OSU's Leider recognized for "model" work in recording historic landscapes
Monday, September 13, 2010
Historic American Landscapes Survey will recognize Dr. Charles L. Leider of Oklahoma
State University at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects
tonight in Washington, D.C. for his work in making Oklahoma a “model” state in recording
historic landscapes with HALS.
Leider’s work began in 1987 when the American Society of Landscape Architects undertook
to promote the preservation of historic landscapes, and requested each of its chapters
in the U.S. conduct an inventory of historic designed landscapes, designating any
significant property over 50 years old as historic, according to the definition of
the National Trust of Historic Preservation. Under Leider’s direction, Oklahoma was
the first state to respond to HALS’ request to submit a current inventory of historic
landscapes.
The Oklahoma Chapter of ASLA designated Dr. Leider as its historic preservation chair
person to undertake a statewide survey of historic designed landscapes. He requested
members of the chapter, along with the public to nominate significant historic designed
landscapes in Oklahoma. As a result of this effort, forty-seven historic landscapes
were nominated which included predominately designed landscapes, but also historic
sites, vernacular and ethnographic landscapes.
Using the ASLA survey form, Leider directed the OSU Landscape Architecture students
through his recreation planning course to visit each site and complete the survey
form. In addition, he had his students conduct a literature search on each site. Following
the survey and literature search of the individual sites, an information file was
established for each landscape. The individual file included information such as:
the survey form, photographs of the site, maps, history, news articles, any National
Register of Historic Places nominations and other information. After the inventory
was completed, he had the definitions from the National Register Bulletin 18 of the
U. S. National Park Service applied to identify and classify each of the designed
historic landscapes as to type. In Oklahoma, estates constituted the largest category
followed by parks. Seventeen different types of designed landscapes are identified
in Bulletin 18:
• small residential grounds;
• estates or plantation grounds;
• arboreta, botanical and display gardens;
• zoological gardens and parks;
• church yards and cemeteries;
• monuments and memorial grounds;
• plaza/squares/green malls or other public spaces;
• city planning and institutional grounds;
• subdivisions and planned communities/resorts;
• commercial and industrial grounds;
• parks; parks and camp grounds;
• grounds designed or developed for outdoor recreation and/or sports activities;
• fair and exhibition grounds,
• parkways, drives, and trails;
• bodies of water and fountains.
Highlights from the work have been developed into digital brochures for the Oklahoma
Department of Tourism and Recreation for use as three self guided regional driving
tours for the areas around Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Ponca City. These self guided
tours maybe viewed on the Department’s website http://www.travelok.com in the left tab column under Explore Oklahoma, sub title: Travel Tips, with drop
down menu: Great Getaway.
The completed drawings from all the other case studies can also be viewed on U.S.
Library of Congress website http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/ or at the Special Collection section of Edmond Lowe Library on the Oklahoma State
University campus in Stillwater, OK.