RE:SEARCH Oberlander Prize Forum V
RE:SEARCH Oberlander Prize Forum V is a three-day landscape architecture symposium presented at Longwood Gardens in partnership with The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF). The program examines how research, documentation, and holistic analysis inform design, management, and the changing relationship between landscape research and practice. It includes an evening reception and keynote, a full-day conference, and mobile workshops at several regional gardens and cultural landscapes.
The forum is inspired by the research underlying the work of 2025 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize laureate Mario Schjetnan and his Mexico City–based firm, Grupo de Diseño Urbano. It also considers Longwood Gardens’ reconstruction and transformation of Roberto Burle Marx’s Cascade Garden, designed by Reed Hilderbrand with architects Weiss and Manfredi, as an example of research-driven work integrating ecological, historic, and cultural systems.
When: Wednesday, October 28 through Friday, October 30, 2026
Venue: Longwood Gardens, with Friday mobile workshops at Longwood Gardens’ Cascade Garden, Longwood at Granogue, Mt. Cuba Center, Chanticleer Garden, and Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library
Tickets: $75–$350
Wednesday schedule: An evening reception and plenary keynote takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Speakers are Paul B. Redman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Longwood Gardens; Claire Agre, ASLA, Principal of Unknown Studio in Baltimore and jury chair for the 2025 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize; and Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, Founder of Grupo de Diseño Urbano in Mexico City and the 2025 Oberlander Prize Laureate.
Thursday schedule: The RE:SEARCH Conference includes an opening keynote, “Reclaiming and Redefining our Relationship Between Research and Design through a Cultural Systems Lens,” by Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, Founding President and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.
Thursday lineup: Panel I, “Research Into Practice | Re: Discover, Re: Appraise and Re: Acknowledge,” is moderated by Elizabeth K. Meyer, FASLA, Merrill D. Peterson Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia. Speakers are Kofi Boone, FASLA; Jennifer Lauer; and Lydia Gikas Cook of Reed Hilderbrand.
Anne Whiston Spirn, FASLA, FCELA, presents the first plenary provocation, “Table Setting for Design Propositions.” Spirn is an author, landscape architect, photographer, scholar, and Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Walter J. Hood, artist, designer, educator, Creative Director and Founder of Hood Design Studio, and Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and Urban Design at the University of California, Berkeley, presents the second plenary provocation, “Realizing the Work.”
Panel II, “Grounding Research | Re: Design, Re: New and Re: Activate,” is moderated by Eric Kramer, FASLA, Principal of Reed Hilderbrand. Speakers include Nina Chase, PLA, ASLA, and Chris Merritt, PLA, ASLA, Founding Principals of Merritt Chase; Ross Altheimer, PLA, FAAR, and Maura Rockcastle, PLA, Principals and Co-Founders of TEN x TEN Studio; and Marc Hallé, MLA, B. Civ.Eng., FCSLA, OALA, AALA, Senior Associate at Reed Hilderbrand.
The conference concludes with “Reframing the Narrative,” a discussion among Mario Schjetnan, Anne Whiston Spirn, and Walter J. Hood, moderated by Charles A. Birnbaum.
Friday schedule: Mobile workshops run from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. at Longwood Gardens’ Cascade Garden, Longwood at Granogue, and Mt. Cuba Center. The Cascade Garden workshop features Eric Kramer and Kristin Frederickson of Reed Hilderbrand, Joshua D. Kiehl of John Milner Architects, Inc., and Longwood Gardens staff and curators. The Longwood at Granogue workshop features Paul B. Redman and Claire Agre. The Mt. Cuba Center workshop features Thomas Woltz, FASLA, Senior Principal and Owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz, along with Mt. Cuba Center staff.
Additional workshops begin at 1:00 p.m. The Chanticleer Garden session runs until 2:30 p.m. and is led by Chanticleer staff. The Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library session runs until 3:00 p.m. and features Linda Eirhart, Alice Cary Brown Director of Garden; Lori Schnick, Associate Curator of Plant Records and GIS; Joe Lazorchak, Landscape Horticulturist; and Carol Long, Garden Manager.
Professional credits: LACES credits are expected to be available, pending approval.