Due to disruptions caused by the current pandemic, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is extending the submission deadline for the 2020 ASLA Student Awards to Sunday, May 31, at 11:59 pm PST.
“ASLA Student Awards are the most prestigious honors for landscape architecture students in the United States and around the world,” said President Wendy Miller, FASLA. “We want to make sure that the program remains a robust reflection of the best and brightest the profession has to offer, so we’re giving students a little more time to get their submissions together.”
The new deadlines are:
Fee deadline: Friday, May 15
Submission deadline: Sunday, May 31, 11:59 pm PST
For further information, including Student Award categories, submission guidelines, and most current deadline updates, visit the Student Award Call for Entries website.
Background on ASLA Student Awards Program
ASLA Student Awards are presented in eight categories: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design, Analysis & Planning, Research, Communications, Student Collaboration, and Student Community Service. Like the Professional Awards, the jury may select one Award of Excellence and any number of Honor Awards. Selection of an Award of Excellence is at the jury’s discretion and may not be awarded each year.
This year’s ASLA Conference examined the US identity in turbulent times. A congress report
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The expression “the elephant in the room” is delightfully ambiguous. On the one hand, it refers to something important that everybody knows about, yet nobody addresses explicitly. On the other hand, however, it implies a huge, blundering something that can break down existing structures without being particularly sensitive about it. In terms of this ambiguity, the current US president Trump represented precisely that elephant at this year’s annual conference of the ASLA, the American Society of Landscape Architects, in San Diego. Although not much was explicitly said about the Donald and his, at times, elephantine politics, their consequences for present day America, however, played an implicit role all the time.
This certainly applied most directly to the numerous panels and talks on the consequences of climate change. The environmental politician and researcher Gina McCarthy laid the atmospheric foundation for this as it were. In her rhetorically brilliant talk, she clarified that the Obama government launched many specific legislative initiatives. Not all of these have been revised so far – and it is hardly possible for all of them to be revoked either. “The train is running”, was her ultimately optimistic message. The audience acknowledged the speech with standing ovations, while McCarthy’s preacher-like style required some getting used to for a fact-orientated European.
It’s a matter of spatial, but also historical integrity
Events such as the ASLA Conference almost inevitably transmit a kind of mitigated, fundamental ecological optimism, as they are dealing with concrete improvement steps. One field session, for instance, presented the regeneration of the “San Diego River” ecosystem. Other panels introduced solutions for areas in the hot and dry southwest of the USA, which are becoming partly uninhabitable due to global warming, as well as approaches for better air through landscape architecture. The impression: The field of landscape architecture recognises and assumes its responsibility even though the political climate may be rough.
This socio-political climate however also played another role. Many discussions addressed the identity-forming and negotiating role of spatial planning. The United States of America (and others) certainly appear to be a country in search of its “identity”. A kind of existential uncertainty prevails as far as society as a whole is concerned. This means that it is possible for the space in which we live to assume an orientation-providing function – for entire societies, for smaller cultural entities, but also for individuals and their direct social environment. Highly interesting in this context was a panel on US-American postwar sites.
The head of the “Parks Conservancy” of Pittsburgh presented the sensitive restructuring of the Mellow Square in Pittsburgh. The landscape architect Ken Smith, who is very well known in the USA, presented three different new designs from New York and San Francisco, including the exterior space in front of Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Seagram Building in Manhattan. All of the presented projects involving outdoor spaces showed that these are a negotiation of the US-American collective memory. Post-war modernism shaped the US culture – and accordingly needs to be treated with care. According to Charles Birnbaum, head of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, it’s a matter of spatial, but also historical integrity.
The elephant “La Frontera”
Of course, the question here is, who assigns integrity or who does it apply to? The idea of society as a homogenous entity is falling apart at the moment, not just in the USA. Accordingly, different perspectives need to be brought together in landscape planning or at least listened to. Permitting heterogeneity was quasi the main subject of many panels. This would allow for the emergence of “Landscapes with an edge”, according to the tenor of a discussion on the significance of subculture in planning. The plea of planner and podcaster Michael Todoran (who runs the podcast “LArchitect”) was to allow for provocation and create space for subversion. The question here being where subculture and provocation end, and where mere commercialisation begins. It could for instance be discussed whether eScooters, which also fill the streets in the USA, can be considered a subculture, as was suggested in the panel.
