National Park Sites
America’s National Park System began with large tracts of spectacular scenery in the West. With time, the system expanded to include a wide range of sites connected to our history, such as battlefields, places of ethnographic importance, and the birthplaces of presidents and others.
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Managing all of the myriad needs associated with these sites requires input from a wide range of disciplines, including historic landscape architects. Parks that were founded because of their natural beauty must decide how to accommodate visitors by constructing roads and buildings. Contemporary design must complement historic features such as roads, plantings, lodging complexes, trails, overlooks, and the natural environment. Updating and caring for historic features, such a road or lodge built 100 years ago, also requires sensitivity to history.
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Liz Sargent HLA regularly works with the National Park Service to prepare studies, concept plans, and construction-related documents for national park units that consider the most appropriate way in which to treat and update historic landscapes. Our firm’s historical landscape architects help guide an understanding of a site’s physical evolution over time, current conditions meriting protection, and future interventions to address needs such as accessibility and stormwater management. We also consider National Park Service goals to sensitively guide change, enhance integrity, and interpret place-based stories to the public.
Mammoth Cave Historic District Cultural Landscape Report
Sometimes historic landscape architecture means working below the Earth’s surface. At Mammoth Cave Historic District in Kentucky, the National Park Service engaged our team to
prepare a cultural landscape report documenting the past use and current condition of the International Biosphere Reserve site, including more than 35 miles of passages.
The report considered the cave’s use by Native Americans since ancient times; its history as a saltpeter mine during the War of 1812 and a popular tourist attraction beginning in the 1810s; and efforts to improve the visitor experience over the decades, including work by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.
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To recommend the best ways to maintain the unique environmental conditions within the cave while preserving the signs of past use, we walked many miles of tunnels, as well as studying documents and photos of its history. Our report suggested appropriate means for enhancing accessibility and visitor safety, while establishing an updated boundary for the Mammoth Cave Historic District.
Project Credits:
Client: National Park Service
Prime Contractor: Panamerican Consultants, Inc.
Historical Landscape Architect: Liz Sargent HLA
Historical Architect: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Bottle Garden Cultural Landscape Report
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Located in central Louisiana, the Oakland Plantation property of Cane River Creole National Historical Park preserves the main house and grounds of a plantation that dates from the late 18th century. The Bottle Garden, in the house’s front yard, was designed as a formal parterre garden, its beds lined with 19 th -century glass bottles–possibly the only surviving example of a garden form that used to be common.
Our cultural landscape report reviewed documentation on the Bottle Garden’s history and assessed current problems, such as flooding and subsequent damage to the bottles; siltation; weeds; bulbs in need of division; uneven pathways; and a lack of accessibility.
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The report articulated the significance of the garden and its historic integrity, while identifying the characteristics that made it unique. For treatment, the report recommended care and maintenance of the plants and bottles, while improving drainage and establishing accessible paths matching the garden’s historic character. Recommendations to divide the bulbs assumed that the bottles would be removed and replaced in exactly the same spots, within a protective cradling system devised by the team.
Project Credits:
Client: National Park Service
Prime Contractor: Panamerican Consultants, Inc.
Historical Landscape Architect: Liz Sargent HLA
Historical Architect: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Blue Ridge Parkway Historic Resource Survey
The Historic Resource Survey of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway was the first study of its kind ever conducted for the National Park Service. The survey documents the history, significance, and integrity of over 1,000 designed resources—bridges, tunnels, overlooks, visitor centers, picnic shelters, gas stations, lodges, and more—associated with the popular scenic motorway.
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The team traveled the length of the Parkway to survey each resource and analyzed maps, photographs, and reports to assess significance and integrity. At this comprehensive level, the
team could identify the best examples of each type, considering design, materials, and integrity. The resulting report documented the Parkway’s 52-year construction history, relevant historic contexts, and which features are individually eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The report also articulates the design principles developed by Parkway planners in the 1930s that guided construction throughout and identifies individual locations that illustrate the solutions to building a scenic motorway through the rugged Blue Ridge Mountains.
Project Credits:
Client: National Park Service
Prime Contractor: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Historical Landscape Architect: Liz Sargent HLA
Awards: Award of Merit, Virginia Chapter American Society of Landscape Architects
Presentations:
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“Blue Ridge Parkway Design: Landscape Architects Lead the Way,” Presentation in LAR 6210 – EcoTech I, University of Virginia Master of Landscape Architecture program, October 2023.
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“The Blue Ridge Parkway: Exemplifying the Evolution of National Park Service Planning and Design” in the Proceedings of A Century of Design in the Parks; Preserving the Built Environment in National and State Parks. NCPTT, Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 21-23, 2016.
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“A Matter of Solid Foundations: The Structural Legacy of the Blue Ridge Parkway,” presented at the Association for Preservation Technology conference, Quebec City, Canada, 2014.
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“Inventory and Integrity Assessment of the Blue Ridge Parkway,” presented at the Preserving the Historic Roads conference, Savannah, Georgia, 2014.
