2019 ASLA Conference Education Session Recordings

The opening general session of the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture
In her opening general session, Gina McCarthy declared, “We need landscape architects to design a world that is healthy, safe, and beautiful — and more just. Landscape architecture can kindle hope in all of us.” / image: EPNAC

More than 40 education sessions recorded during the 2019 ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Diego are now available through ASLA Online Learning. The recorded sessions’ topics range from climate action and metrics for assessing public space designs to innovative business practices and risk management.

ASLA Online Learning offers both live online presentations throughout the year and more than 200 recordings for Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System™ (LA CES™)-approved professional development hours (PDH). Log in using your ASLA username and password for member discounts and access to free PDH, for ASLA members only.

Free for ASLA Members: The 2019 General Sessions

Gina McCarthy, President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, brought down the house during her 2019 keynote speech when she declared landscape architecture THE profession to solve the climate crisis. ASLA members now have exclusive access to the recording of the opening general session, From Climate Change to Climate Action: Building a Clean, Healthy, Sustainable Future, free-of-charge via ASLA Online Learning (1.0 PDH LA CES/non-HSW).

The blockbuster closing general session, No Time to Waste: Landscape Architecture and the Global Challenge of Climate Change, presented by Kongjian Yu, FASLA, Kotchakorn Voraakhom, ASLA, and Hitesh Mehta, FASLA, and moderated by Andrew Revkin, is also available to all ASLA members free-of-charge, offering 1.0 PDH LA CES/non-HSW.

The 2019 closing general session, No Time to Waste: Landscape Architecture and the Global Challenge of Climate Change / image: EPNAC

Conference Recordings Packages

Save 25-40% by purchasing bundle packages and receive access to three or four webinars per package. These packages are organized by popular focus areas, including:

  • Business,
  • Design,
  • Inside the LA Studio,
  • Ecology & Restoration,
  • Public Space Design, and
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Purchase a webinar package now and watch each webinar as many times as you need! Don’t want to purchase a package? Each webinar is also available for individual purchase.

Seven packages of 2019 education session recordings are available / image: ASLA Online Learning

In addition to the general sessions, these are the 2019 education sessions added to the ASLA Online Learning library:

A Design Framework for Livable Streets in the Era of Autonomous Vehicles – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Autonomous technology will become increasingly prevalent in our communities. Despite optimism about the technology, there is a high degree of uncertainty about how it will manifest in urban environs and streetscapes. This session builds frameworks for best practice based on the concepts of autonomy, livability, and human scale design.

ADA to Universal Design: Creating Healthy Communities Through Equitable Design Approaches – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

If our goal is to develop a community that is accessible to all, why do we only use the minimum requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act? We will examine the current approach to accessibility and look at simple, intuitive strategies for developing a complete community, with access as an integral component.

After Whyte: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces Forty Years Later – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

It’s time to revisit the work of William H. Whyte! This panel will look at the evolution of small urban spaces and human behavior; exploring how new design strategies and emerging technologies can facilitate the success of these spaces as catalysts for sustainable urban living.

Breaking Free from Tropical Hardwoods: New Alternatives for Sustainability – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW) / 1.5 GBCI SITES-Specific CE

Dependency on tropical hardwoods is unsustainable given current rates of use, ecosystem degradation, and slow renewal rates. Fortunately, there are new alternatives that are durable, beautiful, and renewable. In this session learn how to use and work with thermally modified, acetylated, and polymerized woods, fused bamboo lumber, and black locust.

Contracts: Relationships, Rights, and Risk Management – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

As the work of Landscape Architects has become more complex and intertwined with other disciplines, our success hinges on more than design talents. Learn from principals at leading architecture and landscape architecture practices as well as legal and insurance experts about how to meet the practical challenges all design professionals confront when negotiating contracts.

Culture, Identity, and Design – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

How do we recognize the multiple histories, cultural traditions, identities, and populations that have shaped landscapes of the past and could construct landscapes of the future? This panel will explore the ways in which representation and equity can creatively inform design processes and be intentional outcomes of our work.

Sara Zewde, ASLA, speaker for the 2019 session Culture, Identity, and Design / image: EPNAC

Design with Nature—Fifty Years Later – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

In celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Ian McHarg’s seminal Design with Nature, this panel provides insights into his legacy and broad influences, informed by personal experiences, and explores the relevance of his ecologically driven vision for addressing the contemporary and emerging issues of landscape resilience, performance, and climate change.

Do You Speak Developer? Translating and Communicating the Value of Landscape Architecture – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Landscape architects can serve as powerful partners in creating places that generate a high return on investment but often don’t know how to express the value of their work in language compelling to developers. Experts offer insights on how landscape architects can translate their work and reach their greatest potential.

Doing the Extraordinary: Design Excellence Through Sustainable SITES Legislation – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW) / 1.0 GBCI SITES-Specific CE

Can we achieve extraordinary design, impact, influence, equity, and sustainability through SITES legislation? How can we do this? Learn from Rhode Island’s historic Green Buildings Act, becoming the first state in the nation adopting LEED for Neighborhood Development and the highly strategic SITES guiding frameworks into public law.

