Mark Laird is a garden historian and historic landscape consultant active in the UK, mainland Europe, the USA and Canada in the 20th and 21st centuries. He is currently Senior Lecturer in the History of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design a post he has held since 2001.
Educated at the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and York, Laird was twice a fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. He has worked as an historian at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, England and has taught at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Laird is particularly noted for his replanting work at Painshill Park, Cobham, Surrey in England. This jointly earned him a Europa Nostra medal for exemplary restoration in 1998. Since 2003 Laird has been the Associate Director of the Painshill Park Trust.
His most recent consultancy projects include: Hestercome and Gibside in England, Fürst-Pückler Park in Germany, the Belvederegarten and SchloßHof in Austria, Rideau Hall, Parkwood, and the Halifax Public Gardens in Canada.
Laird's publications include The Flowering of the Landscape Garden (1999) and The Formal Garden (1992).
Bibliography
Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 'Mark Laird, Faculty Profile', http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/faculty/laird/index.html [accessed 21 September 2008]