March 24, 2010 — Charles A. Birnbaum, founder and director of the Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington, D.C., will give the University of Virginia School of Architecture's Research Theme Lecture on April 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Charlottesville Community Design Center at 100 5th Street NE. Birnbaum's lecture is "Why Not Cultural Systems? The Interface Between Landscape Architecture and Historic Preservation."

Prior to founding the Cultural Landscape Foundation in 1998, Birnbaum coordinated the National Park Service's Historic Landscape Initiative and led a private landscape architecture design practice with a focus on preservation and urban design.

His most recent projects include the award-winning online series, "Cultural Landscapes as Classrooms" and editing "Design with Culture: Claiming America's Landscape Heritage" (U.Va. Press).

In 2009, Birnbaum received the President's Medal from the American Society of Landscape Architects.