Month: January 2021

ASLA Releases Policy Recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration

Jacquelyn Bianchini2 Comments
ASLA 2020 Professional Urban Design Award of Excellence. Dilworth Plaza. OLIN / James Ewing, OTTO

ASLA released a comprehensive set of policy recommendations for the Biden-Harris administration titled “Landscape Architects Design Vibrant, Resilient, and Just Communities for All – Recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration.”

“Our climate is in crisis. Social and racial injustice issues continue to go unaddressed. The pandemic is forcing us to rethink public space,” said Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). “Landscape architects aren’t just designing resilient, sustainable solutions for all these problems – they’re designing the public policies necessary to support that vital work.”

The report makes specific, actionable policy recommendations in four major areas:

  • Applying STEM-related design principles to protect communities.
  • Addressing climate change through sustainable, resilient design.
  • Supporting green community infrastructure solutions.
  • Promoting racial, social, and environmental justice in design.

ASLA’s recommendations are supported by other organizations in the industry, including the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF).

“The pandemic has revealed now more than ever the value of public open spaces: we are human beings and need to be outside and with other human beings,” said Barbara Deutsch, FASLA, CEO of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF). “These policy recommendations provide overdue support to enable landscape architects to design healthy, accessible and equitable outdoor places for people to connect with nature and each other, and rebuild the public realm infrastructure.”

“Landscape architects play a vital and irreplaceable role in the design of the built environment. It’s time their recommendations for how that design is governed are heard and implemented,” Carter-Conneen added. “ASLA urges the Biden-Harris administration and the new Congress to review these recommendations and begin the process of implementing them.”

ASLA and our partners look forward to working with the Biden-Harris administration and the new Congress on implementing these policy recommendations that will lead to vibrant, resilient and just communities across the nation.

Read the full report

About the Report

The American Society of Landscape Architects compiled a comprehensive series of specific, actionable policy recommendations designed to give landscape architects a seat at the table and support for their vital work. The report is broken down into four sections.

ASLA 2016 Professional Communications Honor Award. Sea Change: Boston, Sasaki Associates / Sasaki Associates

The first, Landscape Architects Apply STEM to Protect the Public, outlines the measures necessary to assist landscape architects in meeting the economic demands and challenges facing our nation.

Recommendations in this section include:

  • Support continued state licensure of highly complex technical professions, including landscape architecture, to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
  • Provide targeted and sustained COVID-19 relief for small businesses, including landscape architecture firms.
  • Appoint landscape architects to key positions throughout the Biden-Harris administration, including within the Departments of Transportation, Interior, Housing and Urban Development, and Agriculture, and in the Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration, the U.S. Access Board, and others.
  • Include landscape architecture on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Designated Degree Program List.

The second section, Landscape Architects Lead in Climate Solutions, focuses on policy solutions that support landscape architects’ work to design resilient, sustainable spaces that help communities mitigate and adapt to the effects of the ongoing climate crisis.

Recommendations in this section include:

  • Create a comprehensive, science-based climate action plan to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
  • Establish adaptation and mitigation strategies using natural systems to make communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
  • Protect underserved communities from climate and environmental injustices.
  • Adopt the Sustainable Sites Initiative® (SITES®) for all federal projects.
  • Reverse rules, regulations, and policies from the Trump administration that weaken environmental protections and ignore climate change, specifically involving the National Environmental Policy (NEPA) and the Waters of the U.S.( WOTUS).

The third section, Landscape Architects Transform Community Infrastructure, outlines policies to encourage the designing and building of community infrastructure projects in a way that fosters sustainable development, generates jobs, encourages healthy lifestyles, and creates resilient, equitable, and economically vibrant communities.

Recommendations in this section center around the following goals:

  • Upgrade to a multimodal transportation network.
  • Fix our nation’s water management systems.
  • Recognize public lands, parks, and open space as “critical infrastructure.”
  • Design resilient communities.

The fourth and final section, Landscape Architects Seek Racial, Social, and Environmental Justice, provides specific recommendations that seek to address the inequities that harm underserved communities, including communities of color, low-income populations, and Tribal and Indigenous communities across the country.

Recommendations in this section include:

  • Work with Congress to codify Executive Order 12898, so that it is permanent law for federal agencies to identify and address the disproportionately high and adverse health and environmental effects of agency actions on low-income and minority communities.
  • Join stakeholders across the country in advancing the tenets of the Environmental Justice for All Act (H.R. 5986), which help to ensure that all communities are protected from pollution and that all voices are heard in the federal environmental decision-making.
  • Consider policies that promote design techniques as a tool to address racial, environmental, and social justice for all.

