Finding Olmsted

Please note this is a free event that will take place at New Canaan Library. Register here.

Frederick Law Olmsted and the Olmsted Brothers firm were some of the most influential and prolific landscape architects of the 19th and 20th centuries and were responsible for many of our local treasured parks and landmarks, such as Waveny Park. An expert on the Olmsted story and influence, landscape architect and Harvard University professor Sara Zewde, will present a talk on a lesser known body of Olmsted’s work discussing her ongoing research retracing his steps through the Slave South, and how lessons about his legacy and the South itself have emboldened her contemporary practice of landscape architecture. After an introduction to this research project, Zewde will discuss selected projects from her firm of Studio Zewde, including the recent project to re-imagine the south gardens at Dia Beacon.

Sara Zewde is founding principal of Studio Zewde, a design firm practicing landscape architecture, urbanism, and public art. Named to Time Magazine’s TIME 100 Next, Architectural Digest’s AD100, and Wallpaper*’s 300 People Shaping Creative America, her practice is celebrated for its design methods that sync culture, ecology, and craft. In parallel to her design practice, Sara serves as Assistant Professor of Practice at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is currently writing a book on her research retracing Frederick Law Olmsted’s journeys through the Slave South. Sara holds a master’s of landscape architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a master’s of city planning from MIT, and a BA in sociology and statistics from Boston University.

You may also like the following events from The Philip Johnson Glass House:

• This month, 14th June, 12:00 pm, Glass House Summer Party honoring Gaetano Pesce in New Canaan

Also check out other Arts events in New Canaan.