What is HALS?
HALS is the academic record of historically significant American landscapes. The HALS mission is to record historic landscapes through measured drawings and interpretative drawings, written histories and large format black and white photographs and color photographs. HALS builds on the HABS and HAER documentation traditions, while expanding the range of stories that can be told about human relationships with the land. HALS documents the dynamics of landscapes, as HABS and HAER have documented unique building and engineering structures.
What is a HALS Project?
To quote the HALS website:
“Historic landscapes are special places. They are important touchstones of national, regional, and local identity. They foster a sense of community and place. Historic landscapes are also fragile places. They are affected by the forces of nature, and by commercial and residential development, vandalism and neglect. They undergo changes that are often unpredictable and irreversible. For these reasons and for the benefit of future generations, it is important to document these places. Historic landscapes vary in size from small gardens to several thousand-acre national parks. In character, they range from designed to vernacular, rural to urban, and agricultural to industrial spaces. Vegetable patches, estate gardens, cemeteries, farms, quarries, nuclear test sites, suburbs, and abandoned settlements all may be considered historic landscapes.”
More information on HALS can be found at https://www.nps.gov/hdp/hals/
What will HALS Training include?
We have the good fortune to learn about HALS at the lovely Virginia Robinson Gardens, a 6-1/2 acre Mediterranean Classic Revival estate built in 1911, jointly administered by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation and Friends of Robinson Gardens. The Estate is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the perfect setting for learning the tools to document a historic landscape.
Speakers will include Tim Lindsay, Superintendent of the Virginia Robinson Gardens, and Janet Gracyk, Landscape Architect.
Tim Lindsey, horticulturalist and estate manager, will introduce us to the gardens, their history and significance.
Janet Gracyk is a landscape architect with an expertise on historical preservation and planning. She will lead the HALS training.
This program will provide you with the hands on tools to prepare a HALS documentation of a historic landscape, and give you the resources for preparing HALS documentations on your own. We will be based in the pool pavilion for the morning, and after lunch we will be in the gardens for hands on site inventory and analysis.
Cost: (Includes Lunch)
$50 – Professionals (RESERVE HERE)
Due to a generous sponsor who has come forward, ASLA students may attend this training for free. However, an RSVP is still needed. Students who want to attend should email: vphillipy@socal-asla.org
Students who have previously registered will be refunded and notified in writing by email.