Read the full list of recommendations

ASLA 2021 Professional & Student Awards Call for Entries

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ASLA 2020 Professional General Design Honor Award. Naval Cemetery Landscape. Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects / Max Touhey

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is now accepting submissions for its 2021 Professional and Student Awards Program.

The ASLA Awards Program is the oldest and most prestigious in the landscape architecture profession. They honor the most innovative landscape architecture projects and the brightest ideas from up-and-coming landscape architecture students.

“The ASLA Professional & Student Awards recognize the most innovative and impactful work in the profession,” said Tom Mroz, 2021 president of ASLA. “Our professional winners are leaders in the industry. Our student winners represent the best and brightest hope for the future. Each year, we get entries from all around the world. I can’t wait to see the creative projects this year’s Call for Entries brings.”

Award recipients receive featured coverage in Landscape Architecture Magazine and are honored at a special Awards Presentation ceremony in the fall.

Submissions for ASLA Professional Awards are due no later than 11:59 PST on Friday, March 12, 2021.

Submissions for ASLA Student Awards are due no later than 11:59 PST on Monday, May 24, 2021.

ASLA bestows Professional Awards in General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design, Analysis & Planning, Communications, Research categories. In each of these categories, juries select a number of Honor Awards and may select one Award of Excellence. One Landmark Award is also presented each year.

The 2021 Professional Awards Jury includes:

  • Chair: Thaïsa Way, FASLA – Dumbarton Oaks
  • Virginia Burt, FASLA – Virginia Burt Designs, Inc.
  • Sahar Coston-Hardy, Affiliate ASLA – Sahar Coston-Hardy Photography
  • Perry Howard, FASLA – Greensboro, NC USA
  • Kene Okigbo, ASLA – RDG Planning & Design
  • Faith Okuma, ASLA – Surroundings Studio, LLC
  • Karen Phillips, FASLA – NYS Homes & Community Renewal
  • David Rubin, FASLA – David Rubin Land Collective
  • Emma Skalka, Hon. ASLA – Victor Stanley
ASLA 2020 Student Communications Award of Excellence. Jia: Bringing Landscape Architecture to Webtoons / July Aung

ASLA bestows Student Awards in General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design, Analysis & Planning, Communications, Research, Student Community Service, and Student Collaboration. In each of these categories, juries select a number of Honor Awards and may select one Award of Excellence.

The 2021 Student Awards Jury includes:

  • Chair: Diane Jones Allen, FASLA – Design Jones LLC
  • Magdalena Aravena, ASLA – Lamar Johnson Collaborative
  • Jane Berger – Freelance Journalist
  • Rebecca Bradley, ASLA – Cadence
  • L. Irene Compadre, ASLA – Arbolope Studio
  • Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, ASLA – University of Arkansas
  • Jessica Henson, ASLA – OLIN
  • Radhika Mohan – Enterprise Community Partners
  • Paola Moya, Assoc. AIA – Moya Design Partners

ASLA 2021 Honors Call for Nominations

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2014 ASLA LaGasse Medal – Landscape Architecture recipient. David Ramiro Villalvazo, ASLA / EPNAC

Nominations for the 2021 ASLA Honors are open. These prestigious awards recognize individuals and organizations for their lifetime achievements and notable contributions to the profession of landscape architecture.

Honors nomination categories include:

The ASLA Medal
The ASLA Design Medal
The Community Service Awards
The Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal
The LaGasse Medals
The Landscape Architecture Firm Award
The Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence
The Olmsted Medal
The ASLA Emerging Professional Medal

Nominations are also open for ASLA Honorary Membership. Honorary membership recognizes persons other than landscape architects whose achievements of national or international significance or influence have provided notable service to the profession of landscape architecture.

The deadline for all nominations is February 5, 2021.

Any ASLA professional member or ASLA chapter may submit nominations for ASLA honors. For more details on the nomination criteria by category, view the links above.

Questions about the nomination process for ASLA honors and honorary membership may be directed to honorsawards@asla.org or by calling 202-216-2331.

This post is by Makeeya Hazelton, Manager, Honors & Awards.

