Month: September 2022

Help ASLA Create the Future We Are Committed To

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Participants at the ASLA 2018 Diversity Summit. This could be you! / image: EPNAC

Have you drawn on ASLA publications such as Climate Action Now: A Landscape Architect’s Guide to Climate Advocacy, The Landscape Architect’s Guidelines for Construction Contract Administration, Principles of Accessibility Design for Landscape Architecture: ADA, ABA, and Other Accessibility Standards and Guidelines, or our public policies for guidance? Have you attended any programs in the SKILL | ED: Education to Build Your Practice series, or made use of ASLA’s LARE Prep materials? Have you been inspired by the education program at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture? Then you are the beneficiary of the work of ASLA’s dedicated corps of member volunteers. (And this series of rhetorical questions offers just a tiny sampling of all that our volunteers do!)

ASLA member volunteers play a leading role in the success of ASLA. Your volunteer service is directly related to how we serve our members and the landscape architecture profession. A strong volunteer workforce of more than 250 members spread over 30 committees and other groups deploys the mission of the Society.

ASLA is realigning with our new strategic plan and has evolved our committees to be more effective in achieving our mission through our members’ innovation and expertise. Help us create the future we are committed to.

The ASLA 2022 – 2024 Strategic Plan guides and shapes the work of our colleagues and volunteer leaders. It lays out goals and outcomes in five focus areas: Community, Voice, Scale, Connections, and Innovation. We are looking for thoughtful, forward-thinking individuals with diverse experience to bring the ASLA Strategic Plan to life.

To volunteer for service, please apply online by October 5, 2022.

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The University of Pittsburgh’s Hillside Framework Plan

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by Laura Tenny, ASLA

The Green Ribbon concept, connecting U. Pitt’s upper campus to the urban fabric of Pittsburgh. / image: DAVID RUBIN Land Collective

University of Pittsburgh: Hillside Framework Plan, SCUP Honorable Mention Award Winner for “Excellence in Planning for a District or Campus Component”

Most of us are familiar with ASLA national and chapter awards for landscape architecture. Did you know that the Society for College and University Planners (SCUP) awards “Design Excellence” prizes to landscape architecture projects? Selected by a jury of industry professionals, the award-winning projects showcase exceptional planning and design work being done by landscape architects engaged in the realm of higher education campuses. This year, for the Campus Planning & Design PPN’s annual post for The Field on SCUP award highlights, we feature work at the University of Pittsburgh, by DAVID RUBIN Land Collective. I spoke with Founding Principal David A. Rubin, FASLA, and his University project partner, Mary Beth McGrew, to learn more about this transformative project.

Pittsburgh is a city of hills and rivers, and home to the University of Pittsburgh, affectionally known as “U. Pitt.” The Hillside District of U. Pitt comprises more than 400 vertical feet of grade change over a 68-acre site. The steep topography of Hillside distinguishes it from the lower, more urban campus. Despite the dramatic setting, Hillside lacked a strong sense of place or identity before the framework plan. A series of capital projects at U. Pitt brought increased visibility to the challenges of siting buildings that needed to navigate significant grade change, with the accompanying challenges of circulation, access, drainage, and connectivity between the upper and lower parts of campus.

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All New Heights During the 9 to 5

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by Chris Mutter, ASLA

One Franklin Park, Franklin, TN – Stormwater management components creatively integrated add to site aesthetics. / image: HGOR

The future of the traditional indoor office space has moved outdoors.

It’s no secret that the world has drastically changed over the past several years. With that disruption of normalcy has come new priorities and novel approaches for landscape architecture and design professionals regarding workplace environments. Most businesses are looking for outdoor spaces to meet various needs and desires formerly delivered by indoor accommodations.

In earlier days, outdoor workspaces seemed only inhabited during planned social gatherings and required additional components, making them suitable for events. They lacked seating areas comfortable enough to work in for long periods, shade structures, and offered little to no immersive experiences that engaged guests.

The past few years’ events have significantly altered and propelled traditional landscape solutions by requiring a much more in-depth level of innovation, creativity, and cutting-edge designs which encompass immersive outdoor environments, social connectivity, and functional collaborative space.

People now want multi-functional spaces, set in nature, spread throughout each aspect of their daily lives, especially during work hours, so that they may benefit from continued health and wellness opportunities. Workers crave direct access to fresh air, sunlight, and natural surroundings to thrive and maintain focus, while companies still uphold the importance of productivity. To accommodate employee demands, businesses are seeking various means of incorporating greenspace in easily accessible courtyards, amphitheaters, and green roofs that provide all the necessary elements to yield high performance. And landscape architects are developing highly imaginative responses to deliver these solutions!

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Get Ready for #ASLA2022

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Salesforce Park is one of the stops on the field session San Francisco’s Landscapes in the Sky at the ASLA 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture. / image: Marcus Nunez

We are less than two months out from the biggest and brightest gathering of landscape architects—the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture is coming to San Francisco this November 11-14.

