Serving the Chesapeake Region and Hawaii Since the Last Millenium
Projects, Clients & Publications
Cultural Landscapes owner Maurice Major is a VSLD certified landscape designer and holds an MA in archaeology.
Cultural Landscapes began in 1997 in Hawai'i as a firm providing archaeological and cultural resource planning services. Over the years, the practice has focused increasingly on planning and management of areas being preserved due to their cultural significance. A major component of preservation work is landscape design, both for functional and aesthetic reasons, and Cultural Landscapes now offers design services independent of historic preservation work. Recently, Mr. Major received certification as landscape designer by the Virginia Society for Landscape Designers.
Cultural Landscapes now balances projects in Hawai'i and the Chesapeake region. Cultural resource planning continues to be the core in Hawai'i, helping landowners and communities not just comply with preservation laws, but also honor and learn from the past, and plan for generations to come. Current projects are again on Moloka'i, with clients including Molokai Ranch (the island's largest landowner) and the Air Force.
In Virginia and Maryland, Cultural Landscapes offers a new approach to landscape design and management. Emphasis reflects the firm's roots: look to the past for guidance, and plan with an archaeologist's sense of time to design landscapes that will please generations to come. While years of study and experience mean that Cultural Landscapes can rediscover and restore historic gardens, replicate ethnic landscapes, and reintroduce native flora, we also welcome opportunities to be creative and eclectic, to design without dogma.
The National Park Service, the Cultural Landscapes Foundation, and other individuals and organizations have developed the "Cultural Landscape" concept in the past couple of decades, and for those of you who are interested, the Links page can lead you to more in-depth explanations. This approach is more holistic than either traditional archaeology or landscape design, considering how land has been shaped by formal and informal design, aesthetic and practical needs, past and present land use, and cultural and natural constraints.
The company Cultural Landscapes grew from a similar, independently developed understanding of landscape, and a desire to preserve culturally significant places. As it has expanded from cultural resource planning to include landscape design, many of the same principles still pertain. By studying past land use, failures need not be repeated. By considering design in context of a family's practical needs, aesthetics and functionality may both be served. By knowing the constraints of soil and climate, and the natural history of native fauna, a designed landscape may be well adapted and require less maintenance and cost.
Services from Cultural Landscapes may be as simple as a quick field consultation or as involved as a detailed plan based on historical and archaeolgical investigations, but all share a commitment to providing advice and plans that combine your preferences with a commitment to preserving the health of the land. You may or may not have a historically significant landscape, but Cultural Landscapes can help you design a landscape that will be valued well into the future.
You may contact Cultural Landscapes Principal Maurice Major directly by email at maurice@culturallandscapes.net or by phone at (804)-502-1205. To mail a scope of work or request for services, use this address:
Cultural Landscapes
9712 Overhill Road
Richmond, VA 23229-3047