ASLA 2024 Student Urban Design Award of Excellence. Siaya Eco-Park: A Vision for a Green, Inclusive Hub in Siaya’s Heart. Caroline Schoeller, Associate ASLA; Johanny Bonilla Jimenez; Michelle Syl Yeng; Leechen Zhu. Faculty Advisors: David Gouverneur; Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, FASLA; Thabo Lenneiye. The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design
ASLA bestows Student Awards in the following categories:
General Design
Residential Design
Urban Design
Analysis & Planning
Communications
Research
Student Community Service Award
Student Collaboration
In each of these categories, juries select a number of Honor Awards and may select one Award of Excellence.
Registration must be received no later than 11:59 PM PST on April 25, 2025. Submissions are due no later than 11:59 PM PST on Friday, May 9, 2025.
Award recipients receive featured coverage in Landscape Architecture Magazine and will be honored at a special Awards Presentation ceremony at the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture, held October 10-13 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
FAQs:
Do I need to be a member of ASLA? Yes, individuals must be a member to submit for an ASLA Student Award. But student membership is free for students that qualify for student, student affiliate, or international student membership. Complete your application.
What is the entry fee? The fee is $80 for each submission.
ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office. Chicago, Illinois. Hoerr Schaudt / Dave Burk
Led by leaders in the field of landscape architecture, ASLA is developing an updated, profession-wide Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan
ASLA is announcing the experts that will develop its new Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan for the landscape architecture community. The five-member Task Force and 33-member Advisory Group of climate and biodiversity leaders from the landscape architecture profession will guide this effort. The new plan will be released at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture, October 10-13, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The new plan will be an update to the ASLA Climate Action Plan, which was released in 2022, and offer new goals and actions for 2026-2030. The scope of the new plan has been expanded – the climate and biodiversity crises will be treated as equal priorities, and the focus will be on actions that tackle both crises in an equitable way.
The ambitious plan seeks to transform the practice of landscape architecture by 2040 through actions taken by ASLA and its members focused on biodiversity and ecological restoration, climate mitigation and adaptation, equity, and economic development.
Meg Calkins, FASLA, Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State University, has been named Chair of the Task Force.
“Landscape architects know that nature-based solutions can help address both the climate and biodiversity crises while also providing multiple economic, environmental, social, and health benefits. This incredible Task Force and Advisory Group, made up of biodiversity, climate, equity, and advocacy leaders, will show us the way and guide our collective action over the next five years,” said ASLA President Kona Gray, FASLA.
“ASLA believes that landscape architects’ climate and biodiversity work provides significant benefits to communities in the U.S. and around the world. This new plan will act as a roadmap for strengthening communities’ economic well-being while also conserving and restoring ecosystems, reducing emissions, and enhancing resilience over the long-term,” said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, Hon. ASLA.
Chair: Meg Calkins, FASLA, Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
Equity Lead: Diane Jones Allen, FASLA, D. Eng., PLA, Director and Professor, Program in Landscape Architecture, University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and Principal Landscape Architect, DesignJones, LLC, Arlington, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana
Biodiversity Lead: Jennifer A. Dowdell, ASLA, Practice Leader: Landscape Ecology, Planning & Design, Biohabitats, Baltimore, Maryland
Climate Lead: Mariana Ricker, ASLA, PLA, Associate Principal, SWA Group, San Francisco, California
Advocacy Lead: Andrew Wickham, ASLA, PLA, Project Leader, Landscape Architecture, LPA Design Studios, Sacramento, California
ASLA Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan Task Force
The goals and actions of the new plan are also shaped by a Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan Advisory Group of 33 diverse leaders, who hail from 16 U.S. states and four countries and are in private, public, non-profit practice, and academia. The Advisory Group consists of 20 women and 13 men; and three Black, four Asian and Asian American, seven Latino/a, and two Indigenous members.
