“When Frederick Law Olmsted was practicing, he was working at the scale of the city. Today, landscape architects face challenges on a global scale — carbon emissions, land fragmentation, and extraction,” said Kate Orff, FASLA, founder of SCAPE, an urban design and landscape architecture practice.
Orff made her comments during a discussion organized by the Olmsted Network to mark the 125th anniversary of ASLA and explore the future of landscape architecture.
In addition to scaling up, Orff also sees the need for landscape architects to shift into policy and regulatory decision making. “Landscape architects in leadership can connect the dots.”
For Thomas Woltz, FASLA, owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, just designing landscapes is a political act.
“I am honored to have a political role and address the societal issues of today,” he said.
He argued that all landscapes are embodied with the histories of indigenous people, colonialism, slavery, and the industrial revolution.
Landscape architects can unearth and reconstruct the layers of the past to create cultural landscapes that shape societies today. “We are stewards of the truth and can make that truth resilient for the future. In doing this, we shape the political realm.”
Orff argued that landscape architects also need to take the lead in the future to undo the destructive planning decisions of the past and present. “We need to give the planet CPR and enter repair mode for the next 50 years.”
“Sprawl and a lack of landscape stewardship has left a petroleum texture on our landscapes. The Mississippi River, Great Plains, and Florida swamp lands are in a state of collapse. We have taken for granted the landscapes that sustain us.”
“There is crisis and opportunity in American landscapes. We need to focus on the landscapes left behind. We need to offer ways to mend them.”
“We also need to make new places and forms of public space. We are not satisfied with the world the way it is now; we should cast our lot into the future.”
Given landscape architects are needed more than ever, why is the important work they do still a mystery, wondered John King, Hon. ASLA, urban design critic of The San Francisco Chronicle, who moderated the discussion.
For Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the issue is language.
“Landscape architects can sometimes use technical jargon that the everyday person may not understand. With our partners, ASLA has been developing science-based frames that break that down, explain how to communicate, and simplify language.”
“For example, instead of saying stormwater management, which involves all the technical details of managing water flow, we can say flooding, which the public understands,” Carter-Conneen said.
Educating the public about the value of landscapes is also key. “I dislike the terms empty space, tabula rasa, or green space,” because “landscapes are full,” Woltz said.
For public engagement for his projects, Woltz first educates the public about the history of a landscape.
“You can have groups come in asking for 20 lacrosse or disc golf fields. But if you go to the public and tell them the land is full with history and ecological systems, it really helps; they will honor that. They also then enjoy the conversation because you have delivered something of value to them.”
At Tom Lee Park, SCAPE’s new landscape in Memphis, Tennessee, “we respected the past while creating a new place for people to come together,” Orff said.
The park educates the public about Tom Lee, a Black man who saved 32 people from drowning on a sinking ship on the river. “The entire park’s ethos is about having a generosity of spirit; its design is this grand welcoming gesture.”
SCAPE then developed a curriculum on the park for high school students. “All ninth graders in the city are taking field trips to the park and learning modules related to the park, including urban heat, biodiversity, and water.”
“This creates broad constituencies for the park and linkages with the community. It’s about creating stewardship and care.”
Woltz also focused on the role landscape architects play in long-term stewardship.
“Turning 50, I am realizing it’s not about our generation. It’s about setting projects in motion for future generations.”
The Orongo Station Conservation Plan, one of his firm’s projects in New Zealand, which began twenty five years ago, involved planting more than 400,000 rainforest trees and restoring Maori lands. Now, there is a rich ecological landscape.
He wants to see more long-term restoration projects set in motion. “We have a duty to the planet. It’s empowering and invigorating. It means we need to get to work.”
Carter-Conneen wants to see landscape architects leave their reputation as “shade-loving species” behind. “We need to be bolder and put ourselves out front more.”
“We also need to advance public policy. To do that, we need more landscape architects in government deciding where the money goes and driving long-term, consistent funding for landscape architecture projects.”
“I am running for president of the United States,” Orff joked. Many commenters in Olmsted Network’s zoom said they would vote for her.