LongHouse Landscape Legends: Learn, Lunch, Laud
Modernist Landscapes - Visionaries and Their Gardens

Saturday, August 16, 2025 | 9:30 AM - 2:00 PM

Barry Bergdoll | Caleb Smith | William Whitaker

Benefit Co-Chairs, Deborah Nevins and Fernando Rivera

Join us at LongHouse for our annual landscape lecture event, a captivating day of talks exploring the intersection of modernist architecture, landscape design, and cultural history. This year, our special event features renowned scholars Barry Bergdoll, Professor of Art History at Columbia University; Caleb Smith, Professor of English and American Studies at Yale University, and William Whitaker, Curator and Collections Manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. 

Bergdoll will speak about the landscape visions of iconic modernist architects Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, examining how they considered gardens to extend their vision. Whitaker will speak on Harriet Pattison, the influential landscape designer who, among other notable projects, collaborated on the masterful landscape at The FDR Memorial on Roosevelt Island and the Kimbell Art Museum, which features prominently in her book Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn (2020). Smith will offer an illuminating perspective on the work of Russell Page, reflecting on how the celebrated garden designer’s sensibility bridged classical traditions with modernist innovation. Page recorded his observations and practice in his masterpiece The Education of a Gardener (1962).  Set within the modernist setting of LongHouse, our event promises to enrich our understanding of landscape in its relationship to modernism.

Sponsor Our Event

All proceeds are used for the care and preservation of the garden, which is now open year round for public enjoyment.