Month: March 2023

April is World Landscape Architecture Month

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ASLA 2022 Professional General Design Honor Award. Riverfront Spokane, Spokane, Washington. Berger Partnership / image: Built Work Photography

World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM) celebrates the role of landscape architects in shaping healthy, resilient, and beautiful places for all. April brings the opportunity to promote the profession and inspire the next generation of landscape architects. Get ready to take part in all the special offerings happening next month!

#WLAM2023

Use the hashtag #WLAM2023 to showcase your work on social media and connect with participants from around the world. Tag @NationalASLA for a chance to be featured on ASLA social media profiles, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as in Landscape Architecture Magazine!

Share your unique perspective or use the ASLA daily prompts—many of which correspond to one or more Professional Practice Network (PPN) practice areas—for inspiration.

World Landscape Architecture Month Daily Prompts

  1. #thisislandscapearchitecture
  2. #iamalandscapearchitect
  3. #landscapearchitecturestudent
  4. favorite project
  5. a day in the life
  6. plants – Planting Design PPN members, this one’s for you!
  7. I am passionate about…
  8. sketch
  9. seasons
  10. landscape architects in action
  11. current project
  12. public space
  13. residential landscape architecture – we’d love to see Residential Landscape Architecture and Design-Build PPN members doing residential work posting for this prompt!
  14. I am researching… – Education & Practice PPN members, get the word out about the research you’re doing.
  15. urban design – a perfect fit for Urban Design PPN members, of course.
  16. outdoor play – Children’s Outdoor Environments PPN, take note!
  17. I work here
  18. green infrastructure – many project types may incorporate green infrastructure, but Sustainable Design & Development PPN members will certainly have a strong connection to this prompt.
  19. biodiversity – Ecology & Restoration PPN
  20. community – Community Design PPN
  21. am or pm
  22. green
  23. currently reading
  24. water – Water Conservation PPN
  25. technology – Digital Technology PPN
  26. parks – Parks & Recreation PPN
  27. design process
  28. streetscape – Transportation PPN
  29. detail
  30. team

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Women in Landscape Architecture Profiles, Part 2

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images: courtesy of Sahar Teymouri, ASLA, Joni Hammons, ASLA, and © CPEX, Shuangwen Yang, Associate ASLA, and Tristan Fields, ASLA

ASLA is continuing to celebrate #womeninlandscapearchitecture who are shaping our environment on social media this Women’s History Month. Last week, we recapped a first set of WILA profiles here on The Field for anyone who may have missed them. Check out that first installment for Alexandra Mei, ASLA, Angelica Rockquemore, ASLA, Sandy Meulners, ASLA, and SuLin Kotowicz, FASLA.

Today, we’re sharing the next set of profiles, of Shuangwen Yang, Associate ASLA, Heidi Hohmann, ASLA, Tristan Fields, ASLA, Joni Hammons, ASLA, and Sahar Teymouri, ASLA.

Shuangwen Yang, Associate ASLA

Who are the female role models who have influenced your career? 

I admire the perseverance of journalist and activist Jane Jacobs, who was passionately and fearlessly committed to introducing sympathetic city planning and design oriented around people and communities, during an era where women’s opinions weren’t welcome in many rooms. Another role model that I look up to is landscape architect Mikyoung Kim, FASLA. Seeing someone who looks like me to thrive and continue to be a great mentor to others in a white male dominated profession makes me see myself in a similar position to make greater impact.

What advice do you have for other women pursuing a career in landscape architecture?

No matter what ups and downs you run into, always uplift your peers, deeply believe in your values, and speak confidently about your work, because somebody somewhere is inspired by what you do.

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ASLA Fund Research Grants: Landscape Architecture Solutions to Biodiversity Loss and Extreme Heat

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ASLA 2021 Professional General Design Honor Award. Duke University Water Reclamation Pond, Durham, North Carolina. Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects / image: Mark Hough

New Research Grants: Evidence for Landscape Architecture Solutions to the Climate and Biodiversity Crises 

The ASLA Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization, announced $25,000 in national competitive grants to develop research reviews at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Conference last week. This opportunity is open to ASLA members and non-members in academia.

The ASLA Fund invites landscape architecture educators to develop succinct and impactful research reviews that investigate evidence of the benefits of landscape architecture solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises. The goals of the research reviews are to:

  • Understand and summarize the current state of knowledge.
  • Synthesize the research literature and provide insights, leveraging key data- and science-based evidence.
  • Create accessible executive summaries in plain language for policymakers, community advocates, and practicing landscape architects.

Over the next few years, research grants will be issued to explore solutions to a range of issues, but these first two grants will focus on:

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Women in Landscape Architecture Profiles, Part 1

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images courtesy of: Alexandra Mei, ASLA; Sandy Meulners, ASLA, and Mend Collaborative working with the City of El Paso CID; SuLin Kotowicz, FASLA, and VIRIDIS Design Group; Angelica Rockquemore, ASLA, and Erin Emerson

ASLA kicked off Women’s History Month with a post from Women in Landscape Architecture Professional Practice Network (WILA PPN) leader Lara Moffat, ASLA, on recent WILA highlights and what’s ahead for the PPN. The following week, ASLA’s Gender Equity Task Force hosted the first webinar in their speaker series, which is now available to watch on-demand: Closing the Gender Equity Gap, Advocacy in the Workplace. Check out the presentations from Jeanne Lukenda, ASLA, David Sanchez-Aguilera, Sami Sikanas, ASLA, and Ujijji Davis on how to be an advocate for yourself and for larger, impactful changes to office culture and employee benefits. Hear firsthand experiences from practitioners who are making changes in their companies through employee-driven initiatives and setting off on their own.