Nevertheless – the cultural sensitivity of this year’s ASLA Conference was high. One culturally charged topic, however, which would have been obvious, given that the event was held in San Diego, was unfortunately largely left out: Mexico and the planning challenge of the border. While there was a (quickly booked up) field trip to Tijuana, the border almost never came up in the content considered by the panels. And that despite the new ASLA president Wendy Miller stating in an interview with Garten + Landschaft that the planners are certainly aware of the planning dimensions of “La Frontera” in mind (you can read the full interview at www.topos-magazine.com). But perhaps this border, too, represents some kind of elephant in the room in the thinking space of US culture. It’s there, it’s huge, but it gets blanked out tenaciously.
Wendy Miller is the new president of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). We spoke to her at this year’s ASLA conference in San Diego.
topos: Wendy, how did you get into landscape architecture?
Wendy Miller: I grew up in Washington, DC in politically very active times. There was the civil rights movement, a lot was going on. This had an impact on me. Luckily, at Thomas Jefferson University, I got to be involved with the campus planning office. It is a very beautiful campus with great landscape architecture. There I had this epiphany moment: this area is where I belong, because I can make a change here.
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But you did not study landscape architecture at first…
No, I have a degree in English and Studio Art. Only later I graduated with a Master of Landscape Architecture from North Carolina State University.
It is interesting that you have a fine arts background. Professionally, you focus a lot on transportation solutions – not the most artistic of all fields…
It is true, my background is not with primarily artistic landscapes. I started in the public sector, working in local government developing environmental ordinances and promoting aesthetic improvements through design, project development, and public awareness. I think these are highly relevant, future-oriented topics. My transition to transportation planning and policy opened a new avenue of work and commitment to creating humane transportation infrastructure. I simply believe having landscape architects involved in shaping transportation corridors – our most ubiquitous public space – is critical. So I guess you could say I am kind of a transportation nerd.
“Having landscape architects involved in shaping transportation corridors is critical.”
Today, transportation and urban mobility is one of the primary topics of urbanist debates. So with your background, you are quite cutting-edge.
That might be true. The difficulty with transportation is that it is a very complex and research-intensive issue. Luckily, I found an international group of landscape architects early on with a strong background in research. We have to be involved a lot with data in order to understand how things like autonomous vehicles change landscapes and landscape design. This is a big challenge, but a very exciting one, too.
We are sitting at the annual ASLA conference. At the conference, the mobility topic is not overly present.
Well, I think it is in there. For instance, Michael Johnson of the SmithGroup will talk with William Riggs and Melissa Lentini Ruhl of AICP about a design framework for liveable streets in the era of autonomous vehicles. But of course, there are many different topics such a conference has to tackle.
This probably holds true for your role at the ASLA as well. You are the president of the ASLA for one year only. Is that enough time to really achieve a lot?
Well, it is a three-year commitment really. I have already been president elect for one year, and will still have a role after the year as acting president. So I will be able to make an impact.
What is your program?
A big part of my job will be to drive forward what we call the framework project: We need a new framework to talk about landscape architecture. In society, there is still is a misunderstanding about what we do; we are sometimes still seen as gardeners. This has to change. We have to reframe communication about what landscape architects really do.
“We need a new framework to talk about landscape architecture.”
And in terms of the future of landscape architecture?
The big issue, of course, is climate change and carbon neutrality. We have to give people tools to better apply existing knowledge to their daily work in landscape design. And we have to influence politics. This is why our communications director Kevin Fry has organized an exhibition on climate change in Washington.
Influencing national politics must be hard under a president Trump.
But it is possible. We focus on concrete things like stormwater management or greenways.
Still, I imagine that these initiatives are difficult when you have a president who seems uninterested in the effects of climate change.
We have an advocacy team that is constantly monitoring new legislation. And they have an impact. The Living Shorelines Act introduced in the House of Representatives in summer is an example of that.