Biden-Harris Administration Rejoins Paris Climate Accord

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Inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris / Kevin Dietsch, CNP/Polaris, Europa Press via AP News

Only a few hours after being sworn in, President Joseph R. Biden signed an executive order that recommits the United States to the Paris Climate Accord. The U.S., the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, now rejoins more than 195 nations in seeking to limit global warming to 1.5 ° Celsius (2.7 ° Fahrenheit) by ratcheting up emissions reductions every five years. The goal is to achieve global net-zero emissions by 2050.

In 2015, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, the U.S. committed to reducing American emissions by 26-28 percent by 2030 by raising vehicle emissions standards and phasing out coal-powered electrical generation and then accelerating emission reductions by 2050. In 2017, President Donald Trump announced his administration would be taking the U.S. out of the agreement. The actual abandonment of the agreement didn’t occur until November 2020.

President Trump’s policy caused a groundswell among state and local governments to commit to the U.S.’s 2015 pledge. The Center for American Progress found that 26 red and blue states and territories—representing a majority of the U.S. population—remained committed to the Obama administration’s goals. Furthermore, the Clean Energy States Alliance states that 17 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia enacted plans for achieving 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 or earlier. Thousands of cities, businesses, religious organizations, universities, and non-profit organizations, including ASLA, joined the “We Are Still In” coalition.

Due to the pandemic, greenhouse gas emissions dropped 9.2 percent in 2020, but with expansive forest fires out West, the net reduction was calculated to be just 6.4 percent. Still, this reduction actually puts the U.S. within reach of achieving the Obama administration’s goals for 2030.

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned on an ambitious platform of climate action and environmental justice. To achieve their plan, they call for $1.7 trillion in federal government investment, along with leveraging another $5 trillion in state and local government and private sector funds over the next decade.

Specifically, their plan calls for 100 percent renewable power in the electricity sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions no later than 2050. The administration plans on asking Congress to enact legislation that establishes an enforcement mechanism for milestone targets, makes “historic investments” in clean energy and climate research and innovation, and “incentivizes the rapid deployment of clean energy innovations,” particularly in underserved and historically marginalized communities.

Other major parts of their platform include taking on a global leadership role to speed up climate action, ensuring all investments in new infrastructure also help American communities adapt to climate change, targeting polluters who “disproportionately harm underserved communities,” and supporting the growth of green jobs.

According to The Guardian, the Biden-Harris administration is expected to organize an international climate summit in spring 2021 in the effort to spur on more ambitious commitments at the UNFCCC COP26 meeting in November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. The U.S.’s own emission reduction goals will also be reconsidered and then packaged as a nationally determined contribution, which is required for signatories to the Paris Climate Accord.

To realize these plans, President Biden has elevated climate change-related positions in his administration and assembled a team of well-seasoned climate policy experts.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry was appointed as Special Envoy for Climate Change and given a seat on the National Security Council and the cabinet. On the domestic side, Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has been appointed as national “climate czar,” with responsibility for coordinating domestic climate policy. (McCarthy was the keynote speaker at ASLA’s 2019 Conference on Landscape Architecture). The Washington Post reports that Ali Zaidi, New York’s deputy secretary for energy and environment, will be McCarthy’s deputy.

The EPA and the Departments of the Interior, Energy, Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development all play critical roles in achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s climate goals.

To head up the EPA, Biden nominated Michael S. Regan, Secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, who started the department’s first environmental justice advisory board. For Secretary of the Interior, Biden nominated New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland, the first Native American woman selected for a cabinet role. Both Rep. Haaland and President Biden are strong advocates for conserving 30 percent of U.S. land and waters in an effort to protect American biodiversity and natural resources and better use landscapes as a carbon sink.

And for Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Biden nominated Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who pledges to integrate climate change and equity considerations into federal transportation infrastructure investments. The Department of Transportation is crucial to expanding access to low-carbon transportation infrastructure, such as green Complete Streets and public transit; creating more stringent fuel emission standards; and expanding access to electric vehicles. Learn more about all of Biden’s key nominees.

Landscape Architecture in the News Highlights (January 1-15)

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Frank Gehry Previews an Updated Vision for the L.A. River as New Master Plan Is Unveiled — 01/15/21, The Architect’s Newspaper
“The river cuts through 17 neighborhoods and the design team, comprised of Gehry Partners along with landscape architects OLIN and engineering firm Geosyntec, were tasked with both creating site-specific installations, crossings, trails, flood mitigation measures, and landscaped platforms, as well as kits-of-parts and common design elements to create a unifying vernacular.”

Smithsonian Scales Back $2 Billion Expansion Plan — 01/12/21, The New York Times
“The Smithsonian is currently completing the first project under the master plan, a renovation of the Hirshhorn Museum’s exterior and, soon, the sculpture garden.”

