Professional Practice

While progress has been made in identifying cultural landscapes during the past decade, much more work is needed to document these designed and vernacular places. Since 2010, landscape architecture preservation enthusiasts from every state have been challenged to complete at least one Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) short format history to increase awareness of particular cultural landscapes.

The annual HALS Challenge aims to drive more donations to the HALS collection. To enter, send your completed short format HALS history to HALS (scott_keyes@nps.gov) by July 31.

Below are the descriptions and results of each challenge.

2025 HALS Challenge: Landscapes of Roadside America

2024 HALS Challenge
2024 HALS Challenge Results  

2023 HALS Challenge: Working Landscapes 
2023 HALS Challenge Results
2023 HALS Challenge Results Video

2022 HALS Challenge: Olmsted Landscapes 
2022 HALS Challenge Results

2021 HALS Challenge: Historic Black Landscapes 
2021 HALS Challenge Results

2020 HALS Challenge: Vanishing or Lost Landscapes 
2020 HALS Challenge Results

2019 HALS Challenge: Historic Streetscapes
2019 HALS Challenge Results

2018 HALS Challenge: Memorialization, Commemorating the Great War 
2018 HALS Challenge Results

2017 HALS Challenge: Documenting City or Town Park(s)
2017 HALS Challenge Results

2016 HALS Challenge: Documenting National Register Listed Landscapes 
2016 HALS Challenge Results

2015 HALS Challenge: Documenting Modernist Landscapes
2015 HALS Challenge Results

2014 HALS Challenge: Documenting Landscapes of the New Deal
2014 HALS Challenge Results

2013 HALS Challenge: Documenting the Cultural Landscapes of Women
2013 HALS Challenge Results

2012 HALS Challenge: Documenting the American Latino Landscape
2012 HALS Challenge Results

2011 HALS Challenge: Celebrating Cultural Landscapes of Diversity
2011 HALS Challenge Results

2010 HALS Challenge: Revisiting Cultural Landscapes of Childhood
2010 HALS Challenge Results