In Person. Free.
Join us outside!
As we near the end of this anniversary year, explore two Revolutionary War landscapes balancing preservation, accessibility, & modern use.
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Our 2026 series continues in Lexington and Boston...
at 10am
The morning begins at the Lexington Battle Green, where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired on April 19, 1775. As part of a multi-year effort to rehabilitate this nationally significant landscape, KZLA has worked with the Town of Lexington to improve accessibility, restore historic features, and renew the public spaces surrounding its monuments and memorials. Coordinated with streetscape improvements designed by BETA Group, the work took on particular urgency in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, when 20,000 - 25,000 spectators attended the reenactment. We will discuss the challenges of balancing historic preservation with accessibility, extraordinary visitor demands, and the everyday life of a beloved community gathering place.
From there, we will cross the street... The 2024 Women's Monument, "Something Is Being Done," by sculptor Meredith Bergmann with Inge Daniels Design, expands the conversation beyond the traditional Revolutionary narrative to consider whose histories are represented in public space, and how contemporary landscape architecture supports that interpretation.
Led by
Kyle Zick, ASLA, Kyle Zick Landscape Architecture
Inge Daniels, ASLA, Inge Daniels Design
Nathan Socha, ASLA, BETA Group, Inc.
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at 1 pm
The afternoon continues at the newly restored Dorchester Heights Monument and Thomas Park, a landmark landscape overlooking Boston Harbor and the site of a pivotal American Revolutionary War victory. In March 1776, George Washington's forces fortified these heights, compelling British troops to evacuate Boston. Nearly 250 years later, a major National Park Service restoration has renewed the historic monument and its surrounding 5.4-acre landscape. With landscape architecture by Arcadis, the project addresses longstanding challenges of accessibility, deteriorating infrastructure, and historic preservation by providing regraded pathways, integrated ramps, restored stairs and retaining walls, upgraded drainage and lighting, and new interpretive elements.
We will explore how contemporary landscape interventions can honor a nationally significant historic site while making it safer, more accessible, and more welcoming.
Led by
John Amodeo, FASLA (retired; formerly Arcadis)
The restored Dorchester Heights Monument and Thomas Park. Photo: NPS / P. Boyce.
Come to one or the other or both!
We will meet at 10am at the Lexington Battle Green, in front of the Minuteman statue.
We will meet at 1pm at Dorchester Heights.
Travel between sites is on your own. On-street parking is available near both locations.
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All are welcome.
Members and non-members, coworkers + students, friends + families + kids. Tickets are FREE, tour size limited, registration appreciated. Please come dressed for the weather, prepared to walk outside.
We aim to go in most weather. We will email all ticket holders and post any changes here.
We look forward to exploring with you!
View of Dorchester Heights monument and Thomas Park during construction, with Boston Harbor in the background. Photo: NPS/E Hanson Plass. Also check out this gallery of construction photos of the landscape improvements.
This 1776 map depicts the fortifications on Dorchester Heights. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library.