John Tschirch
Landscape Preservation and Administration and Author
Member since: 2012
Proposed by: Newport Garden Club, Zone II
John Tschirch is an award-winning architectural and landscape historian, writer, and photographer and was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America in 2012 for his work in landscape research and preservation. John recently published America's Eden: Newport Landscapes through the Ages (Giles Ltd, London, 2022) for The Newport Tree Conservancy. Also to his credit is Newport: The Artful City (Giles Ltd. London, 2020) for which he received a 2021 Victorian Society in America Book Award. John received his M.A. (1986) in Architectural History and Historic Preservation from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. His thirty-year career in the preservation and study of historic landmarks and landscapes across the globe has led him on treks to French chateaux, English castles, Italian villas, Austrian palaces, Croatian fortresses, Argentinian mansions and the Gilded Age houses of America.
John's work in preserving and interpreting historic places has been featured in the Magazine Antiques, Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler and he has appeared on the A&E documentary series, America's Castles. From 1986 to 2013, he served the Preservation Society of Newport County, first as Director of Education and later as Director of Museum Affairs and Architectural Historian, overseeing the curatorial, conservation, education and research activities at the organizations eleven historic house museums and gardens. His professional publications include "The New Thing at Newport: The Tiffany Glass Wall at Kingscote" in The Magazine Antiques (January 2013), the essay, "Newport Cottages" for The Encyclopedia of New England Culture (Yale University Press, 2005) and "Newport" in Parisian Palaces of La Belle Epoque (Paris 1992). In recognition of his service to historic preservation, he and received the 2013 Frederick C. Williamson Professional Leadership Award from the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission.
The preservation of heritage sites of international significance is of foremost interest to John. He has lectured widely in the U.S. and abroad on architecture, landscapes and historic cities, from the Attingham Conference in London to Yale University's Mellon Center Seminar on 18th Century French Design and the UNESCO sponsored conference on Architecture and Culture in Buenos Aires.
Honorary Member since 2012.
