Planting Fields: A Place on Long Island, a new book from our partners at Planting Fields Foundation (PFF), is the first monograph dedicated to Planting Fields—one of the few remaining Gold Coast estates on Long Island, NY. This beautifully produced volume, published by Monacelli Press/Phaidon, explores the estate’s architectural and landscape significance while placing it within the broader historical and cultural context of the region. The Olmsted Network recently sat down with Gina Wouters, President and CEO of Planting Fields Foundation, along with several key contributors, to learn more about how the book came together—and what readers can expect to discover within its pages.
How did this book first come to be and why?
Gina Wouters: This book emerged from the Olmsted 200 symposium Planting Fields Foundation organized in 2022, where noted scholars presented research on the residential work of the Olmsted firm. The occasion was the catalyst for PFF to connect with various scholars and, in many instances, introduce them to Planting Fields for the first time. It was clear that a multi-authored volume featuring some of the rich contributions from the symposium alongside new essays would be the most powerful way to tackle the multifaceted past, present and future of Planting Fields.
What is one thing about Planting Fields that you think readers will be most surprised to learn after reading this book?
Gina Wouters: This book will be the first introduction to Planting Fields for many readers, so I think the integrity, layered history and dynamism will be surprising for many. The book is also visually lush with over 200 new images, allowing the rich natural, designed and architectural beauty to speak for itself and captivate readers.
Planting Fields Foundation has done quite a bit of landscape work in the past couple of years. Can you tell us about it? Any big plans for the future?
Gina Wouters: Following the creation of a Cultural Landscape Report by Heritage Landscapes in 2019, PFF tackled various landscape revitalization projects with the intent of restoring the ethos of the Olmsted Brothers landscape. As for future plans, we take inspiration from the legacy of landscape designers who shaped Planting Fields— James Greenleaf, Andrew Robeson Sargent and the Olmsted Brothers firm— to stay relevant by continuing to add layers to the site. As part of a new initiative to engage leading landscape designers of our times, Piet Oudolf, the famed Dutch landscape designer, will be creating a new garden for Planting Fields in 2026!
Witold, as the author of the introduction, what aspects of Planting Fields’ history did you find most compelling, and how did you approach conveying its significance to readers?
Witold Rybczynski: The saga of Planting Fields concerns human agency and contingency, so I chose to tell the story more like a novel than a design history. The characters matter: the enterprising Helen Byrnes, who starts it all; the talented Grosvenor Atterbury and James Greenleaf, who, in several important ways, set the architectural tone for the house and garden; the persevering and adaptable Fred Dawson; the tragic Mai Coe; and, of course, William Coe, the tough, self-made businessman who develops a green thumb. And, as in the plot of a good novel, nothing is inevitable, and unexpected events often overtake the best-laid plans.
John, in your examination of landscape design, how do you see Planting Fields as a reflection of the broader trends in American landscape architecture during the early 20th century?
John Dixon Hunt: The answer to that question is huge, important, but not susceptible to any brief narrative of those “broader trends.” But a sketch might begin in 1852, when Olmsted published Walks and Talks of an American Farmer. He realized the potential that English private estates offered for creating public parks in the US, and he recognized that model when he was directed to the new Birkenhead Park, which he compared to the neglect of the private gardens he’d revisited. Out of that, in retrospect, major encounter, grew an American concern and skill that, in 1899, saw the formation of the Society of Landscape Architects, where its 11 original founders included two Olmsteds, Beatrice Farrand, and Samuel Parsons.
Yet it is perhaps a nice irony that out of that inspiration for private estates in England that emerged in the large role of public American parks, fueled many private mansions landscape in the USA, where a range of designs, ideas, needs, and forms would be invoked. That constituted, as I argued, the making of new places, where professionals and amateurs, also termed garden designers—some of them very good—contributed to the trends in the early 20th century. Not perhaps that rich and enterprising mix which Ann Leighton outlined in her American Gardens of the Nineteenth Century (1987), but surely a vein of landscape design, the full narrative of which—collaboration between culture and landscapes—is still needed in the “early 21st century.” And it is NOT a question of style.
David, the book features your stunning new photography. How did you approach capturing the essence of Planting Fields, and were there any particular moments or features that stood out to you during your photography sessions?
David Almeida: Unlike other projects or sites I have worked on, I began photographing Planting Fields several years before the opportunity to collaborate on the book arose. I’ve been immersed in the beauty of the site for more than six years, photographing on countless days, from dawn to dusk, in each season.
There are many facets of the garden I could point out as not to miss, which, all yearlong or seasonally, are at their peak beauty, and one visit to the site is certainly too short to truly see all its natural and architectural beauty. But there was one moment (documented in the book on pages 88–89) that came as a surprise, as it revealed how close Planting Fields is to NYC. In a bird’s-eye drone shot of the Main House facing west, the skyline of Manhattan appeared. This helped me realize how fortunate we are to have such a large and important natural space so close to a densely populated metropolis.
Jennifer, your essay delves into the history of the site and the displacement of indigenous peoples. Could you share insights into how this history has influenced the current understanding and preservation efforts at Planting Fields?
Jennifer Anderson: By incorporating discussion of the Matinecock Indians—who were the original planters of Planting Fields—we gain a much richer and more comprehensive understanding of the site’s human history. Thousands of years before the construction of the extant mansion and gardens, people traversed this land and utilized its natural resources in sustainable ways. As such, this historic site served as a vital source of sustenance and creativity—in ways that transcended the short-term impact or occupancy of any one person. Yet its earlier history also illuminates the devastating impacts of colonialism, which ultimately led to the dispossession of the Native inhabitants from their ancestral homeland, contributing in no small measure to an enduring legacy of racial injustice on Long Island. By reflecting on this deeper historical context, visitors to Planting Fields hopefully will gain a new appreciation for the site’s historical significance as well as the importance of continuing our shared stewardship.
Interested readers can purchase the book online or onsite at the visitor’s center.
