People

Cari L. Goetcheus, Professor in the College of Environment + Design, teaches in the graduate Historic Preservation Program. With training in both Landscape Architecture and Historic Preservation, Cari’s expertise lies in cultural landscape research, documentation and management.

Prior to her academic career, Ms. Goetcheus worked in both the public and private sectors. As a Historical Landscape Architect with the National Park Service in Atlanta, GA and Washington, D.C., Cari worked with the Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) program. In Washington, D.C. she further worked with NPS regional colleagues to assist the then 396 national parks with a variety of cultural landscape issues. In private practice, Ms. Goetcheus worked in both traditional landscape architecture offices on master plans, site designs and construction drawings, as well as in preservation firms known for their cultural landscape work and developing National Heritage Areas. On a volunteer basis at the national level, Cari was instrumental in developing the Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) program and its documentation guidelines.

With 25 years of experience in research, planning, preservation, and project management, Ms. Goetcheus is a licensed landscape architect in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Georgia. Current and past research projects include: directing the UGA Cultural Landscape Laboratory; partnering with ten Gullah Geechee communities in coastal South Carolina to document the tangible and intangible qualities of their historic communities; guiding consultants to develop the Getty Foundation funded Clemson University Preservation Master Plan; development of cultural resource documentation for a c. 1785 property on the Clemson University campus; working with students to craft a Scenic Byway Management Guide for Sumter National Forest, and contributing to an Environmental Impact Assessment Report for Dyea, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway, Alaska.