And still, the political situation in the US, as well as in many other countries worldwide, seems unstable; many countries seem divided. I see this reflected in this year’s conference program, with a lot of emphasis on topics of culture and cultural heritage. Identity seems to play a role, and landscape architecture seems to be in high demand in that context.
It is true, there is a new friction in our society, and a heightened awareness for the question whose culture is represented how. There is a lot of research about these topics in our field. It is important that our profession clearly defines its role in this debate. We cannot maintain a Robert Moses style urban planning. We need to constantly fight for more complex, cultural and visual assessments.
“We need to constantly fight for more complex, cultural and visual assessments.”
Another big conference topic is the integration of subcultures and diversity into urban planning.
Absolutely. As a profession, we need to be more diverse. It is our task to reach out to communities and to develop ways to share space and make everyone feel connected.
We’re at the convention center in San Diego, some 20 kilometers from the Mexican border. And yet, the topic of that border does not seem to play a major role in this year’s conference; there was only one field trip to Tijuana. Why?
You have to keep in mind that the call for proposals works on a nationwide basis. Only the field trips are organized locally.
Is the border no topic for landscape architecture?
Oh yes, it definitely is. And there are responses of our profession to this unique challenge. In Texas, for instance, there are some really high-quality resources and projects.
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In general, how international is the ASLA?
We realize increasingly that we are a resource for landscape architects worldwide. We are the world’s largest organization dealing with landscape architecture, and our website has 1.5 million unique visitors, 40 percent of which are from overseas. Countries like China or India use our resources, so we have to create high-quality material for the professionals there. When you look at this year’s student awards, half of the winners are international, many of them from China. On our website, we started to have articles in Spanish and Chinese.
Talking about your awards, I found it interesting that you have awards for communication solutions. The “Award of Excellence” went to the “FloMo”, a mobile messenger for sea-level rise.
Communication is key to political change and to functioning projects. As a profession, landscape architects as communicators facilitate many controversial projects and strengthen community engagement. Especially the community topic is vital. When you take on a project, there will always be a component of community outreach – which is a good thing.
When searching for ways to improve the urban life in US metropolises, it is hard to avoid the issue of homelessness. Homeless people are highly visible around inner-city locations. This could be experienced in immediate ways at and near the Philadelphia Convention Center, where this year’s ASLA conference took place. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that homelessness was also one of the several social topics that the US landscape architecture scene discussed in Philadelphia. According to current statistics, more than 900 people are homeless in Philadelphia – which is a lot, even though significantly less than the 5,600 people living in the streets of San Diego (where next year’s ASLA conference will take place) or the over 50,000 humans without residence in Los Angeles. But whatever the respective local numbers – when creating urban spaces, landscape architects in all developed nations have to consider the fact that homelessness exists. This was the tenor at a panel on how to “build community through landscape” (see also the video). The panelists agreed: landscape architecture has the potential to support social resilience.
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While the ASLA conference did not shy away from addressing pressing social questions, there was a sense of optimism in the air in Philadelphia. This also pertained to the issue of urban mobility. Several panels engaged with the topic of car-based mobility. They did not so much condemn the car altogether as think through the opportunities that new technologies such as driverless mobility can bring. One good example was delivered by Nilay Mistry (Illinois Institute of Technology): “Autonomous driving creates an opportunity to use inner-city parking spaces differently,” he argued. “Offshoring” is what experts call this approach of having driverless cars navigate independently to the outskirts of the cities, where they will wait until needed.
Now, of course this might not be not our preferred solution. In an ideal urban world, people would no longer need cars in cities. But in Philadelphia, a certain realism prevailed: for the time being, people need (and like) cars. This is why initiatives such as the research project “Driverless City” that Nilay Mistry presented are important. And landscape architects, quite simply, have to make the best of the situation.
And cities have to as well. It was therefore interesting to hear Raymond Gastil, City Planning Director of Pittsburgh, outline his city’s cooperation with mobility provider Uber. He defended the project, countering recent criticism that this public-private partnership had encountered from Pittsburgh citizens. However, Gastil also conceded that “robots will always have a certain limit in terms of understanding and predicting human behavior.“ Funnily, the citizens of Pittsburgh who are critical of the project seem to want to demonstrate just that – by making it a public space game to try and trick the driverless cars through pretended movements. Robot irritation as a (mild) form of counter-capitalist subversion?
