Region: International

About Me:

I graduated with Diplomas in Horticulture and Parks and Recreation Administration from Lincoln College in the mid 1970s, having previously served an apprenticeship in Horticulture and Gardening. Moving to Auckland in 1980 provided opportunities to increase my knowledge about the history and management of historic public cultural landscapes. I was employed as Deputy Superintendent of Horticulture and later Horticulturist at University of Auckland from 1980 to 1998. I began historical research on the gardens of Old Government House and the historically associated landscapes Albert Park, Auckland Domain and Western Park.

I founded (1989) and chaired the Auckland Garden History Society until 1995. I have made landscape heritage study trips to Australia and North America. I completed an intensive two week paper on Heritage Landscapes at Victoria University, Vancouver Island, Canada, in July 1989. I was invited to present a paper Changing Perceptions in Urban Park Development and Conservation in New Zealand’ to the International Symposium on the Conservation of Urban Squares and Parks held in Montreal, Canada in 1993.

I was a contributor to A History of The Garden in New Zealand, Viking, 1995 and have presented papers at the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2005 Conferences of Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand.

Since the late 1980s I have been a member and subscriber of the diverse North American landscape history societies; I currently subscribe to the California Garden and Landscape History Society. I have been an active member of ICOMOS New Zealand since its foundation.

I graduated from the University of Auckland in 2000 with a Graduate Diploma in Arts in Anthropology.

In December 2002 I was jointly awarded, with Matthew Bradbury a lecturer in the landscape architecture programme at UNITEC, Auckland, a New Zealand Fulbright Fellowship, to pursue a joint research project on the American career of landscape architect, Fred Tschopp (1905-1980). Completed from December 2003 to March 2004 in Los Angeles. We were affiliated with the Department of Landscape Architecture at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona near Los Angeles.

In 2006 I was awarded with Louise Beaumont a total of 2,000 pounds Stirling from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust (UK) to research the history of medicinal gardens and plants in 19th century New Zealand and their links to Australia, USA and UK. I received the Garden History Medal from New Zealand Institute of Horticulture in 2007.

In 2008 a presentation give at the Te Papa in November 2007 about the research undertaken on Ratanui with Louise Beaumont was published as a chapter, ‘Living at Ratanui. Man of Property’, in, The Amazing World of James Hector, edited by Simon Nathan and Mary Varnham, AWA Science.

http://fennerschool-associated.anu.edu.au/environhist/newzealand/newsletter/2008/aug_adam.php

Finally, I have been a self employed landscape historian since 1998 whose business is Endangered Gardens.

2010

Kemp House Garden and Landscape Conservation Plan with Louise Beaumont, Heritage Landscape Architect – 2009 and ongoing.

Chelsea Estate Heritage Park Conservation Plan with archaeologist, Dianne Harlow; Conservation Architects, Matthews & Matthews. For North Shore City. 2010 and ongoing.

Research Associate for School of Architecture, University of Victoria. Project: ‘Hydro Camps’, 2009 and ongoing.

Scott Homestead Garden Conservation Plan with Bradbury and McKegg, Auckland for Auckland Regional Council. 2009 and ongoing.

Scandrett Homestead Garden Conservation Plan with Bradbury and McKegg, Auckland for Auckland Regional Council. 2009 and ongoing.

Rosebank Peninsula Horticultural History Project for Avondale - Waterview Historical Society. 2008 and ongoing.

2009

Dunedin City Council Contextual Heritage Overview Team including: Bruce Petry & Richard Bollard, Salmond Reed Ltd; Michael Findlay, art historian; Peter Petchey, archaeologist.

Paper presented to SAHANZ Auckland conference, July 2009, with Sue Wake, UNITEC: Digging the dirt: Cultural discord and the architecture of gardening.

Alberton Garden Conservation Plan / Heritage Assessment for Matthews & Matthews & NZ Historic Places Trust.

Heritage Tree Survey, Monte Cecelia Premier Park, for Auckland City.

2008

Christchurch Botanic Gardens – Historic Landscape Report for Potts Lawn and Surrounding Lands. For Heritage Division, Christchurch City Council. October. 27p.

Research Team [Matthews & Matthews Architects Ltd and Lyn Williams, historian] for Waitangi National Trust Treaty House Grounds Conservation Plan. 2008 - 2009.

Research Associate for Dr James Beattie, History Department, University of Waikato, for Environmental Anxiety project.

