Landscape Architects’ Historic Designed Landscapes for Cleveland Heights’ Parks & Cemeteries
April 5, 2025 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Landscape Architects’ Historic Designed Landscapes for Cleveland Heights’ Parks & Cemeteries (1869 – 1940) presented by Kara Hamley O’Donnell
Saturday, April 5, 2025
10:00 AM 12:00 PM
Cleveland Heights Community Center, 1 Monticello Blvd, Room A/B
Registration opens 03/09/25
BRINGING NATURE HOME is a series of programs presented by Friends of Heights Parks, The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, and the Cleveland Heights Parks & Recreation Department.
The free talks, by local experts, intend to educate and inspire residents to act on creating biodiverse native habitat in our public and private green spaces.
Ernest W. Bowditch (1850-1918), A.D. Taylor (1883-1951), and Adolph Strauch (1822-1883) each laid the groundwork for the naturalistic approach to parks and cemeteries in Ohio and beyond. Hear about their notable lives and designs in our own community.
Kara Hamley O’Donnell’s interest in Cleveland Heights’ history and architecture began as she wrote her Master’s thesis on the history of the Coventry and Cedar Fairmount neighborhoods & landscape architect E.W. Bowditch, and her curiosity has continued in the ensuing 30 years. She was the City of Cleveland Heights’ Historic Preservation Planner and Senior Planner for 25 years and is currently the Principal Planner for the City of Shaker Heights.
A resident of Cleveland Heights since the early 1990s, she can often be found gardening at her Coventry home and strolling the city’s neighborhoods, commercial districts, and parks. Kara holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Miami University and a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University.