$60 Million High Line Expansion to Connect Park to Moynihan Train Hall — 01/11/21, The New York Times
“Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday that the High Line will be extended to connect to the newly opened Moynihan Train Hall, a project that he said help spur development in the surrounding neighborhoods and boost an economy facing a deep crisis because of the pandemic.”

Paris Agrees to Turn Champs-Élysées into ‘Extraordinary Garden’ — 01/10/21, The Guardian
“The mayor of Paris has said a €250m (£225m) makeover of the Champs-Élysées will go ahead, though the ambitious transformation will not happen before the French capital hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics.”

‘Slow Streets’ Disrupted City Planning. What Comes Next? — 01/06/21, Bloomberg CityLab
“In many cities, the swift rollout of car-restricted streets at the start of the pandemic faced fierce community resistance. Now planners are changing their playbook.”

50 Countries Agree to Protect 30 Percent of Their Land and Waters

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ASLA 2019 Landmark Award. Crosswinds Marsh Wetland Interpretive Preserve, Sumpter Township, Michigan. SmithGroup / Aaron Kiley

The global movement to protect at least 30 percent of the planet’s lands and 30 percent of its oceans by 2030 achieved a major breakthrough this week. At the One Planet Summit, the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, which is led by Costa Rica, France, and the United Kingdom, announced 50 countries on six continents have agreed to protect 30 percent of their land and oceans by 2030. This commitment is a major step towards setting a new global target among all nations at the Convention on Biological Diversity COP15, which will be held in Kunming, China this year.

The global 30 x 30 campaign is one of the most high-profile efforts to reduce extinctions and save the Earth’s irreplaceable remaining terrestrial and marine ecosystems. According to The Guardian, the campaign’s goal is to make the upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity the “Paris Climate Accord for Nature.” However, pessimists note that government leaders have not met previous conservation commitments, and much greater financing for land and ocean conservation efforts is also needed to ensure new commitments can be realized.

The High Ambition Coalition includes major economies like Canada and Japan. A number of biodiversity powerhouses in Africa joined, such as Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Republic of Congo, Uganda, and others. In Europe — beyond France and United Kingdom — Denmark, Slovenia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Finland, and the European Commission, along with other countries, got on board. In Latin America and the Caribbean — beyond Costa Rica — Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, and Grenada joined. The U.S., as represented by the Trump administration, Russia, China, and Brazil didn’t sign on.

There is a history of setting ambitious global conservation targets. More than a decade ago, 190 countries, as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity, agreed to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which called for “at least 17 percent of terrestrial and inland water areas and 10 percent of coastal and marine areas” to be conserved by 2020. When those targets were created in 2010, just 13 percent of the world’s terrestrial areas were under any protection, and there were hardly any protections for ocean ecosystems. Fast forward to today and just 15 percent of terrestrial ecosystems and 7 percent of oceans are now legally protected. The world missed these relatively low targets, in large part because of the lack of financing.

In 2019, a major report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) — the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services — found that 75 percent of terrestrial environment have been “severely altered” to date by human actions, along with 66 percent of marine environments. Furthermore, there has been a 47 percent reduction in “global indicators of ecosystem extent and condition against their estimated natural baselines.” In other words, the health of remaining ecosystems is also dramatically falling.

The report’s central finding was a shock: “around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history.” Of existing species, “more than 40 percent of amphibian species, almost 33 percent of reef-forming corals, and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened.”

Globally, landscape architects and planners have a crucial role to play in reducing plant, animal, and insect extinctions; restoring ecosystem health; and expanding legally-protected natural areas. The United Nations calls for the adoption of “multi-functional landscape planning, cross-sector integrated management,” and the expansion of ecologically-sound agricultural practices. They state that cities and suburbs also present opportunities for the preservation of natural areas and biodiversity. These are all domains in which landscape architects can help plan and design smart solutions that also increase people’s connection to nature.

Landscape architects and planners can also partner with and empower indigenous communities, which currently manage nearly 25 percent of the world’s remaining natural areas.

In the U.S., President-Elect Joseph Biden has committed to protecting 30 percent of American land and waters by 2030. His nominee for U.S. Interior Secretary — New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland — has sponsored legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to support the 30 percent by 2030 commitment. With such powerful advocates, there is now a greater chance of achieving the goal.

In the past few years, ASLA has helped write and pass major conservation legislation, including the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act and the Great American Outdoors Act. ASLA’s dedicated advocacy and lobbying efforts resulted in the permanent authorization and full funding of the Land & Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which is the primary program for conserving new land.