2007

Historical investigation and field survey of Phillips Block, Freeman’s Bay, 1968-71, landscape design and instillation project of Harry Turbott Associates [landscape architect] with Bradbury and McKegg for site Body Corp.

Essay written for: “The Face of Nature.” School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, UNITEC, New Zealand. Research & Advanced Practice Essay with Dr Hamish Foote. Published June 2008.

Japanese gardens and plants in New Zealand, 1850-1950: transculturation and transmission, Paper written with Dr. James Beattie and Jasper Heinzen for Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. 18p. Published 2008.

Mt Camel Homestead Garden Maintenance Plan with Heritage Landscape Architect, Louise Beaumont, and Archifacts, Auckland, for Wagener Family Trust.

Beaumont, Louise & Adam, John. (2007) Colonial Pharmaecological gardens: New Zealand’s first public plant collections. A progress report for the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust. April. 41p.

Historical investigation and Conservation policy report on Musick Point (with Matthews & Matthews Architects Ltd) for Musick Point Community Trust. 33p.

Historical investigation report on Savage Memorial Park (with Boffa Miskell) for Auckland City. 52p.

Historical investigation report on Queenstown Park (with Ralf Kruger) for Queenstown District Council. 31p.

Paper for Forest History Society of Australia conference at Canterbury University, January 2007. Title: New Zealand Experimental Sites / Sights of Scientific Inquiry: A Preliminary Survey. 26p.

Beaumont, Louise & Adam, John (2007) Historical garden survey and intepretative policy, bibliography, for Dr James Hector’s garden near Petone for Hutt City Council. 2006 – 2007. 42p.

2000-2007

Historical investigation and Conservation Plan (with Louise Beaumont, heritage landscape architect) for Hutt City on Percy Scenic Reserves, Petone. 94p.

Paper, ‘Archaeological Infrastructure of Wai-te-mata (Auckland) 1820-1850’ presented to the NZ Institute of Horticulture conference Plants as Infrastructure, 24-25 March.  http://www.rnzih.org.nz/RNZIH_Journal/Pages_6_9_from_2007_Vol10_No1.pdf

Tree Survey and heritage assessment on Maungakiekie/Mount Eden for CFG Heritage and Auckland City.

Obituaries. ‘First Amongst Equals.’ Mary Lysaght Watt. Landscape New Zealand, August, 2006. 

Paper presented: “Changing Places: Understanding the destruction of landscape celebration” for Celebration Conference of Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, Napier, 24-27 September, 2005. [Subject was Napier Botanical Gardens and other public landscapes throughout Hawke’s Bay.]

Paper presented to New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects conference, Dunedin. Title: Endangered Gardens. Saving the Past for the Future. In, Looking Forward to Heritage Landscapes Proceedings. [Described methodology Adam then used in his garden history practice.]

Brook House Garden Conservation Plan with Louise Beaumont, Heritage Landscape Architect, for Auckland Regional Council. 2005

Rose Hellaby House Garden Conservation Plan with Louise Beaumont, Heritage Landscape Architect, Hamilton, for Auckland Regional Council. 2005.

Contextual Historical Overview for Christchurch City Heritage Inventory. Team including, Salmond Reed Ltd, Matthews & Matthews; Boffa Miskell; John Wilson and Heritage Solutions. [Landscape research, site visits, literature review and assessment etc.] For Heritage Team, Christchurch City Council. 2004.

Peer reviewed paper with Matthew Bradbury “Fred Tschopp (1905-1980) Landscape Architect. New Zealand’s first modern practitioner 1929-1932. Ad Astera Per Aspera.” submitted to Landscape Review, A Journal of Landscape Architecture.  Volume 8 (2). pp. 43-58. 2004.  

Historical research on land use and design history of The Pah Farm Estate [1847 – 1998], Hillsborough, for Auckland City in association with Matthews & Matthews Architects Ltd for presentation in Draft Pah Farm Conservation Plan. 2002.

North Shore City Parks and Reserves History and Schedule of Park Structures with Planner, Dinah Holman, prepared for North Shore City Council. 2001.

Paper: The Leisured Classes of Ponsonby: Gardens and Parks.  In, The New Zealand Map Society Journal.  No 13.  pp. 47 – 56. 2000.

A History of Auckland’s Open Space.  For Community Planning Division, Auckland City Council. 250p.