ASLA conference speaker Brice Maryman (from integrated design firm MIG-/SvR in Seattle) outlines why he thinks landscape architecture can play a productive role in fighting the issue of homelessness.
This year’s ASLA Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Los Angeles celebrates common grounds as outstanding areas for participation, recreation and gathering. L.A. is the best place to showcase the meaning of public urban sphere and the importance of landscape architecture for future city life.
Los Angeles is an urban giant, a melting pot that has no equivalent. Nearly 10 million people live here (18.7 million in Greater L.A.) – White people, Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, Native Americans, Hawaiian Pacific Islanders… The list is even longer. L.A.’s neighborhoods range from densely populated ethnic communities like Koreatown to expensive and high-end residential areas like Bel Air or Beverly Hills. The city is a beacon for modern architecture that includes famous residential architecture designed by Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, or Charles and Ray Eames.
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L.A. and its odd urban infrastructure
The City of Angels is also sadly well-known for its fragmentary urban infrastructure and the problems resulting from it: First of all the lack of an efficient public transportation system and the inevitable need for a car in everyday life which causes miles upon miles of traffic jam accompanied by air pollution. The second formidable challenge is the tremendous river revitalization project that has been moving the city, its people and stakeholders for more than 20 years. When taking a closer look at the huge urban body of L.A., one realizes a spirit of optimism that runs through its veins. Residents as well as the City’s government care for their city. People participate in neighborhood projects and strive to make L.A. a better place to live, a healthier place with clean air, green infrastructure and public recreation areas for everybody. The ”Plan for a Healthy Los Angeles “, established in 2015 by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning or the Master plan for the L.A. River Revitalization set up in 2007 by the city itself are just two examples of how governmental involvement and public engagement for common ground can change a city for the better.
ASLA 2017 & the common ground
All this provides context for this year’s ASLA Annual Meeting & Exhibition that takes place in Los Angeles from October 20 to 23. The 2017 motto, “Common Ground”, reflects how landscape architects design common areas – including streets, parks, markets, and gardens – where people meet and interact, creating and celebrating community, according to ASLA President Vaughn B. Rinner. She encourages landscape architects to realize that they are playing a vital role when it comes to helping communities to be more resilient and to address the effects of climate change. Rinner states that landscape architects are to act as advocates for their communities and for natural systems, leading to establishing places where different ideas meet and common grounds are found for positive change.
There could be no better place than L.A. to become aware of the importance of landscape architecture and urban planning when it comes to creating future city life and fighting for equal access to a sound urban sphere.
One might think that a conference like the 2016 ASLA Meeting & EXPO gets boring with time – but not in “The Big Easy“. The reason for this is certainly the city itself: Most difficult to classify because of its great diversity in architecture, public spaces, people and music, New Orleans is full of surprises. The ASLA program reacts to this. In the context of current developments, the schedule discusses challenges on site as well as in the general field of landscape architecture. So even on the third day, there is still a lot to discover.
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“A celebration of place“ – this is the theme of this year’s ASLA Meeting in New Orleans. According to some attendees’ descriptions, the name not only speaks for itself. It speaks for the whole city – its history, its development.
The“Krewe of Boo“ is the official Halloween Parade in New Orleans, which typically takes place on the Saturday evening before Halloween. While turning the Vieux Carre (French Quarter) into the“Boo Carre“, the parade progresses through the French Quarter all the way up to the Convention Center. With camp chairs in their hands, the people of New Orleans come early to secure top spots to watch the parade of ghost on horses, dancing witches and indescribable scary characters. While the parade progresses and throws necklaces and sweets into the crowd, the people in the streets shout, laugh, sing and dance.
Even though the parade is no official part of the 2016 ASLA conference, considered altogether, there is a very important learning value: This city, kind of broken after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was not only backed up again by the government or the community – it was mainly backed up by the people of New Orleans.
