Throughout the year, ASLA Professional Practice Network (PPN) leaders and members share their experiences and expertise as authors here on The Field blog and as presenters for ASLA Online Learning webinars. For one very special weekend each fall, PPNs also organize in-person gatherings at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture. If you are heading to Minneapolis later this week (!), PPN meetings are an ideal way to see the PPNs in action and get a sense of what these practice area-focused groups for ASLA members are all about.
Make the most of your PPN experience at the conference by exploring what’s planned and get ready to make new connections in Minneapolis:
Saturday, October 28
10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
- Children’s Outdoor Environments | Practice Basecamp
- Planting Design | Room M100B
- Transportation and Urban Design | Room M100C
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
- Digital Technology | Learning Lab 1
1:00 – 1:45 p.m.
- Ecology & Restoration | Practice Basecamp
- Water Conservation | Practice Basecamp
- Parks & Recreation | Room M100B
Sunday, October 29
10:15 – 11:00 a.m.
- Campus Planning & Design | Practice Basecamp
- Historic Preservation and the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) | Practice Basecamp
- Community Design | Room M100B
- Environmental Justice | Room M100C
11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
- Sustainable Design & Development | Practice Basecamp
- Digital Technology | Practice Basecamp
- Women in Landscape Architecture | Room M100C
12:45 – 1:30 p.m.
- Education & Practice with CELA | Practice Basecamp
- Digital Technology | Practice Basecamp
See below for more information on what’s planned for each PPN event, or click the PPN name above to jump to that PPN’s event information.
Children’s Outdoor Environments PPN Meeting
Saturday, October 28, 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
Context matters, even at play! Join the Children’s Outdoor Environments Professional Practice Network (PPN) on Saturday, October 28, to reflect on how a great playscape can cultivate a sense of place, offering intriguing “aha” moments about culture, city, and region to punctuate the happy clamor of active and creative play. The session will feature brief talks followed by an interactive conversation by Cheryl Salazar, Managing Partner at PLAYCE Studio, Ltd., and Kate Tooke, ASLA, Principal at Agency.
Cheryl will discuss a dynamic placemaking method designed to tackle community engagement challenges in children’s outdoor environments, equipping attendees with actionable tools for building consensus and support from both internal and external stakeholders. Kate will share some project examples from her work and the work of collaborators to talk about contextual design and how that crafts stewardship and grounds visitors in the landscape/city.
Planting Design PPN Meeting
Saturday, October 28, 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Room M100B on the mezzanine level
Join ASLA’s Planting Design PPN for a Plant Chat—bring a suggestion for a good “solution plant” and be prepared to describe how and why you used it on a project.
Transportation and Urban Design PPNs Meeting
Saturday, October 28, 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Room M100C on the mezzanine level
2023’s focus for the Urban Design PPN has been the evolution of suburban retail. Help us kick off the next series! We’d like to crowdsource ideas from members at the conference for topics that the Urban Design and Transportation PPNs could collaborate on next year.
Digital Technology PPN:
Putting AI to Work: Practical Applications of AI in Landscape Architecture
Saturday, October 28, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 pm
Learning Lab 1 on the EXPO floor
In this practical presentation, we’ll dive into some of the immediate benefits a firm can experience from using AI in design workflows and business practices. We’ll demonstrate how AI can be used to streamline production and turbocharge creativity through the use of commercially-available generative AI platforms. By the end of the presentation, you will have concrete knowledge to start to apply AI processes in your own practice.
Ecology & Restoration PPN Meeting
Saturday, October 28, 1:00 – 1:45 p.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
This presentation spotlights our PPN’s history and aims, and several ongoing ecological/landscape restoration and management efforts in the Eastern Temperate Forest and Great Plains ecoregions.
