Wave Hill Names New Director of Horticulture
Bronx, NY, January 7, 2014 — Wave Hill announces the appointment of Louis Bauer as its third Director of Horticulture, effective January 15, 2014. Mr. Bauer succeeds Scott Canning, who, after more than a decade of leadership, plans to relocate to the southwestern United States.
A public garden and cultural center with a long history as a private estate, but barely a half-century as a public institution, Wave Hill has attracted exemplary horticultural leaders whose long tenures have enabled each to shape its extraordinary 28 acres. Almost a century ago, George W. Perkins, then owner of three newly combined estates, engaged Viennese-trained gardener Albert Millard to design a garden space that would help unite the properties into one. Founding Director of Horticulture Marco Polo Stufano, trained by the legendary T.H. Everett, arrived in 1967, and soon began to collaborate with John Nally, a born gardener and trained printmaker, to design the landscape. In 2001, Scott Canning settled in as Wave Hill’s second Director of Horticulture. Among the many contributions of his tenure are several infrastructure projects on the grounds, including the completion of the Marco Polo Stufano Conservatory, the creation of the Perkins Visitor Center and the Kerlin Overlook, and the physical setting for Wave Hill House, which reopened this past summer after a thorough, two-year renovation. It is thanks to the skill and dedication of its horticultural staff that Wave Hill is known by many as “one of the greatest living works of art.”
“Mr. Bauer continues the legacy of his distinguished predecessors here at Wave Hill,” commented Wave Hill President and Executive Director Claudia Bonn. “I anticipate that, like Marco and Scott before him, Louis will open a new chapter in the evolution of this world-class landscape.” He comes to Wave Hill from Greenwood Gardens, where he has served as Director of Horticulture since 2003. Mr. Bauer’s appointment is also a coming home of sorts: His first position as a gardener was at Wave Hill, where he worked under the leadership of Marco Polo Stufano for nine years, before moving to Greenwood Gardens. His transformation of Greenwood from a country estate into a public garden for the people of New Jersey, is the subject of the first of Wave Hill’s 2014 Horticultural Lectures, a distinguished series that takes place each winter at the New York School of Interior Design; his lecture takes place on January 22, 2014. In addition to two decades as a working gardener, Mr. Bauer is also deeply educated in architecture and design history.
Interviews with Mr. Bauer are available on request. For images, please contact pressroom@wavehill.org.
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