All throughout the month, ASLA is also celebrating #womeninlandscapearchitecture who are shaping our environment on social media, starting with ASLA leadership: three women are serving as President (Emily O’Mahoney, FASLA), Immediate Past President (Eugenia Martin, FASLA), and President-Elect (SuLin Kotowicz, FASLA). If you missed the historic moment at the ASLA 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture when this trio came together, a video was made to mark this occasion, featuring Eugenia Martin, FASLA, interviewing five of her predecessors as ASLA President and her two successors about their experiences and expectations leading ASLA.

In case you’re taking a break from social media, or just happened to have missed a few of these WILA profiles, we are recapping them here on The Field. This post includes Alexandra Mei, ASLA, Angelica Rockquemore, ASLA, Sandy Meulners, ASLA, and SuLin Kotowicz, FASLA. Stay tuned for a second set of profiles next week!

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Lessons from the University of California Plant Trials

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by Jodie Cook, ASLA, SITES AP

University of California Climate-Ready Field Trial growing grounds / image: Karrie Reid – used with permission

As a horticulturally obsessed landscape designer for most of my adult life, I’ve observed how our landscape irrigation practices, tools, and technologies have evolved over time. In the last few decades, we have radically changed our plant irrigation practices in public and private designed spaces, particularly in the West. While using a plant palette of so called ‘drought tolerant’ species, many large commercial landscapes, and managed communities such as mine, irrigate four times per week or more in a climate that has never experienced rain with such frequency. How many regions do experience this frequency of natural rainfall? I have often wondered, why do we irrigate non-lawn areas so much?

So, I was thrilled to be a participant in the Climate-Ready Landscape Plants trial evaluations at the University of California South Coast Research Center fields in Irvine, California. I was there, clipboard in hand, as a plant performance evaluator and was not involved in the research in any other way. I did, however, discuss the research at length with those who devised the trial. It was fascinating and eye-opening.

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Connected Conservation 

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by Amy L. Schneckenburger, FASLA

ASLA 2021 Professional General Design Honor Award. Inspiring Journeys For All, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. HDLA / image: Charlie Craighead

The National Park Service Connected Conservation (C2) webinar mini-series continues this week with the ninth installment: The Mountain Neighbor Handbook: A Local’s Guide to Stewardship in the Tetons on Tuesday, March 7, at 2:00 p.m. (ET) (the webinar is now available as a recording). Learn how individuals can help nature conservation by living more sustainably, volunteering, recreating responsibly, and motivating one another to take conservation actions.

The webinar will highlight this community-focused handbook, which was released in October 2022 and was created by Wyoming’s Teton County, the Town of Jackson, Teton Conservation District, and the Jackson Hole Land Trust. The publication serves as an introduction and an invitation to environmental stewardship.

We’ll have five presenters involved with the project:

  • Phoebe Coburn, Communications Specialist, Teton Conservation District
  • Carlin Girard, Executive Director, Teton Conservation District
  • Chris Colligan, Project Manager, Teton County, WY
  • Max Ludington, President, Jackson Hole Land Trust
  • Chip Jenkins, Superintendent, Grand Teton National Park

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Women’s History Month: Building on the Past, Planning for the Future

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by Lara Moffat, ASLA

WILA PPN leaders and representatives from ASLA’s Gender Equity Task Force at the ASLA 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture. Left to right: Lara Moffat, ASLA, Kristina Snyder, ASLA, Emily O’Mahoney, FASLA, Joy Kuebler, ASLA, Ebru Ozer, ASLA, Wendy Miller, FASLA, Laurie Hall, ASLA, Su Wanqin, ASLA. / image: courtesy of Lara Moffat

As we kick off Women’s History Month, the Women in Landscape Architecture Professional Practice Network (WILA PPN) is pleased to share what we have been up to, which is building on the past and planning for the future! We will continue the conversations from our participation at the ASLA 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture and bring those into focus with a theme in 2023 of health: mental, physical, and social.

Our first event for the year occurred last month with a virtual open forum where we recapped the highlights from San Francisco: we shared takeaways from the Deep Dive on Cultivating Conversations: An Open Dialogue to Effect Change in Organizational Culture; reviewed the discussion with the ASLA’s Gender Equity Task Force during our WILA PPN Campfire Session; and outlined our initiatives for 2023.

A Look Back at San Francisco

On Saturday of the conference, we were fortunate to have had a Deep Dive presentation selected on Cultivating Conversations: An Open Dialogue to Effect Change in Organizational Culture. Resulting from the 2021 WILA PPN Campfire Session, From Mentorship to Sponsorship: Friendship is the Key!, exploring how professional relationships contribute to a flourishing career, we developed this session based on the findings and requests of the 55 attendees.

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