Lisa Beyer, ASLA, PLA, Senior Manager, Nature for Urban Resilience, World Resources Institute, San Francisco, California
Roxanne Blackwell, Hon. ASLA, Managing Director, Government Affairs, ASLA
Jean Senechal Biggs, FASLA, Resource Development Manager, Metro, and Vice President, Professional Practice, ASLA, Portland, Oregon
Keith Bowers, FASLA, PLA, PWS, Advocate and Practice Leader, Biohabitats, Charleston, South Carolina
Chingwen Cheng, ASLA, PLA, Director and Professor, Stuckeman School, Penn State University and Past President, Council of Educators on Landscape Architecture (CELA), States College, Pennsylvania
Aida Curtis, FASLA, PLA, Principal, Curtis + Rogers Design Studio and Chair, ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, Miami, Florida
Dr. Jennifer Egan, PhD, PG, Program Manager, Environmental Economics and Conservation Finance, Environmental Finance Center, School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Grant Fahlgren, Indigenous Design Lead, PFS Studio and Co-Chair, Canadian Society Landscape Architects Reconciliation Advisory Committee, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sarah Fitzgerald, ASLA, PLA, Climate and Sustainability Lead and Associate, SWA Group, Dallas, Texas
MaFe Gonzalez, ASLA, Landscape designer and botanist, BASE Landscape Architecture, San Francisco, California
Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA, Principal, EDSA and President, ASLA, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Deb Guenther, FASLA, PLA, LEED AP, SITES AP, Partner, Mithun, Seattle, Washington
Chris Hardy, ASLA, PLA, CA, Senior Associate, Sasaki and Founder, Carbon Conscience, Boston, Massachusetts
Daniella Hirschfeld, PhD, Assistant Professor, Climate Adaptation Planning, Urban Ecology, Environmental Justice, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
José de Jesús Leal, ASLA, PLA, APA, Principal and Studio Director, Native Nation Building Studio, MIG, Sacramento, California
Mia Lehrer, FASLA, President, Studio-MLA, Los Angeles, California
Vincent Martinez, Hon. AIA, President and COO, Architecture 2030, Seattle, Washington
Anna McCorvey, RA, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Equitable Development Manager, 11th Street Bridge Park, and Founder and Executive Director, The River East Design Center, Washington, D.C.
Hitesh Mehta, FASLA, FRIBA, FAAK, Assoc. AIA, President, HM Design, and Executive in Residence and Courtesy Professor at Chaplain School of Hospitality, Florida International University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Gabriel Díaz Montemayor, ASLA, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Fayetteville, Arkansas
Chelina Odbert, Hon. ASLA, CEO and Founding Principal, Kounkuey Design Initiative, Los Angeles, California
Dr. Sohyun Park, ASLA, PhD, Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
Betsy Peterson, ASLA, Director, August Design Collaborative, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
April Phillips, FASLA, PLA, Landscape architect, artist, and past Chair, ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, Talent, Oregon
Catherine Seavitt, FASLA, Chair of Landscape Architecture and Meyerson Professor of Urbanism; Faculty Co-Director, McHarg Center; Department of Landscape Architecture, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Steven Spears, FASLA, PLA, AICP, Principal, Groundwork Development and Momark Development, Austin, Texas
Jerry Smith, FASLA, PLA, EDAC, LEED AP, Founding Principal, SMITH GreenHealth Consulting, Columbus, Ohio
Julia Watson, Author, Lo—TEK Design by Radical Indigenism; Principal, Julia Watson llc; and Co-founder, Lo—TEK Institute, Brooklyn, New York
Jonathan Williams, ASLA, PLA, Founder, Outdoor Practice, Houston, Texas
Dr. Kongjian Yu, FASLA, PhD, Founder, Turenscape and Professor and Dean, College of Architecture and Landscape, Peking University, and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize Winner, Beijing, China
In 2022, ASLA released its first Climate Action Plan, with a bold vision for 2040:
All landscape architecture projects will simultaneously:
Achieve zero embodied and operational emissions and increase carbon sequestration
Provide significant economic benefits in the form of measurable ecosystem services, health co-benefits, sequestration, and green jobs
Address climate injustices, empower communities, and increase equitable distribution of climate investments
Restore ecosystems and increase and protect biodiversity
Retaining water through the landscape. A Floating Forest: Fish Tail Park in Nanchang City, China. 2022. Turenscape
We can’t forget the central role of water in climate action, argues landscape architect Kongjian Yu, FASLA, founder of Turenscape, in a new research paper published in Nature Water. “Climate action must prioritize water—restoring the natural water cycle is just as critical as reducing carbon.”
Yu, along with co-authors Erica Gies, author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an age of drought and deluge, and Warren W. Wood, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, argue that “getting off fossil fuels is undeniably a critical step in slowing climate change. But even if we did that tomorrow, it would not be enough.”
