Residential Development and the Working Landscape: Collide, Contain, Coexist or Coalesce
Located at Bundoran Farm in Albemarle County, Virginia, The Baldwin Center for Preservation Development is a non-profit foundation that describes its mission as “to showcase innovative practices in agricultural preservation, environmental stewardship and sustainable growth”.
To further its mission, The Baldwin Center sponsored its inaugural symposium, Residential Development and the Working Landscape in October 2009. McKee Carson principal Bob McKee participated in the symposium along with more than 50 others from private, public and non-profit sector interests around the country representing farming and agriculture, forestry, outdoor recreation, land trusts and conservation, development and real estate. They were joined by professors from the Universities of Virginia, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, as well as Ohio State and Harvard. The major non-profit organizations represented were The Nature Conservancy, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Piedmont Environmental Council.
Bundoran Farm was developed jointly by Qroe Farm Preservation Development and Celebration Associates and master planned and engineered by McKee Carson, incorporating many of the ideas and practices of Field Sport Concepts, Ltd. This project is an example of the integration of residential use with a working farm and preservation of rural and forest landscape that allows people to interact on many levels without destroying the character and natural resources of the land.
You can read a complete account of the symposium athttp://blog.bundoranfarm.com/build-it-farm-it-and-they-will-come/.
Audubon International has designated Bundoran Farm as a “Certified Gold Signature Sanctuary” an honor awarded only to those developments which are designed, constructed, and maintained according to Audubon International’s exacting standards for planning and environmental stewardship. Bundoran Farm is the first development in the Commonwealth of Virginia to receive this honor and the first working farm to be certified in the Audubon International Signature Programs.
This award recognizes the values that Field Sport Concepts has always espoused — developing land in an environmentally sustainable manner while maintaining the economic value for the landowner. Conservation of rural land and wildlife habitat can coexist with the manmade landscape to create a place that is preserved for future generations.
Photography © Bundoran Farm