Mirabeau Water Garden
The project Mirabeau Water Garden in the north of New Orleans is a very good example for the civil involvement after Katrina. It was presented on the third day of 2016 ASLA Bry Sarte, David Waggonner and Shannon Blakeman. Before the hurricane, 25 acres in the neighborhood of Gentilly were the home of the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Because of the low sea level on site, the place was nearly completely destroyed in 2005. To morph the fallow land into a water mitigation pilot, a community park and educational outlet, the community of 500 religious women donated it to the city of New Orleans in January 2016. Like this the $25 million project became part of the “Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan“ and will be funded partially by the municipality. Detailed report to be followed.
From 21th to 24th October the 2016 ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO takes places in New Orleans. While meeting in Louisiana, obviously, one topic has top priority: resilient coastal landscapes. Nevertheless ASLA proves a diversity of other up-to-date topics.
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The ‘Great Deluge’, the consequences of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 affected more than 80 per cent of New Orleans’ surface. The city known for its Laissez-faire-mentality, the Jazz and Mardi Gras experienced a big depression not only in development but also in its economy, ecology, technical and social infrastructure. Years of rebuilding and revitalization followed – every action with the aim of preventing the next flood.
Revitalization project “Lafitte Greenway”
One of these projects is the Lafitte Greenway, a green corridor between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi. Parallel to ten other ASLA education sessions Daniel R. Samuels (AIA, friends of lafitte greenway) presented the revitalization project in New Orleans this morning and highlighted the power of cooperation between different stakeholders.
After Katrina, the former railway road was no-man’s-land. But thanks to the partnership between ASLA and the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails and Conservation Programm, we now find here a 2.6 mile bike and pedestrian trail which connects two of New Orleans’ largest parks as well as multiple neighborhoods. But the cooperation of the resident-based group ‘friends of lafitte greenway’ shows the real success of the project. Thanks to working very closely with residents, professionals and the municipality, the organization was part of this process from the beginning. Nowadays the group continues to pursue the greenway’s aims to create a safe greenway which links the neighborhoods and to establish a green corridor with sport, health and gardening offers.
2016 ASLA offers diversity
Besides revitalization solutions, ASLA’s programme today made clear that the event in New Orleans is more than just ‘Rethinking Katrina’ – we talked about new ways of bringing healthy food to urban communities as well as how linking Big Data with Community Scale Resiliency could help to improve climate adaptation tools. We are really looking forward to tomorrow’s programme!
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recently announced the 2013 Honors recipients. Selected by ASLA’s Board of Trustees, the Honors represent the highest awards ASLA presents each year. Reed Hilderbrand wins the Firm Award, Warren T. Byrd Jr. earns the ASLA Medal, Shlomo Aronson will receive the Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence. The awards will be presented during the 2013 ASLA Annual Meeting and Expo, November 15-18, in Boston. (A full list of the 2013 Honors recipients you can find here.)
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Reed Hilderbrand of Watertown, Massachusetts will receive the Landscape Architecture Firm Award, the highest award ASLA may bestow upon a landscape architecture firm in recognition of distinguished work that influences the profession. Since 1997, the collaborative work of Douglas Reed and Gary Hilderbrand has been recognized for its design, craftsmanship and extraordinary use of plants. The firm’s work is wide-ranging, from residential and parks projects to cultural and academic institutions and has garnered 12 national ASLA awards just in the past decade.
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Warren T. Byrd Jr. will receive the ASLA Medal, the Society’s highest award for a landscape architect. Byrd taught full-time for 26 years at the University of Virginia, serving seven years as chair of the landscape architecture department. At the same time, he also built and maintained a thriving practice – Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects in Charlottesville, Va. – that has won more than 70 national and regional awards for its work to date.
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Shlomo Aronson will receive the Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence. The award recognizes significant contributions to landscape architecture policy, research, education, project planning and design, or a combination of these items. During his 50-year career, Aronson, considered the “Olmsted of Israel,” has shaped landscapes throughout this relatively new country. His design legacy displays his leadership in sensitivity to both environmental and cultural concerns and has earned the admiration of his peers worldwide.
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Images: Shlomo Aronson Architects
