Garden Tours, Landscape Symposium On The Horizon

Lovers of the landscape can find inspiration in two forms this weekend—a symposium on garden design and landscape architecture, and also tours to see those elements at play in private gardens—at the Parrish Art Museum’s annual, two-day Landscape Pleasures event.

Charles Birnbaum, Andrea Cochran and Darrel Morrison will speak at the symposium, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.

Mr. Morrison has taught landscape architecture and design at universities and designed gardens at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, New York Botanical Garden, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and New York University, among other places. The Parrish describes him as an advocate of observing the naturally evolving landscape to inform and inspire landscape design.

Ms. Cochran, winner of the 2014 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Landscape Architecture, “believes that her field has the power to alter perception and ultimately initiate a deeper respect for the environment,” according to the Parrish. Her San Francisco-based firm juxtaposes ordered architectural forms with more mutable materials of the landscape to draw attention to certain moments in nature and highlight changes over time.

Mr. Birnbaum, who founded the Cultural Landscape Foundation and is a writer, professor and award-winner in his field, was coordinator of the National Park Service Historic Landscape Initiative and worked in private practice in New York City, with a focus in landscape preservation and urban design. One of his major projects is the web-based initiative What’s Out There, a searchable database of the nation’s designed landscape heritage.

Also at the symposium, a representative from Perfect Earth Project will speak about the organization’s mission to keep toxic chemicals out of both manmade and natural landscapes.

On Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., ticket holders can participate in self-guided tours of private gardens at the Bridgehampton, Sagaponack and Amagansett estates of Michael Forman and Jennifer Rice, Herbert and Karen Friedman, Victoria and Jack Rovner, and Loren Skeist and Marlene Marko.

Tickets for the symposium and garden tours are $225. Ticket purchasers at the sponsor level, $350 and above, can attend a private cocktail reception, hosted by Tim Davis of the Corcoran Group, at the modern Wyman estate on Pond Lane in Southampton Village on Saturday evening.

Further details can be found at parrishart.org/LandscapePleasures2016, or by calling 631-283-2118, extension 150.