Drawing Matters: Exploring the Value of Drawing in Landscape Architecture – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

Drawing still matters. Rather than the familiar debate over digital versus hand graphics, this session explores the value of drawing as a process connected to seeing, thinking, and engaging throughout design.

image: EPNAC

Ecotrace: Layering Ecology Into Practice – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Small urban design, large parks and campuses, and dedicated ecological restoration projects all have different goals and considerations, but all can incorporate layers of ecological knowledge to design for successful outcomes. Landscape architects from three different models of practice share their approaches and strategies for creating site-specific ecological goals.

Fact Check: Assessing Landscape Performance in Research and Practice – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Amid today’s science denial and “alternative facts,” it is imperative for landscape architects to advocate and prove design impacts with evidence. This panel shares experience in evaluating design and assessing landscape performance through collaborative research in practice, focusing on post-occupancy evaluation of environmental, social, and economic performance.

Finding Design: Case Studies in the Creative Process – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Reaching beyond the constraints of their sites, landscape architects often create works that are striking, unique, and memorable in concept and realization. This session explores ways in which an active imagination and a creative spirit fuel the design process in the work of landscape architects known for their inspired designs.

Green Schoolyards: Local Urban Transformation to National Prototype – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

The 98,000 public schools across the United States represent the single greatest opportunity to improve public health, environmental health, and neighborhood quality of life for hundreds of millions of Americans. Learn how cities like Philadelphia and New York and nonprofits are transforming these low-performing, semi-public spaces into green public architecture.

Hot Topic: Integrating Wildfire Resilience into Planning and Design – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

As communities across the country face growing wildfire threats and more people reside in areas at risk, learning to plan and design for wildfire is of critical importance. This session explores the relationship between wildfires, land use decisions, and the integration of wildfire resilience in planning and design.

Inside the LA Studio with Andropogon – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

Founded more than 40 years ago, Andropogon has maintained its commitment to the principle of “designing with nature,” creating beautiful and evocative landscapes inspired by careful observation of natural processes and informed by scientific evidence. Andropogon will discuss challenges and opportunities through the decades and its vision for the next generation.

Inside the LA Studio with BASE Landscape Architecture – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

BASE, a small landscape architecture firm with offices in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, is unique in several ways: our commitment to mentorship; the proportion of our clients who are community-based, civic, or nonprofit organizations; and the values-driven connection to our projects.

image: EPNAC

Inside the LA Studio with Design Workshop – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, Design Workshop is looking forward and positioning itself for the next 50 years. Learn the factors that have contributed to the firm’s longevity, what drives its passion for research, and explore the firm’s design thinking about the next generation.

Inside the LA Studio with Mahan Rykiel Associates – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

Founded in 1983, Mahan Rykiel Associates (MRA) is a Baltimore-based firm that works across scales to imagine and realize projects that enrich the human condition and support vibrant natural systems. Through its collaborative design research methodology, MRA frames questions of landscape through the lenses of economic development, ecological stewardship, and community identity.

Interagency and Community Collaboration: Great Parks Integrated with Infrastructure and Ecology – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Stormwater management needs in urban environments become progressively more challenging as cities densify. By incorporating green infrastructure solutions that meaningfully increase open space and recreational opportunities for community residents, winning solutions are unfolding. Learn how interagency collaboration creates the opportunity to bring open space to a Denver neighborhood.

IT Flows Downhill: CSO and Wastewater Treatment as an Integrated Design Strategy – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Green stormwater infrastructure is popular with landscape architects. While cities are faced with multi-billion-dollar combined sewer overflow consent decrees, is anyone advocating for constructed wetlands as part of an integrated water treatment strategy? It’s time to expand our GSI vocabulary and look beyond bioswales and rain gardens.

Kennedy Greened: A Streetscape Planned, Designed, and Now Built! – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Five years ago, we introduced the concept design for the NW Kennedy Green Street, DC Water’s pilot green infrastructure streetscape project. This two-block commercial green street has now been constructed. A landscape architecture firm, engineering firm, and water utility authority will reflect on the design/construction lessons learned for this showcase project.

Landscape Resiliency Through Integrated Planting Design and Management – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Resilient landscapes require synchronizing of planting design and management. A planting’s responsiveness to management and change over time critically affects its success and longevity. This session explores departures from the architectural model of design to open, iterative processes that offer greater resilience and more compelling, enduring designs.

Making Space for Homelessness: Innovative Approaches to Housing, Spaces, and Services – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

For designers and policy makers, homelessness has become the new core competency, influencing every decision made about the public realm and the built environment. Learn from empathetic innovators who are crafting new policies to both engage and empower people who have been traumatized by the experience of homelessness.

image: EPNAC

Manassas Street, A Tactical and Artistic Urban Street Transformation in Memphis – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Today’s cities are often strapped for budget dollars and desire to provide more amenities in streetscapes and public spaces. Interim design solutions as used on the Manassas Street streetscape show how this can be accomplished quickly and more affordably, but doing so in an artful way.