“Agriculture, forestry, grazing, mining, and building have degraded 75 percent of land on Earth, significantly altering the water cycle. That’s a problem because a healthy water cycle plays a key role in stabilizing the climate.”
They found that the conventional approach to development has “drained or filled as much as 87 percent of the world’s wetlands and dammed and diverted two-thirds of the world’s large rivers.” Since 1992, our encroachment into floodplains has “paved an area the size of Ukraine.”
For Yu, the answer to these global challenges are new infrastructure projects that “protect, restore, or mimic natural slow water systems.” These projects can mimic the natural water functions of wetlands, floodplains, mountains, meadows, and forests. In other words, Sponge Planet.
Retaining water through the landscape. ASLA 2010 Professional General Design Honor Award. Tianjin Qiaoyuan Park: The Adaptation Palettes. Tianjin City, China Turenscape and Peking University Graduate School of Landscape Architecture / Cao Yang
Yu has been the world’s leading advocate of the Sponge City and now Sponge Planet approach. The model has three key principles:
Absorb rainfall where it falls
Restore water’s natural slow phases
Adapt communities to accept more slow water on the land
Sponge Planet is part of a global “slow water movement,” which includes thousands of projects worldwide in urban, suburban, and rural areas that mimic natural systems. Together these projects are increasing “infiltration into soils, hyporheic zones, and aquifers,” and solving water, climate, biodiversity, and heath issues at the same time.
Slowing down water flow. Haikou Meishe River Greenway, Hainan, China. 2017. Turenscape
“Climate action has focused too narrowly on carbon while neglecting the destabilized water cycle. Sponge City addresses urban flooding, extreme heat, wildfires, and biodiversity loss, but the crisis demands a planetary-scale response — Sponge Planet,” Yu told us. “We must restore Earth’s ability to absorb, store, and slowly release water — making water management the foundation of a holistic climate solution, not an afterthought or a single-goal intervention.”
Yu and his co-authors argue that Sponge Planet approaches reduce climate risks while also storing carbon and increasing biodiversity. “In absorbing high flows, Sponge Planet reduces upstream and downstream flood risk. In recharging groundwater and storing it locally, it increases the water released into streams during the dry season. Sponge Planet is also climate mitigation because ecosystems such as wetlands and mangroves store carbon at rates higher than many terrestrial forests.”
Slowing down water flow, storing carbon, and increasing biodiversity. ASLA 2014 Professional General Design Honor Award. Liupanshui Minghu Wetland Park, Guizhou Province, China. Turenscape
Part of his campaign is to publish research in science journals like Nature Water. “Landscape architecture is a small profession and widely misunderstood. We must make the scientific and engineering communities aware that landscape architecture is not just about aesthetics or leisure—despite common misconceptions—but a scientific and a strategic tool for global climate action.”
“We need to highlight that widely discussed solutions like nature-based solutions have long been at the core of our discipline. Publishing in scientific journals legitimizes landscape-based, water-driven solutions and ensures they influence policy and practice. It shifts the conversation from engineered, gray infrastructure to integrated, nature-based resilience, redefining our profession as an essential force in climate adaptation and survival.”
Slowing down water flow. Haikou Meishe River Greenway, Hainan, China. 2017. Turenscape
Yu has been explaining the inadequacies of purely gray infrastructure for decades. In Nature Water, he and his co-authors sum up that argument: “Many decision-makers call for bigger, stronger infrastructure. But that ‘gray’ infrastructure — aqueducts, dams, and levees aimed at controlling water — is part of the problem.”
“That’s because engineered approaches to water management often focus on solving a single problem at a time. Worried about flooding? Build a wall. Does water scarcity loom? Build a dam and pipeline to bring in more from somewhere else. But such singular focus ignores and damages complex natural systems and their inhabitants who keep them functioning.”
Gray infrastructure produces significant greenhouse gas emissions: “Inflexible and brittle, gray infrastructure requires ongoing maintenance and causes more carbon emissions due to the use of concrete and the destruction of natural ecosystems that store carbon.” And these water systems create new inequities: “Over 40 years, dams brought water to 20 percent of the world’s population but decreased water to 24 percent of the population.”
He thinks all landscape architects can do their part to move communities away from centralized gray infrastructure and towards decentralized, community-based green infrastructure and nature-based solutions.
