Seminar Dates: November 5, 2026 11:15 AM
Seminar Cost: $30.00 Register Now
Seminar Description:
The grounds of an iconic institution carry as much weight as the collections inside. This panel brings together facility managers from some of Southern California's most celebrated public landscapes for a behind-the-scenes look at balancing preservation with progress.
Panelists will share the strategies, tensions, and triumphs behind maintaining landscapes that honor their historical roots while evolving to meet modern expectations — all under the pressure of thousands of daily visitors. From managing foot traffic and seasonal wear to navigating institutional stakeholders and renovation timelines, this session offers rare insight into landscape stewardship at the highest level.
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify the core strategies facility managers at major public institutions use to preserve historical landscape integrity while thoughtfully integrating contemporary aesthetic and horticultural standards.
2. Evaluate the unique design and maintenance challenges posed by high-volume daytime pedestrian traffic, including turf management, plant protection, circulation planning, and material durability at the institutional scale.
3. Apply lessons from world-class institutional landscapes to develop a more intentional, historically informed approach to long-term property management and phased aesthetic evolution.
Lola Trafecanty, Getty Grounds Manager
Lola Trafecanty, has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Landscape Architecture from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, and an executive MBA from the Drucker School of Management in Claremont, California. Her career started working as an associate for a landscape firm in Orange County, which led to water management for master associations. Her passion for the proper maintenance of designed landscapes and gardens led her to the field of Landscape operations and maintenance. She is currently the Grounds manager at the Getty in partnership with Luis Gomez, managing both the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, the latter of which is known for its historic significance to the Pacific Palisades area and its historic connection to the Roman era.
Her previous roles have been in management of grounds for two historic college campuses, Occidental College in Los Angeles and Scripps College of Women in Claremont, California. In 2002, The Getty granted an award to Scripps College to develop a comprehensive Landscape and Architectural Blueprint to analyze and document character defining and historic features in order to preserve the historic significance of the campus. She is now working as part of the Getty Grounds and Gardens team to support the creation of a Cultural Landscape Report as it is developed for the Getty Villa.
Nicole Cavender,The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Since 2021, Nicole Cavender has served as the Telleen/Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens at The Huntington. Nicole oversees a staff of 95 and is responsible for the management and maintenance of 207 acres of gardens and grounds, 130 acres of which are open to the public with 13 miles of accessible, public-facing pathways. The gardens include more than a dozen themed gardens and a collection of 23,400 living taxa with about 10,000 displayed for the public, approximately 74,000 living plants, and more than 17,000 species and hybrids of which about half (9,600) are found at no other gardens. Nicole’s key focus areas include collection management, horticultural display, sustainability, education, and biodiversity conservation.
Prior to The Huntington, Nicole worked at the Morton Arboretum near Chicago as the Vice President of Science and Conservation, where she led programs and initiatives for tree science, strengthened ties with the public for tree forest health, and facilitated global collaborations to help protect threatened tree species. Before Morton she was the Chief Programmatic Officer at The Wilds, a subsidiary of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, a 10,000-acre wildlife conservation center in southeastern Ohio. At The Wilds, Nicole led large?scale landscape restoration and integrated applied science into land management and conservation programming.
Nicole has worked closely with the national and international botanical gardens network, including serving as a global and US board member and participating in the international advisory committee for BGCI (Botanical Gardens Conservation International). She received her BS in Environmental and Plant Biology from Ohio University followed by a PhD degree in Horticulture and Crop Science from The Ohio State University.
