Photograph by Lindsay Peterson & Jesse Kling, courtesy of New York State Historic Preservation Office
Boston Road Plaza
Massachusetts, Reference Number: 100010703
Area of Significance: Politics/Government, Social History, Architecture
Period of Significance: 1970-1972
Boston Road Plaza is comprised of a 20-story Brutalist-style tower (contributing building), a one-story community center (contributing building), and a parking lot (not classified), within a landscaped site (contributing site). The building’s designers leveraged the diagonal orientation of Boston Road to create triangular spaces between the building entrances and the street. The fact that the landscape here was designed by noted landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg may have been a factor in its being readily recognized as a contributing site; however, the involvement of a landscape professional, well known or not, is not a factor in evaluating whether a property’s landscape is a contributing resource.
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Courtesy of Charlottesville Neighborhood Development Services and Virginia Department of Historic Resources
Virginia, Reference number 100009471
Area of Significance: Community Planning and Development, Landscape Architecture
Period of Significance: 1974-1994
The Charlottesville Downtown Mall is significant under Criterion A as a successful example of a downtown street converted to pedestrian use to stimulate economic vitality and under Criterion C at the as an important work of Modern Movement urban design by Lawrence Halprin, one of the most influential landscape architects of the late twentieth century. Charlottesville Downtown Mall is the only extant pedestrianized Main Street in Virginia that remains faithful to its original design. It is an outstanding example of Lawrence Halprin & Associates’ urban landscapes and the only extant work by the firm in Virginia.
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Photograph by Paula Mohr and Sue Ward, courtesy of Iowa Historic Preservation Office
Iowa, Reference Number: 100011414
Area of Significance: Architecture
Period of Significance 1953-1971
The nomination for Unison-style Chuck and Emily Russell House in Oskaloosa, Iowa, counts the landscaped lot as a contributing resource. This “well-developed natural landscape with trees, shrubs, and a pond that showcased the house and provided the Russell family with outdoor living spaces and natural views from the house” (Russell Nomination, p. 3) is the sort of landscape that would (hopefully) quickly be recognized as a contributing “site” but an architecturally significant building often becomes the focus of a nomination, with the landscape described simply as the setting for the building.
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Courtesy of Vermont State Historic Preservation Office
Vermont, Registration Number: 100012087
Area of Significance: Agriculture, Architecture
Period of Significance; 1800-1942
A property's landscape may be comprised one or more contributing sites. The Clemmons Farm nomination groups several areas into two distinct contributing sites, the “fields and pasture” site and the “forest/woodlot” site. As described in the nomination, the Clemmons Farm “has a little under 100 acres of unforested land divided into three fields: a 10-acre parcel on the east side of Greenbush Road which includes the Main and English barns and two fields on the west side of Greenbush Road, separated by the railroad tracks.” (Clemmons Registration Form, p. 12.)
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Photograph courtesy of Oregon State Historic Preservation Office
Oregon, Reference Number: 88000724
Area of Significance: Agriculture
Period of Significance 1892-1936
Whether a property’s landscape will count as a single contributing site or multiple contributing sites depends upon the nature of the property. The Dorris Ranch in Springfield, Oregon, includes eight orchards that have been counted as individual contributing sites. As documented in the nomination, each was established in a different year and were designated, and consistently referred to by the Dorris family, with unique names, from the half-acre “Walnut Orchard” established in 1903 with 50 trees to the four-acre “Front Cherry Orchard” established in the late 1930s and eventually planted with 750 trees. (Dorris Registration Form, Section 7, pp. 6-7.)
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Courtesy of Mountain Oyster Club and Arizona State Historic Preservation Office
Arizona, Reference number: 100009580
Area of Significance: Architecture, Ethnic Heritage: Jewish Community
Period of Significance: 1936-1972
El Dorado Lodge (also known as Stone Ashley/Mountain Oyster Club) was one of two of the earliest hotels to play a critical and unique role in the development of the resort experience for Jewish tourists and, later, Jewish residents in Tucson, Arizona. The landscape (a contributing site) was designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, with garden walls, terraces, steps, and fountains composed of the same stone and brick materials used in the building.
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Photograph by Sherry Frear
New York, Reference Number: 01000238
Area of Significance: Art
Period of Significance: 1939-1976
Opus 40 is a massive structure of terraces, steps, passageways, and pools within an abandoned bluestone quarry. It was envisioned, designed, and built over 37 years by artist Harvey Fite. The work ended only upon Fite’s death in 1976 from an accidental fall at the site. As described in the nomination, Opus 40’s “fine craftsmanship, massive scale, organic form, dramatic setting and the artistic tension created by the use of millions of small stones precisely fitted to create a seamless form makes Opus 40 one of New York State’s finest example of the environmental art movement.” (Opus 40 Registration Form, Section 8, p. 1.)
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Photograph by Elizabeth Gales/Phyllis Brower, courtesy of Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office
Minnesota, Reference Number: 100012387
Area of Significance: Social History
Period of Significance 1974-1986
The Ordean Building’s west façade overlooks a public plaza constructed in 1971 as part of streetscape improvements. This plaza, although constructed before the Ordean Building, is counted as a contributing “structure” to the significance of the building. As described in the nomination, the “design of the Ordean Building responded to the plaza through the construction of [a] patio on the west side of the building, and therefore the plaza [is] included within the boundary of the historic property.” (Ordean Registration Form, Section 7, p. 2.)
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Photograph by Katherine Bridges, courtesy of New York Historic Preservation Office
New York, Reference Number: 11000326
Area of Significance: Education, Architecture
Period of Significance: 1858-1954
The nomination for Schoolhouse No. 5 in Hamden, New York, counts among its contributing resources “a designed landscape, the schoolyard.” (Schoolhouse Registration Form, Section 7, p. 1.) As described in the nomination, a “low fieldstone wall (about thirty inches high) defines the schoolyard on three sides; the road side, although originally enclosed by a stone wall, is now open. Within the schoolyard are three surviving trees (two sugar maples and a Norway spruce) that were presumably planted by students to celebrate Arbor Day. All are more than one hundred years old, and one of the sugar maples is approximately 150 years of age.” (Id.)
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Photograph by Amy Reid, courtesy of Utah State Historic Preservation Office
Utah, Reference number: 100011066
Area of Significance: Art, Landscape Architecture
Period of Significance: 1970
Spiral Jetty is an internationally celebrated earthwork that was listed in the National Register in 2024 as nationally significant for art and landscape architecture, with a period of significance of 1970. Located on the lakebed of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, American artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973) directed earthmoving equipment operators to relocate over 6,000 tons of boulders and soil from the shoreline and hillside. Spiral Jetty is significant for its fusion of art, design, ecological principles, and environmental values.
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Last updated: January 19, 2026