Measuring What Matters: Metrics to Capture the Social Impacts of Public Spaces – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

We believe that shared civic assets have the power to influence social outcomes. Detroit is one of five cities piloting a new measurement system that tracks the impacts of investments in public space design and programming. Learn about this metrics framework and take home tools to measure your own work.

Nature, Adventure and Destination: Departures from Status Quo in Public Play Environments – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Communities increasingly seek creative opportunities for children and families to engage in meaningful play. As the status quo shifts, differing approaches have emerged, some emphasizing the use of natural elements, others iconic design features. This session explores ways in which these approaches support healthy human development.

Picturing Landscape – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

How do we picture landscapes? Three prominent photographers, working differently with designed, urban, and climate-affected landscapes, will share their work and thoughts on how they capture landscapes and how this might inform our work as designers.

Preserve, Restore, Redesign: The Ethical and Practical Quandaries of Historic Landscape Stewardship – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

As society changes and cities evolve, the fate of cultural and historic landscapes increasingly comes into question. This panel, with expertise representing different aspects of the profession, will lead a frank discussion about complex and controversial issues associated with the stewardship, maintenance, restoration, preservation, and redesign of historically significant landscapes.

Resilient Streets: Expanding Public Realm and Mobility – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

This session will explore how streets can be designed to signal a “pedestrian-first” environment, creating a more cohesive public realm identity and expanding flexible programming opportunities while also prioritizing safety. “Resilient” streets can accommodate existing modes of transportation, while also being poised to strategically adapt to emerging mobility trends.

Situation Normal: All Mocked Up – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Leaders at three prominent landscape architecture practices that focus on planted systems within their work explore planting mock-ups and plant trials. How can they aid or hinder the design and documentation process, help with plant sourcing and availability challenges, guide implementation, and ensure long-term success in planting strategies?

Social/Ecological Resilience of Green Infrastructure When Design and Engineering Are Integrated – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Green infrastructure has swept the nation the past 20 years. We can now learn from aged green infrastructure how to best plan and implement these design solutions. When functionality of engineered systems is paired with judicious design, GI is able to provide resilient social and ecological benefits to all communities.

Spatial Multiplicity: Weaving Complex and Diverse Narratives in the Public Realm – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Public spaces of deep meaning often have multiple narratives that exist within the constructs of place. Through lively discussion and case study examples, this panel will explore key design strategies and lessons learned for creating spaces that embody and celebrate the complexity of the people and places they serve.

image: EPNAC

The Business of Innovation: Three Case Studies in Unconventional Practice – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

Innovation in contemporary landscape architecture requires not only creative design, but also creative business practices and nimble organizational structures. In this session, three small business owners share how they push ideas forward. Learn how they structure their work around innovation while running a profitable enterprise.

The Economics of Parks: Creating and Sustaining Successful Public Realm – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

The economics of parks is ever more important: educating clients on the costs of creating public realm; developing funding strategies to build; balancing revenue generation with creating respite; planning for governance, operations, and maintenance to preserve investments for future generations; and valuing design.

The Evolution of the Front Yard: From Display Garden to Multiuse Space – 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

The suburban front yard, dominated by lawn, has long functioned as a passage from house to street and tidy foreground to the home. This session explores recent trends toward other uses of the front yard: for socializing, recreation, and cultivation, functions historically kept in the backyard.

The ReImagined River: Fifty-One Miles of Connected Open Space – 1.5 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

One million people live within a mile of the Los Angeles River, which currently serves a singular purpose of flood control. Los Angeles County is reimagining the river as multibenefit and updating its 1996 master plan. This session explores the project, which is integrating robust community engagement, politics, hydrology, and design.

The Role of Stormwater Management in Landscape Architecture – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW) / 1.0 GBCI SITES-Specific CE

ASLA advocacy of the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (H.R. 7279), a bill aimed at promoting better stormwater management, helped it become law. This session examines the benefits of green infrastructure design and low impact development, including satisfying regulatory requirements, earning rating systems credits, offering amenities, and designing within water budgets.

image: EPNAC

Two-way Street: Building Value Through Long-Term Relationships – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

Maintaining long-term owner/designer relationships is good for both business and design. In candid conversation, panelists will dissect their successful 12-year relationship while sharing lessons learned and practical advice on marketing; client interface; working across time, project type, and scales; and efficiently and effectively managing staff from novice designer to principal.

Urban Forest Futures: Climate Change, Social Equity, and the Contemporary City – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Our urban forests are in severe decline. Climate change, pests, diseases, and development pressures threaten the urban canopy’s ecosystem and cultural value. This panel discusses a research-based urban forest master plan for Cambridge, Massachusetts, that joins ecological planning, progressive policy, and cutting-edge practices to build a resilient and equitable future.

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