“Shift the mindset—reject gray infrastructure as the default and advocate for landscape-based, water-driven solutions. Prioritize wetland restoration, floodplain protection, and nature-based urban water systems in every project. Push for policies that recognize landscape architecture as an essential discipline in climate action. Every intervention, however small, should contribute to a Sponge Planet: retaining water at its source, slowing down water flow, and embracing water at its sink.”
Embracing sea level rise. ASLA 2020 Professional General Design Honor Award. Deep Form of Designed Nature: Sanya Mangrove Park. Sanya City, Hainan Province, China. Turenscape
Calculating the economic benefits of these projects is also important: “Measuring the value of these projects’ multiple benefits – and tallying the harm caused by traditional gray infrastructure — can show the cost-effectiveness of such investments.”
Cherry Creek West, Denver, Colorado / Design Workshop
A 13-acre parking lot on the west side of Denver, Colorado will soon become Cherry Creek West, a new mixed-use community. Design Workshop, an international landscape architecture, planning and urban design firm, is transforming a big box shopping center into a walkable, bikeable destination that reduces vehicle emissions.
Existing site of Cherry Creek West, Denver, Colorado, with Cherry Creek in foreground / Design Workshop
“The goal is to reach everything you need — by walking, biking, or transit — within 15 minutes,” said Robb Berg, FASLA, president of Design Workshop.
East West Partners, the developers behind the billion-dollar redevelopment, worked with landscape architects at Design Workshop first to lay out the new 13-acre community. The developers wanted to “get the public realm right” before focusing on the buildings, Berg explained.
“They started with landscape architecture and urban design, because the first 30 feet makes all the difference in these developments. We wanted to design for people first and focus on the spaces a majority of people will interact with everyday. You won’t have to live there, buy a ticket, or go to a restaurant to be there. We aimed to have the largest impact on the largest number of people,” Berg said.
The initial master plan, which is being updated now that the project has won rezoning approval, shows a dense, mixed-use community with four acres of new open space; 825 residences, many of them affordable; 600,000 square feet of office space; 100,000 square feet of retail; and 2,000 underground parking spaces.
First, Design Workshop organized the layout of the new community and its public realm and created more “logical and safe” connections to the nearby Cherry Creek, a 45-mile greenway system that extends through the Denver metro region.
When they started planning, “there was no connection to the creek; the shopping center was blocking access. One of our goals at the onset was creating that connection.”
New walking and biking trails and bus rapid transit (BRT) infrastructure will enable access and lay the foundation for a “future, city-planned” BRT line, trail network, and bike lanes connecting to communities north of the development.
Proposed walking and biking trails, Cherry Creek West / Design Workshop
Then, the design team recommended putting all the parking spaces beneath the buildings, which was a “massive commitment by the developer,” Berg said.
Within that public space, the landscape architects focused on weaving in nature — both to draw people and pollinators. Essentially functioning as a green roof, the new verdant plazas will sit above parking garages below. “We will create a high plains desert landscape on structure, with native and adapted plant communities that increase biodiversity,” Berg said. These landscapes are also designed to manage stormwater.
Proposed plazas and biodiverse landscape at Cherry Creek West, Denver, Colorado / Design Workshop
Concept designs for the development are being updated after negotiations with the city. One new addition is a shared woonerf-style street that will give priority to pedestrians but enable vehicle access.
Proposed pedestrian crossing from the Cherry Creek trail to the development, Denver, Colorado / Design Workshop
Berg said the original goal was a “100 percent car-free development.” But the new walking trails, dedicated bike lanes, and BRT infrastructure are still expected to help more residents, commuters, and visitors leave their cars at home.
According to an analysis created as part of Design Workshop’s new infrastructure master plan, the new development will shift more than 2,300 car trips to biking and walking, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 9.5 metric tons each day; and another 1,300 car trips will shift to transit, reducing approximately 4.2 metric tons of greenhouse emissions per day.
Cherry Creek West shows what can be done with underperforming shopping centers across the country. These places are opportunities to build a public realm, create new transportation connections, and shift to lower-carbon living.
Harbor Wetland at National Aquarium, Baltimore, Maryland. Ayers Saint Gross / Phillip Smith, courtesy of National Aquarium
Ecosystems, such as oceans, forests, wetlands, and savannahs, account for 50 percent of global GDP or over $50 trillion annually.
These valuable natural systems can also be incorporated into the public realm. There, landscape architects can design them to provide “stacked” water, air, health, and biodiversity benefits, said Jennifer Dowdell, ASLA, practice leader of landscape ecology, planning, and design at Biohabitats.
