Charles Birnbaum began his career with 15 years as the coordinator of the
National Park Service's Historic Landscaping Initiative (HLI) and then 10 years focusing on landscape preservation and
urban design through a private practice Birnbaum started The Cultural Landscape and Design Foundation (TCLF) while he was working at the National Park Service and later in 2008 became the President and CEO of the TCLF. Their main award is the biennial "The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize". "What’s Out There" is an online database that can be searched by content, landscape, style, and region. Entries can be identified as "At-Risk", "Saved", or "Lost" based on the current state of the area. This database then led to the creation of the "What’s Out There Cultural Landscapes Guides". These guides were created in partnership with the National Park Services’ Northeast Regional Office in 2016 to celebrate its 100th anniversary. In 2019 these guides were given an honorary award by the
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in the Communications category. TCLF launched the
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize in 2021, which includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities. Its first recipient was
Julie Bargmann. == References ==