RE:SEARCH
Oberlander Prize Forum V

RE:SEARCH
Oberlander Prize Forum V

Symposium
A garden inside a conservatory with a stone wall with water features and tropical plant foliage.
Holden Barnes

Dates & Price

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
October 28–30, 2026


Fee
$75–$350

The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, awarded by TCLF, was created to increase visibility, understanding, appreciation, and conversation about landscape architecture. The daylong conference on October 29 is inspired by the depth of research and analysis that informs the design work of Oberlander Prize laureate and Mexico City-based landscape architect Mario Schjetnan and his firm Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU).

At Longwood Gardens, the recent transformation and reconstruction of Roberto Burle Marx’s Cascade Garden by landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand and architects Weiss and Manfredi is a prime example of a holistic research-driven design process that values both natural/ecological and historic/cultural systems. Surveying the work and measuring the success at Longwood, and elsewhere in North America—the focus of this symposium and related events—provides the ideal opportunity to explore how today’s practitioners are building and sharing knowledge with the joint quest of revealing, honoring, and integrating cultural systems and lifeways in the face of inevitable change.


Schedule

Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Evening Reception and Plenary Keynote

5:30–7:30 pm

Paul B. Redman 
President and Chief Executive Officer, Longwood Gardens

Claire Agre, ASLA 
Principal, Unknown Studio, Baltimore, MD 
Jury Chair, 2025 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize

Mario Schjetnan, FASLA 
Founder, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), Mexico City, Mexico 
2025 Oberlander Prize Laureate


Thursday, October 29, 2026
RE:SEARCH Conference

 

Opening Keynote: Reclaiming and Redefining our Relationship Between Research and Design through a Cultural Systems Lens

Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, Founding President + CEO, The Cultural Landscape Foundation

 

Panel I: Research Into Practice | Re: Discover, Re: Appraise and Re: Acknowledge

Elizabeth K. Meyer, FASLA, Merrill D. Peterson Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, Charlottesville, VA, moderator

Speakers:

  • Kofi Boone, FASLA, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
  • Jennifer Lauer, Project Designer and Cultural Landscape Historian, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, Charlottesville, VA
  • Lydia Gikas Cook, Senior Associate, Reed Hilderbrand, Cambridge, MA

 

Plenary Provocation I: Table Setting for Design Propositions

Anne Whiston Spirn, FASLA, FCELA, author, landscape architect, photographer, scholar; Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA

 

Plenary Provocation II: Realizing the Work

Walter J. Hood, artist, designer, educator; Creative Director and Founder, Hood Design Studio, and Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design at the University of California, Berkeley, Oakland, CA

 

Panel II: Grounding Research | Re: Design, Re: New and Re: Activate

Eric Kramer, FASLA, Principal, Reed Hilderbrand, Cambridge, MA, moderator

Speakers:

  • Nina Chase, PLA, ASLA, and Chris Merritt, PLA, ASLA, Founding Principals, Merritt Chase, Pittsburgh, PA, and Indianapolis, IN
  • Ross Altheimer, PLA, FAAR, and Maura Rockcastle, PLA, Principals and Co-Founders, TEN x TEN Studio, Minneapolis, MN
  • Marc Hallé, MLA, B. Civ.Eng., FCSLA, OALA, AALA, Senior Associate, Reed Hilderbrand, Cambridge, MA

 

Closing Panel Discussion | Reframing the Narrative

Mario Schjetnan, Anne Whiston Spirn, and Walter J. Hood in conversation. Moderated by Charles A. Birnbaum.

LACES credits will be available, pending approval.


Friday, October 30, 2026
Mobile Workshops

Explore how a commitment to research, recordation, and holistic site analysis have impacted management and design decisions.

 

10:00–11:30 AM
Longwood Gardens’ Cascade Garden

  • Eric Kramer, FASLA, Principal, Reed Hilderbrand
  • Kristin Frederickson, Principal, Reed Hilderbrand
  • Joshua D. Kiehl, AIA, NCARB, Principal and Technical Director, John Milner Architects, Inc.
  • Longwood Garden Staff and Curators

 

10:00–11:30 AM
Longwood at Granogue

  • Paul B. Redman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Longwood Gardens
  • Claire Agre, Principal of Unknown Studio

 

10:00–11:30 AM
Mt. Cuba Center

  • Thomas Woltz, FASLA, Senior Principal and Owner, Nelson Byrd Woltz
  • Mt. Cuba Center Staff

 

1:00–2:00 PM
Chanticleer Garden

  • Chanticleer Staff

 

1:00–3:00 PM
Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library

  • Linda Eirhart, Alice Cary Brown Director of Garden
  • Lori Schnick, Associate Curator Plant Records and GIS
  • Joe Lazorchak, Landscape Horticulturist
  • Carol Long, Garden Manager

LACES credits will be available, pending approval.