In cities and communities, “we can assist the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed. This can occur through regenerative design that produces resilient and equitable landscapes,” Dowdell said during a recent online discussion organized by the ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee.
One example is the new floating wetlands in Baltimore’s inner harbor, a project led by landscape architects at Ayers Saint Gross that Biohabitats contributed to (see image above). The project transformed a post-industrial bulkhead into a biodiversity hotspot. “It’s designed to be a refuge.”
At the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Biohabitats restored Battle Branch Grove, recovering a buried stream and reconnecting it to the floodplain. “We used a regenerative stormwater conveyance approach, with a series of berms, pools, and weirs that also restores the natural forest around the stream.”
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Battle Grove / Biohabitats
And in Lyndhurst, Ohio, the firm transformed Acacia, a former golf course into wetlands and native meadows.
Acacia Ecological Restoration / copyright David Ike Photography, courtesy of BiohabitatsAcacia Ecological Restoration / copyright David Ike Photography, courtesy of Biohabitats
Many of our landscapes have “become hyper fragmented, taken over by a global soup of species, and now function differently than they did before.” Deer, pesticides, and invasive plants cause local ecosystems to change. “It’s depressing but also fascinating.”
Amid this flux, West sees plant species move and adapt, filling new ecological niches. “Change is the new normal, so we design our restorations to be dynamic. We must allow landscapes to adapt.”
Ecological change over three years / Claudia West, Phyto Studio
Our era of the Anthropocene requires that landscape architects have an “understanding of depleted ecosystems.” Then, with a science-based approach, they can “rebuild ecological abundance and form resilient habitat.” The end goal is to “create the conditions for stable, thriving ecosystems that can take care of themselves.”
West argued that “autonomous plants” that function on their own are often needed, because “the restoration budget is not there and maintenance skill levels are low.” She said there is ample evidence that lower-maintenance plantings have higher ecological functions.
Example of autonomous planting system / Claudia West, Phyto Studio
Through her designs, she attempts to “achieve legibility on a large scale while increasing biodiversity on a small scale.”
Legibility on a large scale and biodiversity on a small scale / Copyright Rob Cardillo Photography
She also aims to achieve abundance through layering — a structural layer, seasonal layers, and a ground cover layer. West says this layering is key to creating a sense of wonder and emotional connection to landscapes.
Abundance through layering / Claudia West, Phyto Studio
Martha Eberle, ASLA, PLA, senior associate at Andropogon focused on one project — Olmsted Woods at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. — to reinforce what we increasingly know: climate change complicates restoration efforts.
“Extreme weather is putting pressure on urban forest ecosystems.” In the mid-Atlantic region, climate change is leading to “more rain — including more frequency and intensity — and more drought. Soils face both erosion and compaction. This impacts the fine root system of trees, which are now stressed.”
Storm damage in Olmsted Woods, National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. / Peter Spaulding, courtesy of Andropogon
Within the 59-acre campus of the Cathedral, Andropogon has led the restoration of the five-acre Olmsted Woods, which are in a valley nestled between two schools. The firm has guided planning of the forest’s ecological restoration for nearly two decades. Now that restoration plan is being updated due to the heavy loss of Oak trees from recent storms.
Olmsted Woods and the National Cathedral landscape, Washington, D.C. / Andropogon
Andropogon is taking a holistic approach to the restoration of the site, which is now receiving more stormwater runoff with increased rain. Strategies include building up soil health through piles of logs and increased mulch and keeping pedestrians out of compacted areas; restoring streams and creating new dams; and better protecting oak seedlings from deer that roam Northwest D.C.
Ecological restoration plan for Olmsted Woods / Andropogon
They are also piloting adaptable, 20-foot by 20-foot “planting modules,” with a palette of plants the Cathedral can use as conditions change. And they are engaging academic institutions, students, and product manufacturers to measure the performance of stormwater management systems.
“It’s a long-term process but we, as landscape architects, can communicate the vision. Others can describe ideas, but we can draw them. We can help set funding priorities and phases moving forward,” Eberle said. Landscape architects also offer long-term ecological management plans, with customized approaches to maintenance and monitoring.
As climate change continues to impact Olmsted Woods, the forest may also need to further evolve. “Beech trees and the understory are coming in as part of a dynamic system. We need to stabilize the entire ecosystem.”