As the Sierra Club outlines, more work needs to be done to achieve the 30 percent target in the U.S. The group notes that 1 million acres of nature is lost to development each year. Due in large part to the loss of habitat to development, the number of birds in the U.S. and Canada have declined by 3 billion, or nearly 30 percent, in the last half century. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, half of all freshwater and saltwater wetlands have also been lost. Protecting 30 percent of U.S. lands and water would not only preserve remaining ecosystems and biodiversity but also help offset an estimated 21 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Explore the American Nature Campaign, a project of the Resources Legacy Fund, and the Campaign for Nature, a project of the National Geographic Society and the Wyss Foundation.

Call for Presentations: 2021 ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture

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Cumberland Park, Nashville, Tennessee / Hargreaves Jones

ASLA is accepting proposals for the 2021 Conference on Landscape Architecture in Nashville, Tennessee, November 19-22, 2021.

We are looking for education proposals that will help to drive change in the field of landscape architecture and provide solutions to everyday challenges that are informed by research and practice. Help us shape the 2021 education program by submitting a proposal through our online system by Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

NEW for 2021
The 2021 conference education program will be organized across dynamic conference tracks. Before submitting your proposal, prepare by reviewing the seven track descriptions, which cover the topics most relevant to the practice of landscape architecture and cross-sector collaborations:

  • Design and the Creative Process
  • Design Implementation
  • Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
  • Leadership, Career Development, and Business
  • Planning, Urban Design, and Infrastructure
  • Resilience and Stewardship
  • Technology

Submission Resources

Google Group
To coordinate proposals and network with potential speakers, we encourage you to use the Call for Presentations Google group.

Education Session Submission Guidelines
Our session submission guides provide info on what you need to include, expert tips on putting together a winning proposal, and help to determine which session type best fits your proposal:

60- or 75-Minute Education Session Guide
Deep Dive Session Guide
Field Session Guide

Submission Templates
Speakers are welcome to use the submission Word templates to collaborate on proposals before completing the online submission. The templates provide descriptions of the required submission information and can be edited and shared:

60- and 75- minute session template
Deep dive session template
Field session template

Conference Session Guide Examples
Review the session descriptions, learning outcomes, and session guides from past conferences.

Please visit the submission site to learn more about criteria, the review process, and key dates.

Submit your session proposal today.

This post is by Katie Riddle, ASLA, director of professional practice at ASLA.

Most Popular DIRT Posts of 2020

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Harbor Spring, Michigan / Robert Gibbs

While we look ahead to what’s new in the built and natural environments, it’s also valuable to look back at what attracted readers’ attention the most last year. Here’s a review of the 10 most popular DIRT posts of 2020.

Readers wanted to know more about the causes of the pandemic and its impacts on human and environmental health and local economies. Contributions from ASLA members explored the health risks of destroying biodiversity and expanding into natural areas and offered creative planning and design solutions to reduce the chances of another virus-driven catastrophe. Amid the global Black Lives Matter protest movement, readers also sought to learn more from Black landscape architects on their experiences with racism — and the need to preserve and celebrate Black landscapes.

ASLA members: please send us your original op-eds or articles on topics that inspire you. And tell us about your new projects and research. Please email us at info@asla.org.

After Lockdown, New Opportunities for Downtown Shopping Districts

Robert Gibbs, FASLA: “Since the earliest human settlements, the retail experience has evolved to meet the needs of the public. This evolution has taken us from rural markets to towns, cities, suburban shopping malls, big box mega-stores, and, more recently, the Internet. But what will retail shopping look like once COVID-19 lockdowns are over and people return to the wild for their shopping experiences?”

Interview with Walter Hood: Black Landscapes Matter

Walter Hood, ASLA: “Sometimes places are palimpsests, meaning part of the brick and mortar, and some of them are based in memories, the passing of time. For people of color who are marginalized, stories get lost. Each project is fraught with chance. I am not trying to solve a problem, per se. I’m trying to put something out in the world that has been covered up, erased, which might allow people to see the world and themselves in a different way.”

Interactive Maps Track Western Wildfires

Amid the continuing devastation, an interactive map from ESRI, which creates geographic information system software, enables users to track active fires by name or location in near real time and sort by timeline and magnitude. The map indicates each fire’s estimated start date and its current level of containment. Another layer provides a smoke forecast for any given location.

