Horticultural science alumna Clara Curtis receives award
Curtis is design director of the 434-acre North Carolina Arboretum, near Asheville.
Photo Courtesy the NC Arboretum
In November, Clara Curtis, director of design at the North Carolina Arboretum near Asheville, received the 2007 Citizen’s Award from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The award is given annually to an individual or group, other than landscape architects, that has shown commendable service to the profession and the state.
Curtis is a 1982 horticultural science graduate of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University.
She was honored for two decades of distinguished service, based on her contribution to the enhancement of North Carolina’s physical environment, for promoting a better understanding of landscape architecture within the community and for enriching the lives of North Carolina citizens.
“During most of the 20 years of development of the North Carolina Arboretum, Curtis has been an influential force in the landscape, exhibit and facility excellence that now characterizes the institution,” said Gavin Young, public relations coordinator of the N.C. Arboretum. “She has enriched the arboretum’s exhibits, fascinated its visitors and brought to life the aesthetic qualities of the well-designed landscape.”
The 434-acre arboretum, also a botanical garden, is located within the Bent Creek Experimental Forest of the Pisgah National Forest, near the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Curtis came to the arboretum in 1988 as special projects coordinator. She was promoted to the position of director for design in 2005, with purview over the Arboretum’s institutional design processes and expression.
“Clara Curtis has spent the past 19 years helping to create a facility that expresses the most admirable attributes of landscape architecture,” said George Briggs, the arboretum’s executive director. “She is an eloquent and gifted ambassador of the profession, a spokesperson who communicates with her hand, her voice, her considerable imagination and certainly her enthusiasm.”
Curtis is a 1982 horticultural science graduate of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University.
She was honored for two decades of distinguished service, based on her contribution to the enhancement of North Carolina’s physical environment, for promoting a better understanding of landscape architecture within the community and for enriching the lives of North Carolina citizens.
“During most of the 20 years of development of the North Carolina Arboretum, Curtis has been an influential force in the landscape, exhibit and facility excellence that now characterizes the institution,” said Gavin Young, public relations coordinator of the N.C. Arboretum. “She has enriched the arboretum’s exhibits, fascinated its visitors and brought to life the aesthetic qualities of the well-designed landscape.”
The 434-acre arboretum, also a botanical garden, is located within the Bent Creek Experimental Forest of the Pisgah National Forest, near the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Curtis came to the arboretum in 1988 as special projects coordinator. She was promoted to the position of director for design in 2005, with purview over the Arboretum’s institutional design processes and expression.
“Clara Curtis has spent the past 19 years helping to create a facility that expresses the most admirable attributes of landscape architecture,” said George Briggs, the arboretum’s executive director. “She is an eloquent and gifted ambassador of the profession, a spokesperson who communicates with her hand, her voice, her considerable imagination and certainly her enthusiasm.”