Lower Neches Wildlife Management Area, Galveston, Texas / Sean Burkholder, ASLA, University of Pennsylvania and with Dredge Research Collaborative
Before looking ahead to what’s happening in landscape architecture in 2025, we also look back to learn what was of greatest interest to readers over the past year.
The most-read story of the year was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ new embrace of nature-based solutions. Readers wanted to know what this transformational shift will mean for future infrastructure projects.
Like in past years, readers also wanted to know how to reduce the carbon footprint of landscape architecture projects and move towards more responsible forms of design. This is about using less and choosing local, low-carbon materials.
2024 showed the real potential of designing for climate and biodiversity in cities. An exciting linear park in California proved that many kinds of materials can be reused in a beautiful way at low cost. And a constructed wetland in Baltimore’s inner harbor demonstrated how to create a tourist mecca while yielding real benefits for wildlife.
ASLA members: Have an op-ed you would like to write? Send us your idea at [email protected].
“In a new memo, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it will expand the use of nature-based solutions in its civil works projects. Now, when the Army Corps provides a final set of planning options — what they call ‘alternatives’ — to communities, those alternatives must include ‘a fully nature-based solution alternative’ if feasible. And that alternative needs to use the ‘same level of rigor and detail as the other solutions proposed.'”
“A new landscape in Hayward, California demonstrates how to reuse materials on a grand scale to save money and reduce climate impacts. Designed by landscape architects at Surfacedesign, the Mission Boulevard Linear Park — a mile-long park and walking and biking trail — repurposed asphalt, concrete, trees, soil, and even benches.”
“Embodied carbon accounts for 75 to 95 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions from landscape architecture projects,” said Chris Hardy, ASLA, PLA, senior associate at Sasaki, during the third in a series of webinars organized by the ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee. But by selecting locally made low-carbon materials, landscape architects can significantly reduce the climate impacts of their work.”
“‘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.”
“‘Extreme heat is expected to impact more people and places in the U.S. and across the globe in coming decades, with the greatest impacts to marginalized and underserved communities. An estimated 250,000 excess deaths are expected per year by 2050. Our research demonstrates the importance of maximizing the benefits of nature-based solutions to extreme heat. And landscape architects do that every day through their critically important planning and design work,’ Dr. Hirschfeld said.”
“‘The biodiversity crisis is on par with the climate crisis. An estimated one million out of eight million species on the planet are threatened with extinction. Our research demonstrates that landscape architects play a significant role in designing and preserving green spaces that enhance and restore biodiversity and promote human well-being,’ Dr. Park said.”
“‘Landscape architects have started conversations about embodied carbon. There is a realization that we can no longer ignore the grey parts,’ said Stephanie Carlisle, Senior Researcher, Carbon Leadership Forum and the University of Washington.”
“‘Decarbonization has design value. It’s part of the design process, not a separate thing,’ said Marieke Lacasse, FASLA, principal at GGLO, during the second in a series of webinars organized by the ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee.”
“ASLA releases three new resources that cover how to decarbonize landscape architecture project specifications, the design process, and navigate environmental product data.”
“The National Aquarium’s new Harbor Wetland shows the great potential of creating wildlife habitat in cities. With just 10,000 square feet, it has already drawn otters, herons, ducks, crabs, fish, eels, and jellyfish.”
ASLA 2025 Conference Call for Presentations / ASLA
By Katie Riddle
ASLA is currently accepting proposals for the 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture in New Orleans, October 10 -13, 2025. Help us shape the education program by submitting a proposal through our online system by Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at 6 pm EST.
This year’s theme, “Beyond Boundaries,” celebrates how landscape architects are breaking down barriers—whether physical, political, or cultural—to create innovative solutions for today.
The ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture is the largest gathering of landscape architects and allied professionals in the world—all coming together to learn, celebrate, build relationships, and strengthen the bonds of our incredibly varied professional community.
Educational Tracks
Biodiversity
Changing the Culture in Practice
Climate Action
Design and the Creative Process
Design Implementation
Equity and Inclusion
Learning to Lead and Grow in Your Career
The Future of the Public Realm
Session Formats
75-minute Education Sessions: The standard education session. Each session includes a 60-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute Q&A, featuring two or three speakers.
Field Sessions: Field sessions combine educational content delivered by multiple speakers with an immersive field experience. Field sessions are organized through the host chapter. Please email [email protected] if you’re interested in submitting a field session.
