Garden Dialogues Bring An Intimate Look At Landscape Architecture To Bridgehampton

The goal of The Cultural Landscape Foundation is to connect people with places, bringing American landscape architecture into discussion.

This is exactly what J. Brian Sawyer, a landscape architect and member of TCLF’s stewardship council, plans to do at a Bridgehampton residence he designed in a discussion series titled the Garden Dialogues.

The Garden Dialogues began in 2012, inspired by the foundation’s focus on landscapes and patronage. “Without great patrons, there is rarely a great work of landscape architecture,” said Charles Birnbaum, the president and CEO of TCLF.

Mr. Birnbaum said he never truly got the information or the real interaction he wanted when he went on garden tours, so the foundation created the Garden Dialogues program to cultivate the intimate setting and sharing of knowledge that he craved.

“I’ve gone on a lot of garden tours and you often go in the back gate and someone might know plants, but you don’t really get to know the story behind the garden. … What we really wanted to do was make visible that art of collaboration between the patron-owner and the landscape architect,” Mr. Birnbaum said.

TCLF is in its 20th year, thus the declaration of “Twenty for Twenty,” the theme of this year’s Garden Dialogues. There will be 20 different dialogues this season around the country, each featuring a site designed by a member of the board of directors or the stewardship council of TCLF.

Mr. Sawyer has hosted dialogues for TCLF in the past, just last year hosting at a private residence in the Village of Southampton where he was not only the landscape architect, but the interior and exterior designer as well.

He said he feels as if the Garden Dialogues help “spark thoughts and ideas, making sure people understand the history and the future of American landscapes.”

Being on the stewardship council at TCLF has been important to Mr. Sawyer. He sees his own role within the foundation as getting the word out in his own community as far as recognizing and making people aware of important landscapes.

The word “landscape” doesn’t necessarily refer to one specific outdoor design. Mr. Sawyer said a cultural landscape is anything that recognizes an important design moment, design period, or even one specific design, but with an emphasis on the quality of the design.

He emphasized that good design isn’t always recognized, even by people who are aware of architectural design or interiors, and that its impact is often overlooked.

The dialogues usually consist of a tour of the property and a conversation between the landscape architect, the patron-client, and the attendees.

Mr. Sawyer said Garden Dialogues guests often ask questions that he had no idea others were interested in. “We get a really cool dialogue about how designed landscape evolves and what happens during the design process,” he said.

It was Mr. Sawyer, himself, who proposed that his dialogue be at the residence in Bridgehampton, which began as a single house and garden for a family and expanded as they acquired more property, the landscape evolving with it.

The how-we-got-here conversation is the most interesting to Mr. Sawyer, as most people who attend the dialogues don’t know the ins and outs as the architects do. Mr. Sawyer is passionate about teaching more people to appreciate not only the finished product, but the process.

The dialogue is limited to 40 attendees to keep it an intimate experience and make sure the attendees get the most they can out of the conversation.

“This is just a great opportunity to lift the veil on what it takes to make a great garden,” Mr. Birnbaum said.

The Garden Dialogue in Bridgehampton will be held on Saturday, June 23, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $200 and can be purchased at tclf.org.