Find Us at BSLA Field Day 2026
Fieldday 2026 will take place on Friday, May 1 at the David Rubenstein Treehouse at Harvard University. Fieldday is the annual conference for landscape architects and design and construction professionals across our region.
Friday, May 1st at 2:45pm
Relocating Roberto: Applying A Novel Preservation Approach to Celebrate a Legacy with Jeremy Martin
Rarely is the way to save a garden to move it. Yet for Roberto Burle Marx’s Cascade Garden, that was precisely the challenge facing the team behind ‘Longwood Reimagined’. This session explores the conceptual and technical challenges met to relocate a living work of landscape architecture while elevating its presence within Longwood’s collection of conservatory gardens.
Despite its modest footprint in a repurposed greenhouse at Longwood Gardens’ conservatory complex, Roberto Burle Marx’s Cascade Garden, his only extant garden commission in North America, was identified as a critical asset in Longwoods’ collection of gardens created by notable landscape architects. As part of ‘Longwood Reimagined’, the institution and its team of designers seized the opportunity to protect this landscape by rebuilding the garden —stone by stone, plant by plant— in a new location and in a modern greenhouse enclosure that provides the infrastructure to support its long-term health.
Panelists will discuss the innovative planning that led to a defensible preservation strategy, as well as the intensive technical documentation process required to carefully disassemble and reconstruct the garden using both original and contemporary construction methods within a new, state-of-the-art enclosure. The conversation will also address how modern accessibility standards were integrated without compromising the garden’s defining spatial and experiential qualities, and how the reimagined Cascade Garden now contributes to the broader fabric of landscapes within the core of the new West Conservatory complex.
Anita Berrizbeitia, FASLA, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Joshua D. Kiehl, AIA, John Milner Architects
Jeremy Martin, ASLA, Reed Hilderbrand
Saturday, May 2, 9:30am
A Site Tour of the Greenway (Harvard University) with Eric Kramer
The Greenway is a half-mile linear civic landscape forming the backbone of Harvard’s long-term vision for Allston—connecting Ray Mellone Park at the Honan-Allston Branch Library eastward through the Enterprise Research Campus toward the Charles River. Conceived as a complex, performative landscape, the Greenway integrates recreation, mobility, stormwater management, climate resilience, culture, and education while organizing adjacent urban design, infrastructure, and development. The tour will visit several sites along the evolving Greenway and also highlight the Greenway Handbook.
As a core part of Harvard's vision for Allston, the Greenway serves as an innovative model of connecting campus to the broader neighborhood.
At the heart of this effort is the Greenway Planning and Design Handbook, first issued in 2021 and developed by Harvard University in partnership with Reed Hilderbrand. The Handbook is a living document that establishes a cohesive identity, consistent design language, and performance-based guidelines to ensure long-term environmental resilience, intuitive orientation, and welcoming public realm across diverse contexts. Rooted in practice, it will be continually updated and enriched as each project is implemented.
Currently, more than half of the Greenway is built or under construction. As people walk, they will hear multiple perspectives including the landscape architects’ insights from the Greenway Handbook, the planning and design process, Harvard’s effort to align developers, community and the institution. Participants will understand the integration of public art, and ongoing strategies for performative landscape design, monitoring and maintenance to achieve long-term sustainability and resilience.
The tour will feature stops at Ray Mellone Park (a City owned park that was opened more than a decade ago), as well as Rena Path and the newly completed Allstonway, the section of the open space that exists within the first phase of the Enterprise Research Campus.
Marika E Reuling, Managing Director, Urban District Initiatives, Harvard University
Annie Streetman, Associate Regulatory Planner, Urban District Initiatives, Harvard University
Tianjiao Zhang, Associate Landscape Architect/Planner, Urban District Initiatives, Harvard University
Eric Kramer, Principal, Reed Hilderbrand LLC Landscape Architecture
Laura Marrett, Principal, SCAPE
Saturday, May 2, 2:30pm
Guiding Generational Investments in Boston's Franklin Park with Lydia Gikas Cook
Expanding upon the ongoing community engagement that formed the Franklin Park Action Plan, this on-site tour will guide participants through multiple locations within Franklin Park where significant City investment and public-private projects are being actively implemented. This tour offers a grounded view of how the Action Plan is beginning to shape change across Boston’s largest park. Stops along the route will highlight capital improvements projects, ecological restoration efforts, and evolving approaches to park management and stewardship.
Guided by Luis, Lydia, and Sam, who represent the City of Boston Parks & Recreation Department, Reed Hilderbrand, and the City of Boston Planning Department, the tour opens up the Park through the eyes of some of the landscape architects directly involved in implementing projects within it.
For the two-hour walking tour, participants should expect to navigate varied terrain. Hiking shoes and long pants are recommended. Bring water!
Luis Perez Demorizi, ASLA, Executive Director of Franklin Park, City of Boston, Parks & Recreation Dept.
Lydia Gikas Cook, PLA, ASLA, Senior Associate, Reed Hilderbrand
Sam E. Valentine, PLA, LEED AP, ASLA, Senior Landscape Architect, City of Boston, Planning Dept.
