Appreciation James R. Cothran, FASLA, passed away on Sunday, Janaury 29,2012. Cothran was a practicing landscape architect, urban planner, and garden historian. He served as vice president of the planning and landscape architecture division of Robert and Company, an architectural, engineering, and planning firm in Atlanta, since 1971.

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James R. Cothran, FASLA

The native South Carolinian received a bachelor of science degree in ornamental horticulture from Clemson University in 1962, a master of landscape architecture degree from the University of Georgia in 1969, and a master of science degree in city planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1978. He was the author of Gardens of Historic Charleston, Charleston Gardens and the Landscape Legacy of Loutrel Briggs, and Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South, which has been honored with national awards from ASLA and chapter awards from GASLA, the National Garden Clubs, the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, the Georgia Historical Society, and other organizations. Cothran served as an adjunct professor at both the University of Georgia and Georgia State University, where he taught graduate courses on America’s historic gardens and landscapes. He received the University of Georgia’s School of Environmental Design Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006.

An ASLA Fellow, Cothran served on the boards of the Southern Garden History Society, the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation, Trees Atlanta, and the Cherokee Garden Library, Center for the Study of Southern Garden History. He also served on the board of trustees for ASLA from 2002–2005. Previous experience in the Georgia Chapter of ASLA includes serving as president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, newsletter editor, and Historic American Landscapes (HALS) liaison for GASLA, as well as being a representative on various ASLA committees and boards. A member of numerous professional organizations, Cothran was a frequent lecturer on southern garden history. He actively participated in the emerging field of landscape/garden preservation and cultural landscapes and was instrumental in the documentation of significant historic gardens in the South, as well as the work of early 20th-century landscape architects practicing in the southeast.

Read an obituary online.

Ed Czyscon, FASLA, PLA
Vice President - Professional Practice
American Society of Landscape Architects