the field.
Soak It Up is a series of virtual events beginning March 17 with the release of pre-recorded speaker videos, that are richly edited and produced, culminating in a live panel discussion on May 7. The keynote speaker is Kongjian Yu (Turenscape), the 2023 Oberlander Prize laureate, renowned for pioneering sponge cities
—a visionary approach to urban water management. His infectious optimism, accessible delivery, and expansive design thinking push beyond conventional boundaries.
If you’re unfamiliar with some of these names, it’s worth exploring their work. These figures are at the forefront of climate resilience, advocating at the highest levels of global organizations and earning worldwide recognition for their impact.
The series and free registration are sponsored and underwritten by PlayCore. In the meantime, we speak with Charles A. Birnbaum, President and CEO of TCLF, to discuss the event, the foundation’s mission, and more.
We’ve shared a few words about TCLF, but please, tell us what you find most significant about it personally.
Landscapes have principally been understood, and their value measured, in ecological and environmental terms; now the cultural values embedded with landscapes are achieving greater visibility, understanding, and growing constituencies. Moreover, the landscape architects and allied professionals that create our shared landscape legacy are being recognized for their essential roles in shaping the public realm and addressing the defining challenges we face, starting with climate change.Personally, it’s been gratifying that during my career as a practitioner, then as the author of national guideline policies with the U.S. government, where I worked for twelve years, and for the past 27 years founding and leading The Cultural Landscape Foundation, to help make visible the often invisible, and unappreciated, hand of the landscape architect.
Since founding TCLF, what have you learned about protecting specific landscapes? How difficult is it to preserve them? Is there a lack of public interest in such spaces, or are maintenance costs too high? Is there a lack of government recognition of cultural heritage?
When dealing with cultural landscapes, a primary concern is “managing change” rather than “preservation.” The principle of managing change recognizes that landscapes do have the capacity to evolve over time, so the issue is what knowledge do we need and what factors should we consider in managing and stewarding that evolution. The idea of managing change is often politically more palatable because it involves negotiation, while preservation, certainly in the United States, is perceived as doctrinaire, inflexible, and resistant to change. For example, the Modernist Park Plaza by landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg in Minneapolis, Minnesota – Peavey Plaza – underwent a sensitive and skillful rehabilitation in recent years. Many of the original elements of the design were retained, especially the all-important visual and spatial relationships, but adjustments were made, especially to accommodate people with physical disabilities. What visitors now encounter is a site remarkably similar to the original design, but with alterations that are sensitive to and respectful of Friedberg’s original design intent.
The issue of maintenance is critically important; too often significant designed landscapes and site-specific installations are not properly maintained and their conditions suffers. Ironically, the landscapes are then “blamed” for being in poor condition and that diminished condition is used to justify the landscape’s demolition. It’s the equivalent of starving a patient of needed medical treatment and then blaming the patient for getting sicker. A recent example is Greenwood Pond: Double Site, a site-specific environmental sculpture in Des Moines, Iowa, by the Land Art pioneer Mary Miss that was commissioned for the permanent collection of the Des Moines Art Center. The site, which was completed in 1996, appears to have been ill-maintained and portions were recently declared a danger to the public. The Art Center’s director claimed restoration was too expensive and told the artist, “we do not and will not ever have the money to remake it.” Sadly, it is being demolished. What makes this case particularly egregious is that the neglect was by a cultural institution whose primary job is the conservation of art.
As for government recognition, in the United States, there are historic designations at the national, state, and local levels. A site can be listed in the National Register of Historic Places and, at a more elite level, as a National Historic Landmark. Individual states and cities may also recognize the significance of cultural heritage, and the local designations often offer a greater level of protection than the national one.
What stands out to me in the selection of speakers is their positive approach, shaped by real-world experience. They are not just experts but active proponents of climate action, contributing to policy improvements and leading by example. Tell us more about why you choose these specific speakers.
The selection of speakers was spearheaded by the inaugural Oberlander Prize Curator, John Beardsley, whose extensive knowledge of the profession and its practitioners is invaluable. Each of the speakers addresses water management in site-specific and nuanced ways and under distinct political, regulatory, and economic circumstances; when taken together they provide a global cross-cultural picture of climate adaptive strategies.
Of the specific participants, Mia Lehrer, who I’ve known for many years, is an indefatigable leader in the field who has been out front on the issue of water management, particularly with the Los Angeles River. She well understands the political and regulatory parameters of this issue as well as the cultural, environmental, and design impacts and ramifications.And Kongjian Yu, who is not only an unrelenting champion for the “sponge cities” concept, but he is also very persuasive (the “sponge cities” concept was adopted as Chinese national policy because of his efforts). Yu knows how to effectively communicate with multiple audiences and the general public.
The core theme of Soak It Up is, of course, water. What aspects would you highlight?
This is an arena in which landscape architecture and landscape architects are well poised to lead globally (and, as we will see in the presentations, are doing so already). There are many allied professions involved with water management and urban flooding, but it is landscape architecture, both as an art and a science, that is best suited to orchestrate.
