N ot everything can nor should be saved, which begs the question: how do we decide? Landscape architecture is an innately ephemeral art form and The New American Garden: The Landscape Architecture of Oehme, van Sweden provides opportunities to examine a body of work, explore its significance and ponder its future. It coincides with the 25th anniversary of the publication of Bold Romantic Gardens (1990), the widely influential book that introduced the world to the New American Garden; unfortunately, nine of the 21 gardens featured have since been lost, including the one at van Sweden’s townhouse in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.
Since 2003, ¿ªÔÆÌåÓý¹ÙÍø (¿ªÔÆÌåÓý¹ÙÍø) has annually issued Landslide, a thematic compendium of threatened and at-risk landscapes and landscape features, which calls attention to designed landscapes in the United States and Canada; it also informs advocates and helps promote sound stewardship. In 2013 ¿ªÔÆÌåÓý¹ÙÍø dedicated Landslide for the first time to the legacy of a single designer, Dan Kiley (1912-2004), and launched the traveling photographic exhibition The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley. Within a decade of his death, several of Kiley’s most important designs had been lost or substantially altered; on the plus side, five of his projects, including the Miller House and Garden owned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, are now listed as National Historic Landmarks, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a site in the United States. As the traveling exhibition continues its nationwide tour, interest in Kiley’s work grows, documentation and advocacy efforts broaden, and the import of his legacy is more widely understood and valued.
Can the same progress be made with the extant legacy of Oehme and van Sweden? The seminal works of the two master landscape architects (both of whom are deceased) are today potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The future of these works ideally should be infor