Elizabeth Brabec interview

Abstract

Elizabeth Brabec is currently a Professor and the Department Head of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her career and research has focused on land conservation and the design and planning of open space. In 1986, she founded Land Ethics, Inc., a landscape planning firm based in Washington, D.C., and managed the firm for nearly two decades. In 1992, she was the lead author for “Linking the Past to the Future: A Landscape Conservation Strategy for Waterford, Virginia” for the National Park Service and the Waterford Foundation, a blueprint document for limited development to preserve Waterford’s rural character. Brabec also authored “Tomorrow’s Park and Open Space Preservation Strategy for Waterford Village” in the academic journal Cultural Resource Management (1993) about her work in Waterford and co-authored Rural by Design: Maintaining Small Town Character (1994) with Randall Arendt, as well as many additional published papers and journal articles on land conservation and open space design and planning. She was previously an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan and Professor and Department Head of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of Michigan. Brabec holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph in Canada and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland.

In the interview, Brabec highlights how preservation efforts in Waterford and tools established and implemented set a number of precedents for cultural resource management and land conservation in the context of a National Historic Landmark District. She speaks specifically about the Waterford Compact and creating the guiding document, “Linking the Past to the Future: A Landscape Conservation Strategy for Waterford, Virginia.” She addresses how it impacted Waterford and directly influenced and became a model for land conservation projects that followed, as well as a teaching tool for land conservation programs.

Abstract and Index by: Kimberley Showell, Center for Historic Architecture and Design, University of Delaware, April 22, 2021