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Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553  | M: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org

Award spotlights stewardship stories that will educate and inspire future generations of cultural landscape stewards

Washington, D.C. (July 15, 2025) – ����ֱ�� (TCLF), a Washington, D.C.-based education and advocacy non-profit, today announced that Shaun Duncan and Lake Douglas, both of New Orleans, LA, have been awarded the organization’s Stewardship Excellence Award in recognition of their inspiring, determined, and passionate advocacy on behalf of the cultural landscape legacy of New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, and the Gulf South, and commitment to promoting the profession of landscape architecture. The honor was created in 2001 to “highlight stewardship stories that will educate and inspire future generations of cultural landscape stewards.” The awards will be presented to the honorees on October 10, 2025, during a reception at Octavia Gallery in New Orleans, LA, and coincides with the American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Conference on Landscape Architecture, which is taking place in New Orleans.

Shaun Duncan has been selected for her decades of leadership, vision, and spirit in the service of preserving and protecting significant cultural landscapes, making the public aware of our rich and diverse landscape heritage, and championing the profession of landscape architecture. She been actively involved as a leading figure – either as Board Member or as a Trustee – with several important regional landscape and conservation-focused organizations: Trustee at River Fields, the largest and oldest river conservancy of the Ohio River, in Louisville, KY; Board Member at the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, which provides support to horticultural programs and community beautification projects, in Cincinnati, OH; a Founding Board Member at Parks for All in her hometown of New Orleans, which “works to secure access to and financial support for quality green spaces for all residents”; a Board Member of the Preservation Resource Center in New Orleans; a Board Member of Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans; Chair of the Garden History and Design Committee of Garden Study Club, a Member of Garden Club of America; and a Co-Chair of the Jefferson Initiative, which advanced historic preservation at her alma mater, the University of Virginia.

Duncan was also a TCLF Board Member and, for five years, Board Co-Chair, during which time she helped the organization grow substantially and develop comprehensive advocacy and public engagement strategies and opportunities. She was instrumental in forging and facilitating new dialogues with thought leaders, patrons, and other potential collaborators and partners, and an effective and gracious ambassador. Within the Board she provided sound leadership, excellent counsel, and sage advice, especially for those new to the Board, and a seasoned perspective that helped the organization to mature. In 2011, her achievements and leadership were recognized when you became an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

Lake Douglas, PhD, has been selected in recognition of his extraordinary and inspiring career as an esteemed landscape architecture educator and historian, his impactful advocacy, and his influential and authoritative body of published works that have advanced the depth of understanding of the region’s cultural landscape palimpsest.

As a professor of landscape architecture and associate dean of research and development at the Louisiana State University (LSU) College of Art & Design, he has educated and inspired some of today’s leading practitioners. He not only shaped the minds that are shaping landscapes, but he also established and consistently maintained a level of excellence and innovation in the teaching of landscape architecture.

His involvement with grassroots efforts to enhance and increase public open space in New Orleans, helping to launch such non-profits as Parks for All (2014), has been instrumental in addressing equity issues in the city; while his early involvement in the Friends of the Lafitte Greenway was both prescient and critical. As with academia, his involvement with these volunteer-driven groups, his knowledge, enthusiasm, and political acumen helped to instill an impassioned stewardship ethic for other activists, while broadening their lens to the cultural value of landscapes. For the city’s two largest parks — Audubon and City Parks — he has consistently advocated for a deeper understanding of their origins and development over time. In furtherance of TCLF’s education and advocacy work, he has been a frequent contributor of informative and important biographies to the Pioneers of American Landscape Design publications and databases; and he also made consistent efforts to insure that TCLF’s Landslide program addressed threatened cultural landscapes and landscape features in Louisiana.

More broadly, he has “published extensively in academic journals, popular magazines, books and professional publications in America, Europe and Asia, most often with a focus on the intersection of landscape architecture and other disciplines,” as noted by the American Society of Landscape Architects when he was elevated to a Fellow in 2016. His “long and distinguished career as a meticulous researcher and prolific writer to document American cultural landscape history has advanced profoundly the profession of landscape architecture.” This estimable body of work includes: Public Spaces, Private Gardens: A History of Designed Landscapes in New Orleans, which received honor awards ASLA and its Louisiana chapter, together with the Williams Award from the Louisiana Historical Association; Steward of the Land: Selected Writings of Nineteenth-Century Horticulturist Thomas Affleck; and Buildings of New Orleans with Karen Kingsley. He also served as series editor of Reading the American Landscape for LSU Press.

About the Stewardship Excellence Award
The honor was created in 2001 to “highlight stewardship stories that will educate and inspire future generations of cultural landscape stewards.” Past recipients include individuals (e.g., Joe Turner, Director, Houston Parks + Recreation; Cassandra J. Francis, President, Friends of the Parks, Chicago; Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley; Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey; and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley); not‐for‐profit organizations (e.g., Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy; The American Academy in Rome; and Greenacre Foundation); historic properties (the Indianapolis Museum of Art and Casa del Herrero Foundation); local groups (e.g., Friends of Gas Works Park and Louisville’s Olmsted Parks Conservancy); and federal agencies (e.g., The Presidio Trust and the National Park Service).

About The Cultural Landscape Architecture Foundation
����ֱ�� (TCLF), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 to connect people to places. TCLF educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures, and other events, TCLF broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes.  TCLF is also home to the Cornelia Hahn ����ֱ�� International Landscape Architecture Prize.

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