ASLA Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network
Announcements
Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS)
*General HALS Website: http://www.cr.nps.gov/habshaer/hals/index.htm
The Historic American Landscapes Survey (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.
* HALS Guidelines: http://www.cr.nps.gov/habshaer/hals/guidelines.htm
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 following guidelines are intended to direct you in the production of landscape architectural measured drawings, large-format photography, and written reports to HABS/HAER/HALS Standards.
* Historic American Landscapes Survey Guidelines for Drawings: http://www.cr.nps.gov/habshaer/hals/HALSDrawingsGuidelines.pdf
* Historic American Landscapes Survey Guidelines for Historical Reports: http://www.cr.nps.gov/habshaer/hals/HALSHistoryGuidelines.pdf
* Historic American Landscapes Survey Guidelines for Photography: http://www.cr.nps.gov/habshaer/hals/HALSPhotographyGuidelines.pdf
Here is the HABS/HAER/HALS Built in America Website for the entire
collection in the United States Library of Congress: LC-HABS/HAER Collections: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/hhhtml
*For questions regarding the use and implementation of these guidelines, please contact Paul Dolinsky
Chief, Historic American Landscapes Survey by email: Paul_Dolinsky@nps.gov or by telephone: (202) 354-2116
Historic Overview of HALS
In October 2000 the National Park Service officially established the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS), as a sister program to the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). Since that time, the American Society of Landscapes Architects (ASLA) Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network (HP-PPN) [formerly ASLA Historic Preservation Professional Interest Group] has been working with the National Park Service and the Library of Congress to develop the HALS program. Each of these organizations has key responsibilities in the development of the program as outlined in the HALS Responsibilities of ASLA document below.
One of the responsibilites the ASLA HP-PPN is currently undertaking is the nationwide identification of historic landscapes that merit HALS documentation. Working through the ASLA chapters and their designated HALS liaisons, a HALS toolkit has been prepared to guide volunteers through the identification and collection of data on historic landscapes. Download the HALS Toolkit below for further information, or email Susan Crook at scrookla@netzero.com.
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 instituions.
You may send donations to HALS Donation, HABS/HAER Foundation, National Building Museum, 441 F Street, NW, Suite 312, Washington, DC 20001-2728.
For documents providing background and current guidelines, see the Documents section of this website.
Anyone with comments, interest in volunteering or assisting with the development of HALS, please email hals@asla.org.
Membership Information
To join the HP-PPN, please visit the ASLA Professional Practice Network Membership page at http://www.asla.org/members/ppn/home.htm