Conversations in Cultural Landscape Preservation: Inclusion and Collaboration in Cultural Landscape Practice

Join the Urban Heritage Project from the University of Pennsylvania's Weitzman School of Design for Conversations in Cultural Landscape Preservation, a series of three virtual conversations (May 1 + May 28 + June 25) setting the stage for an in-person symposium (November 14-15, 2024) at the University of Pennsylvania. These talks will be recorded and posted on the UHP website: www.cultural-landscapes.org.

For this second event, Brenda Williams (Principal, Quinn Evans) and Samantha Odegard (Upper Sioux Community Pezihutazizi Oyate, part of the Dakota Oyate [Nation]) will be in conversation with Jacob Torkelson of the Urban Heritage Project.

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In our May 28 conversation, cultural landscape practitioner Brenda Williams, FASLA, of Quinn Evans, and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Upper Sioux Community Pezihutazizi Oyate Samantha Odegard will delve into the collaborative and inclusive methods that they have used to cultivate and co-create cultural landscape preservation projects across the country. The panelists will discuss the challenges and opportunities that robust engagement offers cultural landscape practice, highlighting several successful examples, notably in collaboration with Indigenous communities. Among its topics, this talk will begin to define inclusion and collaboration in cultural landscape practice, offer guidance on how this approach is different from and similar to standard practices, and delineate steps on how we as practitioners can be more inclusive in our own practices.

Brenda Williams, FASLA is a Principal and landscape architect at Quinn Evans. Over more than three decades as a Landscape Architect, Brenda has focused her passion and empathy for understanding human connections to landscapes, developing methods to support, strengthen, and adapt significant landscapes for the people to whom they are meaningful. Her work has a strong emphasis on landscapes in the public realm, where she champions appropriate access, recognition, preservation, adaptation, and interpretation of culturally significant sites. As a leader in the conservation of cultural landscapes, she has developed award-winning design, planning, and stewardship solutions for significant cultural landscapes at National Parks, National Historic Landmarks, and sites of regional and local importance throughout the country.  Brenda’s guidance led to improved processes that position significant landscapes for continued study, relevance, and resilience, enabling present and future stewardship professionals to preserve and interpret our legacy sites for generations to come. Her work to acknowledge, celebrate, and protect significant indigenous sites has facilitated the creation of a new type of dialogue between groups culturally connected to landscapes and those positioned to guide their management. With generous guidance from tribal representatives, she has honed practices for the inclusion of indigenous peoples in guiding planning and design for associated sites. She has applied these practices to multiple projects at Effigy Mounds National Monument, Blood Run/Xe, Fort Snelling at Bdote, Spring Lake Preserve,  Indian Mounds Cemetery, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, and others.

Samantha Odegard is the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Upper Sioux Community Pezihutazizi Oyate, part of the Dakota Oyate (Nation) in Granite Falls, Minnesota. Sam is, first and foremost, a Dakota Woman, and the history, culture, and responsibilities of that guide everything she does. She works tirelessly to care for the culture of her people through the preservation of Tribal historic properties and cultural traditions. Through this work, she frequently interacts with design professionals, municipalities, and other regulatory agencies, through formal consultation as well as collaboration.

Jacob Torkelson is a Senior Research Associate at the Urban Heritage Project, based in the Weitzman School of Design’s Department of Historic Preservation and PennPraxis. His work assesses the history and condition of historic sites, leveraging his expertise in design and preservation planning to guide their future management. Torkelson and the UHP team craft their recommendations through community engagement and participatory design processes that often include interviews, oral histories, and workshops. His work addresses issues of social justice and representation in landscapes that have not historically afforded multiple voices or narratives. Torkelson’s approach to landscape preservation is illustrated in the recently completed Lewis Mountain Cultural Landscape Report, a collaborative effort between the National Park Service and former workers and visitors to Lewis Mountain, a historically segregated campground in Shenandoah National Park.

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If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.