With the opening of the renovated Marshall Hall, home to the Department of Landscape Architecture, we thought it would be appropriate to highlight one of the Department’s iconic faculty members, Professor George W. Curry. While George “retired” from ESF in the fall of 2010, he continues to fill an integral role at the College and adds to his more than 57 years of educating future landscape architects.
Most people are surprised to learn that George Curry (SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor and Kennedy Distinguished Faculty Chair) did not start his academic career in landscape architecture. Like many undergraduate students, he was unsure of the direction he wanted to take while at Michigan State University, and, as he puts it, “I graduated with a degree in economics only because that was what I had the most credits in and could graduate in four years.” While wandering around the MSU campus and considering his options, he happened upon Terry Boyle, a faculty member from the Landscape Architecture Department. After an hour with this faculty member, who he later learned was a graduate of ESF (Class of 1953), the course of his life changed. He decided to pursue a second undergraduate degree and earned a BS in Landscape Architecture in 1965.He then went on to the University of Illinois on a fellowship and earned his master’s degree in landscape architecture.
While his teaching career may have begun at ESF, it was only as a favor to the Chair of the Illinois program that he found his way to the College. After a year in Illinois, he was interested in heading to the east coast, however, a request to stop at the College of Forestry on his way to Vermont ended up leading him on a different path. Curry met with Dean George Albrecht and Professor Brad Sears, who were looking to fill a vacancy left by George F. Earle, who was on sabbatical for the year. The rest, as they say, is history. What was meant to be a short stop on his way East turned into a lifelong career at ESF.
When Curry was hired at the College in the fall of 1966, the urban centers of the US were being greatly altered in terms of structure, form, and street pattern by the federal programs of urban renewal, public housing and the interstate highway system. Large areas of cities were being demolished to accommodate these programs. In Syracuse, the 15th Ward had been destroyed and I-81 had just been completed through the city. In response to this urban destruction, on October 15, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act.
For the first time, entire districts were eligible to be designated as historically significant on a national, state, or local level. Previously, only buildings, structures, sites and objects were designated as official historic landmarks. This federal act allowed Curry to intertwine his interest in urban design with historic preservation, which led to his involvement with several preservation groups. This also allowed Curry’s students to gain hands-on, practical work on real projects in his urban design studios; the first being a site in downtown Syracuse. His interest in Syracuse led to serving as chairperson of the Landmark Preservation Board for 13 years and a life-long interest in the historical preservation of the city. Curry, in partnership with developer Bob Doucette, helped create the Armory Square Historic District, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. They also rehabilitated some of the first buildings in the Historic District.
Of significant impact on Curry’s teaching career was his involvement with the College’s first Off-Campus Program. In 1970, during an earlier renovation of Marshall Hall, Curry and George Earle, took 36 students to Antigua, Guatemala for the semester. As part of the curriculum, they incorporated weekend excursions to immerse the students into the Guatemalan environment. Curry states, “immersion into the area you are working on is critical, to understand the history and the culture of the place – you cannot do design without understanding the piece of the world that you are dealing with. …what it has been, what its history is, what it was before you got there is really important.”
Curry’s numerous achievements in the field have garnered significant acclaim and recognition. He is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, serves as an Advisor for the Library of American Landscape History, and is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Association for Olmsted Parks, and served on the Board of Governors for the International Landscape Architecture Honorary Society of Sigma Lambda Alpha, to name just a few of his professional commitments. In recognition of his commitment to teaching, he was named SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor (1985), Kennedy Distinguished Faculty Chair in Landscape Architecture (2005) as well as the 2008 New York Professor of the year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Other recognitions for which Curry is particularly proud include the Everson Museum Art Medal (2011), the Onondaga Historical Association Medal (2011), the American Society of Landscape Architects Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal (2011), and ESF’s Sol Feinstone Environmental Award (2018).
However, when asked about the highlights of his career, he responded that, “most of them have to do with students. In spite of the work I did in downtown and in preservation, I am really a teacher at heart…being a teacher is like doing landscape design. You put it in the ground, you hope everything is going to mature. Of course, when you plant a plant, it is never the size that, it’s ultimately going to be. Watching students as they leave here and mature into various careers, those are the fondest rewards and memories.”
Of particular significance to Curry was when he was recognized by the Student Government Association as an outstanding teacher early on in his career. “There have been lots of awards along the way, like the Carnegie Foundation Award, but the student awards, those are the most special.”
In 1991, with support of Department Chair Richard Hawks, ’72, Curry signed a cooperative agreement with the North Atlantic Regional Office of the National Park Service to begin research on an emerging new area of specialized professional work, cultural landscape preservation. Over the next thirty plus years the Department established the ESF Center for Landscape Preservation that has partnered with the National Park Service Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation on many Nationally significant cultural landscape projects. The National Park Service and other partners have funded over 100 BLA and MLA students to work with the Center on various aspects of the research. Curry commented, “ few Landscape Architecture Programs have had this level of sustained involvement in the development of Cultural Landscape Preservation.”
Although he officially retired in the fall of 2010, Curry keeps busy working alongside John Auwaerter ’00 as Co-Director of the ESF Center for Cultural Landscape Preservation. “My heart is still in teaching and every academic year we have students working with us on a variety of projects.” Recent projects which students have worked on include the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House, the Harriet Tubman National Historic Site, the Flight 93 Memorial, and a current project to restore the historic orchards at the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in Kinderhook, NY. Ironically, the very first Cultural Landscape Report that the Center did in 1995 was for the Martin Van Buren site. Part of that Report’s official treatment was a proposal for a non-historic woodlot to be removed and the orchard that was originally there in Martin Van Buren’s time be reconstructed. Almost thirty years later, the first trees will be planted this fall.
While all of the work through the Center is important to Curry, his work on both the Eleanor Roosevelt and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Historic sites holds a special significance for him. While it may have taken years to be instituted, both sites have embraced most of the treatment recommendations in the original reports. The re-opening of the swimming pool at the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site and the reinstallation of the family garden at The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site are just two of the more recent proposals from the original report to be implemented.
Outside of teaching, Curry remains active within the Syracuse community. Since retiring he has served on the Board of Trustees for the Onondaga Historical Association for six years and the Syracuse Public Arts Commission for five years, and he is currently serving as a member of the Board of the Gustaf Stickley House Foundation. In 1999, Curry became a Member of the ESF College Foundation; in 2008, he was named an Emeritus Member. His continued involvement with the College Foundation and the Fund Development Committee is evidence of his steadfast commitment to the success of the College and its students.
“Our connection with our landscape architecture alumni is truly exceptional. Meeting with our alumni is so important for the future of the program. These are the people who will support our students. Not only as mentors and employers, but also as leaders in supporting academic scholarships” Curry states.
What would he tell current students today about a career in landscape architecture? “It is an unbelievable way to spend your life – working with the land and people – there is nothing more important and exciting than that.”