Deep Dive Sessions: These are by invitation only. If you have an idea you wish the Annual Conference Education Advisory Committee to consider, please email us at [email protected].
ASLA members are invited to create an account in the submission system. Non-members, including allies from the fields of urban planning and design, architecture, natural and social sciences, and public art, are also most welcome to submit proposals.
Please visit the submission site to learn more about the 2025 education tracks, submission criteria, review process, and key dates.
Fernhill South Wetlands Natural Treatment System, Forest Grove, Oregon. Three years after completion and re-vegetation with native species. / copyright Jim Maloney, courtesy of Biohabitats
“Biodiversity is a simple word to describe the complex sum of all life on Earth,” said Keith Bowers, FASLA, president of Biohabitats, in a recent online discussion. “Biodiversity happens at the species, genetic, behavior, and ecosystem levels.”
In some respects, the biodiversity crisis is a greater threat than the climate crisis. With dramatic reductions in emissions and increased carbon drawdown, we can reverse climate change and cool the planet, undoing or avoiding a lot of damage. “But once you lose species, they are gone forever.”
Bowers sees five primary causes of biodiversity loss, in descending order of importance:
5) Climate change
4) Pollution, including air, water, and nitrogen pollution
3) Overexploitation of natural resources
2) Invasive species
1) Habitat loss and fragmentation
Landscape architects are designing with biodiversity for the sake of tree, plant, insect, bird, and other species around the world. But creating healthy habitats for species also provides so many other benefits: improved water management, air and water quality, health and well-being, livelihoods, and climate resilience.
Given the significant drop in insect, bird, and other important wildlife populations worldwide, it’s important to scale up efforts to achieve 30 x 30, Bowers said. This is the global campaign to protect and restore 30 percent of the world’s terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems by 2030.
To give a sense of the scale of the challenge: “only 12 percent of the U.S. is now protected. We need to at least double that in the next five years.”
Landscape architects can help with this national and global effort. “We can play a leadership role” in protecting and reconnecting landscapes. “Nature is in trouble. We can have a major impact by restoring the Earth.”
30 x 30 will happen project by project. How landscapes are designed results in either biodiversity loss or gain, explained Dr. Sohyun Park, ASLA, associate professor at the University of Connecticut and author of the ASLA Fund research study Landscape Architecture Solutions to Biodiversity Loss.
“We can design landscapes to actively protect biodiversity. We need to shift our mindsets to intentionally include biodiversity and go beyond people-centered design.”
Landscape architects can achieve the goal of biodiversity net-gain in their projects by “minimizing harm, regenerating habitat, and protecting and restoring ecologically important areas where nature can prevail.”
She recommended turning college campuses into arboreta and nature preserves, weaving pollinator habitat and native plants into cities, taking out lawns in favor of native meadows and ground cover, and using parks and waterfronts to introduce more biodiversity to the public. Beyond the benefits for wildlife, “the spirit of nature has psychological and spiritual benefits for us,” Park said.
As she outlined in her research, Dr. Park also called for planting design to enhance biodiversity. “We need heterogeneous plant communities with a diversity of functions and structures.” Plants with different flowering times can be brought together in one landscape. This provides food for insects and birds year-round.
One example is the green roof on the historic Old Chicago Post Office building in Chicago, Illinois, which was designed by landscape architects at Hoerr Schaudt to provide seasonal blooms.
Spring. ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office. Chicago, Illinois. Hoerr Schaudt / Scott ShigleySummer. ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office. Chicago, Illinois. Hoerr Schaudt / Scott ShigleyFall. ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office. Chicago, Illinois. Hoerr Schaudt / Scott ShigleyWinter. ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office. Chicago, Illinois. Hoerr Schaudt / Scott Shigley
The largest green roof in the city, it includes more than 40,000 plants, with a high percentage of endemic native plants that provide food for insects and birds. Its restored soils and plants capture 300,000 gallons of stormwater annually.
ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office. Chicago, Illinois. Hoerr Schaudt / Dave Burk
Many other kinds of projects provide opportunities to restore habitat and at different scales. “We can work at the regional, ecosystem, intermediate or local scales to connect habitat patches and corridors together into a matrix,” Bowers said.
At the Forest Grove wastewater treatment plant in Forest Grove, Oregon, the utility Clean Water Systems came to Biohabitats to improve the function of a sewage lagoon. Water discharged into the lagoon was too warm and had too much nitrogen.
