Eatonville Sustainable Visions: North Carolina A & T State University Landscape Architecture – 3

Advanced landscape architecture students from North Carolina A & T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina will spend the fall semester developing a sustainable vision for the physical resources of Eatonville, Florida. The students, Christian Anderson, John Dufort and Keana Graham, will work as a team to prepare a broad set of proposals tailored to authentic attributes and heritage of the town. Eatonville is widely recognized as America’s oldest African American municipality, the childhood home of Zora Neale Hurston, and the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and the Humanities. The project will provide unique field experiences in an underserved community.

I met the students and their professor, Perry Howard, FASLA, in Eatonville over the past Labor Day weekend for an intensive introduction and overview of the historic, cultural, and environmental background of the community. We met with residents, civic leaders, and toured the town on foot and by car. I provided interpretive materials gathered over the past twenty five years on Eatonville through my Black Settlements In America (TM) applied research.  I will also serve as a resource person for the team as it works through the planning process. The student visions are scheduled to be presented in early December, 2013.

Professor Perry Howard, FASLA, is Coordinator of the A & T Landscape Architecture Program.

www.ncat.edu/academics/schools-colleges1/saes/academics/nred/landarch/index.html

Perry received the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) President’s Medal in 2012 in recognition of unselfish and devoted service to the ASLA at the national level over a period of not less than five years. He also served as ASLA President in 2008. He was the first, and only, African American to be elected to the ASLA presidency in its one hundred and fourteen year history. In 1995 I had the honor of being elected as an ASLA Fellow (FASLA) with Perry in recognition of significant contributions made to the profession and the public through works, leadership and management, knowledge and service.

A summary interview covering Perry’s career may be found at the following                                                                                   link: www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/perry-howard-42