Water Conservation PPN Meeting
Saturday, October 28, 1:00 – 1:45 p.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
The ASLA Climate Action Plan (CAP) is a progressive step forward towards carbon reduction in landscape architecture, design, and construction. A follow-up document to the CAP was created in 2023 titled “Collaborating with Industry Partners on Climate Action and Biodiversity” as a guide to ask questions of all industry partners (manufacturers, plant growers, and material sourcing) what practices they employee prior to landscape architects specifying their product or service. While the CAP and “Collaborating” follow up is primarily focused on carbon (embodied and emitted), another key resource to measure, track, and inquire about is water consumption. This presentation explores further ways in which irrigation can be designed, manufactured, installed, and operated in a manner consistent with the goals of the CAP. Discussion points to include irrigation and water metering, water budgeting for drought, climate adaptivity, alternative water supplies, regional requirements, and passive irrigation methods. The goal of this discussion is to draw a parallel in the CAP’s carbon accounting method with water accounting and highlighting the benefits of sustainable irrigation beyond green plants, such as stormwater management, heat island reduction, and carbon sequestration.
Parks & Recreation PPN Meeting
Saturday, October 28, 1:00 – 1:45 p.m.
Room M100B on the mezzanine level
Join the Parks & Recreation Professional Practice Network (PPN) for an engaging opportunity to meet and network with other PPN members. The meeting will be conversation-focused, allowing for peer-to-peer learning and knowledge-sharing through a facilitated discussion focused on the public sector. Attendees will be encouraged to share ideas and best practices from their agencies and the top issues they’re encountering working in the public sector.
Campus Planning & Design PPN Meeting
Sunday, October 29, 10:15 – 11:00 a.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
Join us Sunday morning for an opportunity to connect with fellow Campus Planning & Design colleagues for a lively conversation about creating Impactful Campus Landscapes. Guest speakers Amelle Shultz, Ayers Saint Gross, Mark Hough, Duke University, and Laura Tenny, MIT, will present projects that exemplify sustainable performance through design, improvements in accessibility, visual cohesion, and a diversity of outdoor spaces to support their educational mission. We hope to see you there!
Historic Preservation and the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS)
Sunday, October 29, 10:15 – 11:00 a.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
Join us to hear the winners of the 2023 HALS Challenge, Working Landscapes, be announced! Historic Preservation PPN leaders will also discuss the PPN’s Cultural Landscapes Education Working Group, sharing the work of the group so far, including a session at LABash this spring, and their goals going forward. Join us to learn about how you can take action to support cultural landscapes.
Community Design PPN Meeting
Sunday, October 29, 10:15 – 11:00 a.m.
Room M100B on the mezzanine level
Join the Community Design PPN and PPN Co-Chair Stacey Weaks, ASLA, for a facilitated discussion on the trends, policies and economics influencing community design. The Community Design PPN brings broad perspectives to the field of landscape architecture as the placemakers for the communities we all live in. We look forward to engaging in a lively discussion with the ASLA community on shaping great communities as the demand for a variety of housing options and scale of projects continues to grow. We encourage interested individuals to explore this opportunity to learn more about the Community Design PPN. Let’s grow the community design conversation.
Environmental Justice PPN Meeting
Sunday, October 29, 10:15 – 11:00 a.m.
Room M100C on the mezzanine level
Join the Environmental Justice PPN for an engaging opportunity to meet and network with other PPN members, representatives from BlackLAN, and Minneapolis residents. One of the Black Landscape Architects Network (BlackLAN)‘s goals is to engage with local communities at ASLA. This year, Juxtaposition Arts, a non-profit youth art and design education center in North Minneapolis, is partnering with BlackLAN. In this session, we will learn more about what BlackLAN is, their approach to working with communities, and how Juxtaposition Arts and BlackLAN work to address environmental justice and enhance community resilience and sustainability.
Historic Preservation and the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS), Part 2
Sunday, October 29, 11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Room M100B on the mezzanine level
Join the Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network (PPN) for an engaging opportunity to meet and network with other PPN members. After the first part of the Historic Preservation PPN Meeting, taking place 10:15-11:00 a.m. in Practice Basecamp, all are welcome to join us for networking and conversation. This second part of the meeting will be conversation-focused, allowing for peer-to-peer learning and knowledge-sharing through a facilitated discussion on how landscape architects are incorporating historic preservation into their practice.
