Finding Olmsted: A Search for a Practice of Landscape Architecture in Cotton’s Kingdom

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

Frederick Law Olmstead and the Olmstead Brothers firm were some of the most influential and prolific landscape architects of the 19^th and 20^th centuries and were responsible for many of our local treasured parks and landmarks, such as Waveny Park. An expert on the Olmstead story and influence, landscape architect and Harvard University professor Sara Zewde, will present a talk on a lesser known body of Olmstead’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.