Honors & Awards

The Landscape Architecture Firm Award:
Heritage Landscapes LLC

"32 years ago, the only things that were deemed worthy of preservation and curatorial management were buildings and objects. This small band of landscape architects has played a principal role in changing that, in changing the field, changing public perception, changing academia, and in changing the regulatory situation of historic cultural landscapes."

-Nominator, Laurie Olin, FASLA

When Patricia O'Donnell founded Heritage Landscapes, LLC in 1987, there were virtually no official guidelines for historic landscape preservation works. Historic preservation traditionally focused on buildings, and few people thought of landscapes as having heritage value. Heritage stepped into that void, becoming the first landscape architecture firm in the world to focus solely on landscapes that make up our shared public heritage–places that already matter but need aid and guidance. Today, their work is fully informed by national and international preservation standards, guidelines, charters, and declarations, many of which they helped develop. Heritage strives for integration, with interventions discernible only to the trained eye, purposely in character with historic origins. They have completed off 500 projects nationally and internationally, including four World Heritage sites and some 40 National Historic Landmarks, and won 87 professional awards to date.

View nominating and supporting materials.