Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn NY

Client: Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, Long Island, New York  

For this public museum property, Heritage Landscapes developed a deeply historically informed master plan to shape a vibrant future for a valued but degraded landscape. This 145-acre designed landscape includes contributions from Landscape Architects Marian Cruger Coffin, Innocenti and Webel and Dorothy Nicholas working with Childs and Frances Frick. Project efforts addressed:

  • Study and organize hundreds of digital archival materials  
  • Document landscape pre-history, history, recent decades and current character
  • Assess landscape character, integrity and continuity and change
  • Preserve the designed landscape while limiting future maintenance
  • Curate outdoor sculpture collection in harmony with historic landscape
  • Improve universal access to welcome a growing visitor population
  • Foster vibrant biodiversity and habitat of woodlands and grasslands
  • Act on climate change for carbon sequestration and solar energy generation

This collaboration with a museum of art on a historic Frick family estate embraced varied vectors to develop a comprehensive platform for increased visitation that advances biocultural diversity. Detailed recommendations provide guidance to simultaneously address multiple objectives. The report integrates local and global issues in applying the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Actions to respect and elevate landscape history and interpretation, upgrade visitor access and experience, advance climate action toward net zero, and apply current landscape best practices are elucidated.

The NCMA CLR advances well-planned, annually phased improvements to build momentum, assure funders of effective direction, and sequentially upgrade this public landscape as a historic place that holds multiple inclusive stories for learning, enrichment and resilience. The NCMA CLR is already aiding in securing public and private funding to upgrade this historic landscape.

WORKS:

Nassau County Museum of Art Cultural Landscape Report

TEAM:

Heritage Landscapes LLC

QUOTES:

"Thank you, Heritage Landscapes team, for this thoughtful and important document…it’s exciting for me to see all this information digitized and in one place. I know this plan will provide the very best guidance for NCMA for many years to come." – Jean Henning