Gardeners of Watchung Hills Sponsor Landscape Architecture Program

The role of landscape architecture in improving human life will be the focus of a presentation hosted by the Gardeners of Watchung Hills. 

Alexandra Bolinder-Gibsand and Evan Ralph, graduating landscape architecture students at Rutgers University and recipients of scholarships sponsored by The Gardeners of Watchung Hills, will discuss the role of landscape architecture in enriching modern life, exploring everything from community planning to groundbreaking new programs in energy conservation on March 27.

Bolinder-Gibsand, who worked last summer with the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York City as part of a global interdisciplinary team exploring solutions to urban issues, will describe numerous ways landscape architecture is helping improve human life, including its role in addressing climate change. She will also discuss landscape architecture as a career and her vision of the profession's future.

Ralph, whose presentation is titled "Architecture is Landscape, Landscape is Architecture," will talk about the integral nature of landscape architecture and the many ways it contributes to quality of life. He will also review some of the field projects he has worked on, including an urban street redesign in Camden, N.J., and design of an educational pavilion for the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J.

The event is free and open to the public, with refreshments at 7:30 p.m. and the hour-long program at 8 p.m. For more information, contact Cynthia Amorese at (908) 665-8072 or camorese@comcast.net.

The Gardeners of Watchung Hills is a men's and women's club whose members come from 13 different towns in the region. The group supports two scholarships for plant science and landscape architecture students at Rutgers University. Many members are also active members of the Wagner Farm Arboretum. Membership in the club is open to anyone with an interest in gardening, at a cost of $15 annually for an individual membership or $20 per year for a family membership.