During the past twenty years, the concept of historic preservation has grown beyond protecting a single building or urban district to include the historic landscape that provides the setting and context for a property as well as much larger landscapes that have regional and national significance.
In early 2001, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Park Service, and the Library of Congress entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that established the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) to document landscapes that serve as tangible evidence of our nation’s heritage and development. HALS is a permanent federal program charged with recording historic landscapes in the United States and its territories. Historic landscapes vary in size from small gardens to several thousand-acre national parks. In character they range from designed to vernacular, rural to urban, and agricultural to industrial spaces. Vegetable patches, estate gardens, cemeteries, farms, quarries, nuclear test sites, suburbs, and abandoned settlements all may be considered historic landscapes. Like its sister programs, the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), HALS produces written and graphic records of interest to educators, land managers, and preservation planners.
The National Park Service (NPS) administers the planning and operation of HALS, selects and approves landscapes for documentation, standardizes formats and develops guidelines for recording landscapes, and catalogs and/or publishes the information when appropriate. The Library of Congress accepts and preserves HALS documents, furnishes reproductions of material, and makes records available to the NPS.
The ASLA Government Affairs department works with ASLA’s Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network (HP-PPN) to provide advice on identifying, selecting, and documenting historical landscapes and works with Congress to secure funding for the administration of HALS. The ASLA HP-PPN is currently undertaking the nationwide identification of historic landscapes that merit HALS documentation. Working through the ASLA chapters and their designated HALS Chapter Liaisons (described in more detail below), the HP-PPN has prepared a HALS toolkit to guide volunteers through identifying and collecting data on historic landscapes. (For details, see below under "How to Complete a Landscape Documentation Project.")
ASLA’s Government Affairs Department has also prepared a Strategic Plan for 2009 to increase awareness of HALS and secure funding for HALS in FY2010 Congressional Budget.
Because the NPS created the HALS program with no permanent funding, ASLA is spearheading an effort to pursue long-term federal funding, corporate donors, individual private donations, and partnerships with interested organizations and institutions. You may send donations to HALS Donation, HABS/HAER Foundation, National Building Museum, 441 F Street, NW, Suite 312, Washington, DC 20001-2728.
Anyone with comments, interest in volunteering or assisting with the development of HALS, please email hals@asla.org.
HALS Chapter Liaisons
The HALS Liaisons are ASLA volunteers appointed by their chapter presidents who provide technical and other types of assistance to carry out the mission of the HALS program. Typically, each ASLA chapter has at least one HALS Liaison. Chapters that contain multiple states should have at least one liaison per state.
Assisted by the HALS Liaison Coordinator, chapter presidents choose a liaison from a pool of volunteer applicants. Applicants must be full, associate, or affiliate members of ASLA. HALS Liaisons may serve for an unspecified term. ASLA members interested in becoming a HALS Liaison should contact their chapter president.
HALS Liaisons responsibilities include:
- creating and updating lists of local examples of significant historical landscapes
- coordinating HALS activities with the State Historic Preservation Office
- advising on the review and revision of state and local historic preservation laws with the aim of including historic landscape documentation
- leading advocacy efforts in Congress for funding for HALS
- enlisting donations to the HALS/HABS/HAER fund
- promoting public awareness of HALS and historic landscapes
- continuously seeking out opportunities for local documentation projects
See HALS Chapter Liaisons Appointment and Duties for more information about the HALS Liaisons, the HALS Coordinator, and the HALS Subcommittee from which the Coordinator is chosen.
Resources and Examples of Local Landscape Documentation
Advocacy Resources
Constituents have the greatest impact on a legislator’s decision-making process. For this reason, ASLA is pleased to offer a number of services and resources to landscape architects in order to communicate with policymakers at the federal, state and local levels, gather information about lawmakers and agencies, and track legislation.
Facts About HALS Documentation
ASLA's Advocacy Network
ASLA's Advocacy Center
HALS Talking Points
HALS Brochure (1.1 MB)
Examples of Local Landscape Documentation
The importance of presenting local examples to legislators in order to reinforce the relevancy of an issue cannot be overstated. The following resources are designed to support efforts to communicate about threatened historic landscapes in communities across the country.
HALS State Fact Sheets Information:
Current List of HALS State Fact Sheets
ASLA's Fact Sheet Template
ASLA's State Fact Sheet Instructions
ASLA Medallion Sites
U.S. National Park Service Heritage Documentation Program
Library of Congress Documentation Archive
How to Complete a Landscape Documentation Project
Documentation of HALS sites are critical to preserving historical landscapes for the benefit of future generations and can provide rationale for the planning and funding of future landscape preservation efforts. Documentation projects can be completed by HALS Liaisons, ASLA Chapters and other interested individuals and organizations. For additional information on initiating a documentation project, please review the general HALS information on the NPS website, including HALS guidelines, sample projects, and contact information. The HABS/HAER/HALS collection is one of the largest and well organized architectural archives in the world. Standardization of format is one of the highlights of HALS. The guidelines provide directions to produce landscape architectural measured drawings, large-format photography, and written reports on HABS/HAER/HALS standards.
For questions regarding the use and implementation of these guidelines, please contact:
Paul Dolinsky Chief, Historic American Landscapes Survey
Email: Paul_Dolinsky@nps.gov
tel: (202) 354-2116
HALS Toolkit
Guide to Identifying and Documenting HALS Sites
HALS Short Format History Template
HALS Historical Reports Guidelines
HALS Drawings Guidelines
HALS Photography Guidelines
Relevant ASLA Policies
Environmental Sustainability (pdf)
Memorials (pdf)
National Parks (pdf)
Preservation of Historic Sites, Districts, and Landscapes (pdf)
Public Lands and Forests (pdf)
Rural Landscapes (pdf)
State, Regional and Local Parks (pdf)
Urban Growth and Development (pdf)
Visual Resources (pdf)
Waterways (pdf)
Upcoming HALS-Related Programs and Events
ACHP Course Schedule for 2010
The Section 106 Essentials
The only Section 106 course taught by the federal agency responsible for administering the National Historic Preservation Act’s Section 106 review process, this two day course is designed for those who are new to Section 106 review or those who want a refresher on its basic operation. The course explains the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which applies any time a federal, federally assisted, or federally approved activity might affect a property listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
2010 National Preservation Conference
October 26-30, 2010, Austin, Texas
