Eric Groft on UVA Professor Ben Howland

OvS principal Eric Groft was recently interviewed by NPR affiliate WVTF IQ Radio in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The piece chronicled the career of Ben Howland, a former professor of Eric’s at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.

Professor Howland spent 30 years as a landscape architect for the National Park Service (NPS) after leaving UVA. His work has included designing lodges, entrances and information stations around Yellowstone National Park and the George Washington Memorial Parkway. His dedication to the environment is apparent in each NPS project he touched, including the large circle of American flags around the Washington Monument and the areas of preserved coastline in California, Virginia and Massachusetts.

Eric shared memories of choosing a career in landscape architecture after meeting Professor Howland, and how he came to appreciate the interconnected nature of the land, the natural world and history. He remembers his professor’s eloquence in telling students where to put a hiking trail:

“His instructions were, ‘Put it where the bison would walk.”  You think about this one ton beast on these hooves that are only about 8 inches diameter, walking down a rocky terrain, it helps you understand where to put the path.  The other expression Ben would say is, ‘When you’re done, no one should know you were ever here.  We want to do things in a seamless, ageless, timeless way to make it feel like it was always there, so you’re really blending man and nature.’”