Mary Donohue, of the State Historic Preservation Office, Named 2011 Connecticut Olmsted Award Winner

Dec. 10, 2011 - PRLog -- The Connecticut Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (CTASLA) will present its 2011 Connecticut Olmsted Award to Mary Donohue, Survey and Grants Director and Senior Architectural Historian for the State Historic Preservation Office of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development.

The Olmsted Award, named after Connecticut native Frederick Law Olmsted, who founded the modern landscape architecture profession in the 19th century, is given annually by CTASLA to an organization or person from Connecticut who has employed the principle of stewardship of the land as a guiding force in their actions. The 2011 award will be presented on Tuesday, December 13 at the chapter’s annual holiday party and awards banquet at the New Haven Lawn Club.

With a 30-year career in historic preservation, Ms. Donohue has been a tireless advocate for historic landscapes in Connecticut. She was instrumental in getting historic landscapes added to the State Historic Resource Survey and Inventory program (SHRI). Under her leadership, a historic landscape initiative was added to the program and comprehensive surveys were completed for town greens, municipal parks, and outdoor sculpture. These surveys are an important resource for municipal officials, design professionals, preservationists, planners, and property owners. Information garnered in an Historic Resource Survey often leads to a landscape being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places; over one dozen municipal parks in Connecticut have now received that honor.

Ms. Donohue oversees the state’s historic preservation grant programs — totaling over six million dollars annually — which fund planning studies and restoration projects. Recent initiatives have included master plans for Old North Cemetery, resulting in an investment by the City of Hartford of over one million dollars in rehabilitation work. She recently directed the design competition for the Connecticut State Veterans Memorial, to be built in Rocky Hill, and was appointed by Gov. Rell to serve on the Connecticut Civil War Commemoration Commission. Ms. Donohue is an award-winning author, frequent contributor to Connecticut Explored magazine, and a member of the Hartford Courant’s Place board.

“Thanks to Mary Donohue’s efforts, historic landscapes in Connecticut are being recognized, protected, and appreciated,” said Jeff Olszewski, CTASLA president, and a landscape architect at Trumbull, CT-based Fuss & O’Neill, Inc.

Frederick Law Olmsted is best known for his creation of New York’s Central Park as well as such prominent Connecticut landscapes as Bridgeport’s Beardsley and Seaside Parks, New Britain's Walnut Hill Park, and Hartford’s Pope Park. He is buried in Hartford’s Old North Cemetery.

Past recipients of the Connecticut Olmsted Award include Senator Joseph Lieberman (1997); Lieutenant Governor M. Jodi Rell and Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin B. Sullivan (2002); the Green Valley Institute (2004); State Senator Bill Finch (2005); State Senator Andrew Roraback (2007); and James Gustave Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (2009).

Founded in 1899, the American Society of Landscape Architects is the national professional association for landscape architects, representing more than 16,000 members. Landscape architecture is a comprehensive discipline of land analysis, planning, design, management, preservation and rehabilitation. ASLA promotes the landscape architecture profession and advances the practice through advocacy, education, communication and fellowship.

Learn more about landscape architecture online at www.asla.org. For more information on activities of the Connecticut Chapter, please see our website at www.ctasla.org.