Sustainable Design & Development PPN Meeting
Sunday, October 29, 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
The Sustainable Design and Development Professional Practice Network (SDD PPN) began with and continues to partner with GBCI on the Sustainable SITES Initiative. Since its inception, SITES has provided a comprehensive framework for developing sustainable and resilient outdoor spaces. 2024 will mark the 10-year anniversary since the SITES v2 Rating System was released. This meeting will focus on gathering your feedback from using SITES, gaining additional insight to your client and team needs, learning more about relevant market and industry trends, and providing input into the evolution of the SITES Rating System. Join us as we reflect on the interdisciplinary impact of the SITES Rating System and discuss its future.
Please note, this will not be an introduction to SITES but a means to gather feedback from SITES users. If you are not able to make it, please stop by the SITES booth in the EXPO (#2746) to share your thoughts.
Digital Technology PPN:
US National BIM Standard, Digital Twin, LOD, and Other Buzz Words
Sunday, October 29, 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
A fireside chat over a select technology events of the year, as they pertain to landscape-specific topics, and as contributed by the members of our group, including:
- The new National BIM Standard (v4) by The National Institute of Building Sciences, which was soft-launched in September. Why is this relevant to me as a landscape architect?
- Digital Twin research, direction, applications, and the work around this by the Digital Twin Integration Subcommittee of NIBS, from the angle of landscape scope. Yet another buzz word?… Does it even apply to our scope?
- The Digital Technology PPN’s independent work on Levels of Development and its current collaboration with their normative global publisher, BIMForum. Will this change my workflows as a BIM modeler (Project Manager, or maybe even a Principal in Charge) for landscape scope?
The Digital Technology PPN’s informal panels are intended to offer a forum to discuss the progress this year in our field as it further encroaches into AECO’s technological edge. To that end, make sure not to miss the separate AI session! Together, they offer a complementary overview on the topic of technology.
Women in Landscape Architecture PPN Meeting
Sunday, October 29, 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Room M100C on the mezzanine level
For 2023, the Women in Landscape Architecture PPN has focused on the theme of health: mental, physical, and social. In September, the PPN hosted a webinar on the possibilities of flexibility beyond flex time and flex space and its correlation to creating space for and boosting creativity, productivity, and employee satisfaction in landscape architecture practices. We’d like to continue the conversation on this topic at our WILA PPN Meeting at the conference. Join us for a discussion on aspects of flexibility tools, processes, and technologies to support design and planning focused practices.
Education & Practice PPN with CELA
Sunday, October 29, 12:45 – 1:30 p.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
More than Design Studio: Translating Practice to Teaching
In this session, we will discuss how practitioners can leverage professional experience into teaching skillsets. We will discuss ways academic programs structure learning content beyond the design studio and how that impacts job announcements and selections. We will also discuss the role credentials play in the election process.
Co-hosted by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) and the ASLA Education & Practice PPN
Digital Technology PPN:
VR, Drones, and AI: Emerging Technologies Shaping the Profession
Sunday, October 29, 12:45 – 1:30 p.m.
Practice Basecamp on the EXPO floor
Come participate in a fireside chat about virtual reality, drones, and artificial impact and the opportunities and disruptions they present to our industry. Learn about and share how these technologies are being used and where we expect changes to occur in the future.
Practice Basecamp events sponsored by DuMor, Inc.
PPN membership is not required to attend PPN events at the conference—all are welcome. Already a member of one PPN, but curious about another? Or not sure which PPN to choose (all ASLA members receive one PPN membership for free)? You are welcome to attend as many PPN events as you like!
If you’re excited for this impressive slate of events, consider becoming a PPN leader to take part in organizing future PPN gatherings!
You may have noticed that not all 20 Professional Practice Networks are represented on the events list above—one way to remedy this for future conferences is by volunteering as a PPN leader. Having more PPN members step up to the leadership level helps to ensure that PPNs have leadership present at the conference who can organize an event, and also that the PPN is active throughout the year, with regular blog posts for The Field, webinars and other virtual events, and opportunities for members to engage.