While there is so much going on—Climate Week NYC, webinars galore, and DREAM BIG with Design: A Virtual Showcase of Landscape Architecture and PreK-12 Design Learning, to name just a few of things competing for your attention this week—the conference is the profession’s signature event: 6,000 attendees, convening this fall in a city with 220+ public parks to attend 120+ education sessions and other special events. It’s a lot to take in.

Just a few areas of special interest to get excited about:

This Wednesday, September 21, is the last day to save up to $130 with the advanced registration rate!

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A New Portfolio Competition and Micro Grants for Minority Landscape Architects

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Check out @nationalamla on Instagram for more from the National Association of Minority Landscape Architects. / images courtesy of NAMLA

Since its 2020 founding and being covered by Landscape Architecture Magazine last year, the National Association of Minority Landscape Architects (NAMLA) has had lots going on, from the formation of student chapters to launching a NAMLA Talk Series. Today on The Field, we’re highlighting two NAMLA opportunities with a deadline of this Sunday, September 18, for submissions. Act fast!

Landscape Architecture Portfolio Competition

NAMLA has announced their inaugural Portfolio Competition, open to landscape architecture students, interns, and apprentices. Winners will receive a cash award and will be featured on NAMLA’s social media platforms.

Submission checklist:

  • Number of images: 20
  • Aspect ratio: 1:1 or 4:5 (portrait)
  • Resolution: 150 dpi
  • Format: JPEG
  • Captions for each image (2,000 characters max., including spaces)

Portfolios must be submitted via email by September 18, 2022.

This competition is a collaborative effort with Vectorworks and OJB Landscape Architecture.

Apply for a NAMLA Micro Grant

NAMLA’s seventh Micro Grant opportunity is sponsored by OJB Landscape Architecture. The prompt for applicants to respond to is:

How can minority groups empower one another to help create pathways to leadership opportunities within landscape architecture?

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Get Ready to Dream Big with Design

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Registration is open for the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)’s 2022 PreK-12 Summit: DREAM BIG with Design, A Virtual Showcase of Landscape Architecture and PreK-12 Design Learning.

Scheduled for Thursday, September 22, and Friday, September 23, DREAM BIG with Design will highlight the exciting world of landscape architecture with fun sessions and resources for students in grades preK-12. PreK-12 teachers, school counselors, after school leaders, family members, and design professionals are invited to attend.

This year, DREAM BIG will immerse students in design-centered strategies that address some of the most critical issues of our time—green infrastructure, equity in design, climate action, transportation for all, water and stormwater, and more.

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Public Practice in Focus

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Image courtesy of Jennifer Shagin

The realm of public practice, including non-profit and governmental work, offers unique opportunities and challenges to practitioners. In an ongoing series for ASLA’s LAND newsletter, members of ASLA’s Public Practice Advisory Committee and other landscape architects showcase those opportunities and share insights on their public practice careers. The committee has published four interviews so far this year—if you haven’t seen them all, here are the latest interviewees:

Jennifer Shagin, ASLA
Landscape Designer, NES
Interview conducted by Om Khurjekar, ASLA, PLA, Principal, Hord Coplan Macht

“My public sector work has been overall less design oriented and more focused on overall community growth and wellbeing. My campaign for trustee for the Town of Berthoud was self-run and managed; I spent every free moment talking with residents and formulating how I could apply what I know about design to improve their livelihood…My work in office as a trustee in a small town was very fulfilling, and I felt that it was democracy in its truest form.”

Kris Sorich, ASLA
Senior Landscape Architect, Chicago Department of Transportation
Interview conducted by Om Khurjekar, ASLA, PLA, Principal, Hord Coplan Macht

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A Global Survey of Practice: What Do Landscape Architects Do?

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ASLA 2021 Professional General Design Honor Award. Auckland International Airport. Auckland, New Zealand. SurfaceDesign, Inc. / image: Blake Marvin

The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) has launched a Global Survey of Practice for Landscape Architecture in partnership with the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB).

The aim is to achieve a better understanding of the practice of landscape architecture around the globe. By identifying similarities and differences in practice regionally and by country, the project seeks to expand the role, definition, and mobility of the landscape architect as well as understand how changes in practice, such as the response to climate change, have forced the profession to evolve.

The Global Survey of Practice launched during the IFLA World Congress in Gwangju, South Korea, last week and all practicing landscape architects globally are encouraged to complete the survey by November 6, 2022.

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INTERSECTIONS: Where Diversity, Equity and Design Meet

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Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, VA / image: Suchak, courtesy of the National Building Museum

The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., will bring leading Black voices in design, art, and architecture to the Museum for INTERSECTIONS: Where Diversity, Equity and Design Meet, dynamic discussions about culture, equity and representation in the built world through the lens of design. The programming is a part of the Museum’s ongoing signature series, Equity in the Built Environment, which focuses on the relationship between equity, social justice, and our built environment.

Launching September 16 and running through December 14, INTERSECTIONS includes a series of programs led by nationally recognized Black designers, architects, and artists. They will engage participants in conversations centered on actions to promote social justice in the built environment. These participatory experiences are designed to provoke new thinking, spark conversation, enlighten, and empower. The season will also include three workshops and a roundtable discussion.

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