The Pandemic Offers an Opportunity to Re-Wild Our Communities

Kinder Baumgardner, ASLA: “My view is that feral green agglomerations will pop up across cities and suburbs. Residents will benefit from their habitat patches, stormwater storage, carbon sequestration, and makeshift community gathering areas.”

Biodiversity and Pandemic Diseases (or How We Came to Know Our World in 2020)

Kristina Hill, Affil. ASLA: “In the 21st century, globalized economic growth has reached the end of its rope. Economies can’t continue to expand without creating new pandemic risks, as more people press up against the habitat of more wildlife or raise domestic animals in unhealthy conditions. We’re now part of one big, highly connected planetary ecosystem that’s going to bite us back hard if we step on it the wrong way.”

Amid the Pandemic, Take Time to Reconnect with Nature

If you are in a place impacted by COVID-19, spending 20 minutes experiencing nature in a park, street, or even your backyard can significantly reduce your stress levels. Just be sure to follow federal, state, and local guidelines and maintain social distancing of 6 feet. But even if you cannot or are unable to go outside, taking a break by opening a window and looking at a tree or plant can also help de-stress.

Suburban Sprawl Increases the Risk of Future Pandemics

Michael Grove, FASLA: “Degraded habitats of any kind can create conditions for viruses to cross over, whether in Accra or Austin. The disruption of habitat to support our suburban lifestyle is bringing us closer to species with which we have rarely had contact. By infringing on these ecosystems, we reduce the natural barriers between humans and host species, creating ideal conditions for diseases to spread. These microbes are not naturally human pathogens. They become human pathogens because we offer them that opportunity.”

Asia’s Largest Urban Rooftop Farm Is a Model of Integrated Design

At first, the images of Thammasat University Rooftop Farm seem like renderings, but they are in fact real. Designed by Landprocess, which is led by landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom, International ASLA, the 1.7-acre rooftop farm in Bangkok, Thailand, is not only mesmerizing but also a model of sustainable multi-use infrastructure.

I Could Have Been Ahmaud Arbery

Andrew Sargeant, ASLA: “We must change the narrative about investing in Black landscape architects and other minority designers as ‘helping them.’ Investment in diverse people and communities is investing in the future of the profession. I don’t want ‘help.'”

How Will the Pandemic Impact the Built Environment?

Throughout the Congress for New Urbanism’s Virtual Gathering, landscape architects, planners, architects, and developers struggled to figure out how the pandemic is impacting communities and the built environment — and tried to foresee what changes are coming in the near future.

Landscape Architecture in the News Highlights (December 16-31)

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25 Cottage Street, Brookline, Massachusetts / Brookline Preservation Commission, via The Architect’s Newspaper

H. H. Richardson and John Charles Olmsted Homes Get Temporary Reprieve from the Wrecking Ball — 12/31/20, The Architect’s Newspaper
“Brookline’s Green Hill historic district reflected an ‘extraordinary confluence’ of design talent […] Frederick Law Olmsted, John Charles Olmsted, and H. H. Richardson ‘worked within yards of one another, shaping Nineteenth and early Twentieth-Century architecture and landscape design in ways that continue to reverberate today.'”

Landscape Architecture and Industrial Design Feature in UNSW Sydney’s Varied Student Show — 12/23/20, Dezeen
“Landscape design that explores urban nature and an ergonomic chair designed for musicians are among the varied student projects exhibited in part two of the UNSW Sydney’s school show.”

Op-Ed: How to Fix a National Register of Historic Places That Reflects Mostly White History — 12/22/20, The Los Angeles Times
“Less than 8% of sites on the National Register are associated with women, Latinos, African Americans or other minorities. The César E. Chávez National Monument, established just eight years ago, was the first unit in the National Park System commemorating any aspect of modern Latino history.”

Nominee Buttigieg Vows To Dismantle ‘Racist’ Freeways — 12/22/20, Streetsblog
“President-elect Biden’s path breaking pick for Transportation Secretary says he’ll reverse decades of discriminatory planning by expanding public transit and, most important, dismantling urban freeways that were built to destroy Black communities and led to decades of health and wealth inequity.”

City of Boston Is Working with Architectural Firm to Rethink Copley Square — 12/16/20, The Boston Globe
“’We have a much-loved square which hasn’t seen any updates since the late ’80s and wasn’t designed for the kind of traffic it now gets in the 21st century,’ said Kate Tooke, a landscape architect at Sasaki, a Watertown-based global design firm that has been hired by the Walsh administration to design upgrades for the square.”