Landscape architects, engineers and scientists at the firm devised a way to use nature-based solutions and leverage biodiversity to solve those problems, creating the Fernhill South wetlands natural treatment system. “We used soils and plants to filter out nitrogen and lower temperatures,” Bowers said.
Fernhill South wetlands natural treatment system, Forest Grove, Oregon. Concept plan illustrating flow paths and habitat diversity. / Biohabitats
Discharged water now flows into a designed set of wetlands, where natural processes — solar radiation and microbes — cleanse water instead of mechanical systems. From there the water flows into a reservoir and then the Tualatin River. This system also means discharged water no longer had to be piped to another facility, saving lots of energy and money in the process.
The series of wetlands are built as “cells” that can be closed off for maintenance. Amid the cells, Biohabitats added woody debris, perches, and nesting areas to restore habitat for a range of species.
Fernhill South wetlands natural treatment system, Forest Grove, Oregon. Reshaping and grading water treatment cells. / Biohabitats
The water treatment area has become a recreational site in its own right and a mecca for birders. “Two-to-three years after completion, the landscape really blossomed.”
And at the city scale, Biohabitats worked with Atlanta to develop a new biodiversity plan that calls for “designing for people, nature, and people in nature.”
Atlanta City Design: Nature, Biodiversity Plan / City of Atlanta Planning Department, Biohabitats
The city is expected to grow to 1.2 million and the region to 8 million in 25 years. As growth occurs, it’s important to protect biodiverse areas and connect these habitats.
Atlanta has one of the largest urban tree canopies in the U.S. and a number of existing patches and corridors. But the city is also losing interior forest, which is 300 feet from any edge. “The city needs that core forest” because many species rely on it.
Analyzing the city in detail, Biohabitats found that interior forest is most intact in the southern and southeastern segments of the city. They then modeled protections for those forest patches, the creation of new patches, and additional corridors to connect them.
Atlanta City Design: Nature, Biodiversity Plan / City of Atlanta Planning Department, Biohabitats
30 landscape architects around the world offer personal stories and histories about their favorite tree in this book edited by Ron Henderson, FASLA, a professor of landscape architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The designers explain what the trees evoke and how they were used in a project. Henderson also provides botanical descriptions. Contributors include Shannon Nichol, FASLA, Laurie Olin, FASLA, Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, Gary Hilderbrand, FASLA, Elizabeth Mossop, FASLA, and many others.
The African Ancestors Garden: History and Memory at the International African American Museum / The Monacelli Press, 2024
Landscape designer and artist Walter Hood explains how his firm’s powerful landscape at the International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina came to be in this beautifully illustrated book. The museum is located at Gadsden’s Wharf, where nearly half of all enslaved Africans arrived in North America. With its African ethnobotanical gardens and infinity pool, the landscape shows “how different worlds can be held in the same space,” Hood says. It unearths and honors the past while providing a space for new dialogue and even celebration.
Brooklyn Bridge Park: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates / The Monacelli Press, 2024
In plain language, Michael Van Valkenburgh, FASLA, tells the story of how six abandoned shipping piers on the Brooklyn waterfront became a dynamic 85-acre park, the largest addition to NYC’s public space in a generation. Brooklyn Bridge Park was designed to be inclusive — it’s home to barbeques, sports fields, and playgrounds. But it’s also a model of ecological planting and climate resilience. This generous coffee table book offers 250 immersive images and includes a forward by landscape designer Julie Bargmann. It’s the next best thing to going to Brooklyn.
Design by Fire: Resistance, Co-Creation, and Retreat in the Pyrocene / Routledge, 2024
“Feral wildlands and the wildland-urban interface are places where design can make a profound impact,” write Emily Schlickman, ASLA, and Brett Milligan, ASLA, in this timely book that offers 27 strategies for designing with fire. The co-authors focus on five fire-prone zones around the world that share a Mediterranean climate, including western North America, the Mediterranean basin, the Cape of South Africa, central Chile, and parts of Australia. Many scientists no longer view wildfires in these zones as isolated events but rather as connected in a larger system.
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth / Harper, 2024
“It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival,” writes Zoë Schlanger, an evironmental and science reporter for The Atlantic. She weaves together the latest plant science, explaining how plants communicate, sense, learn, and adapt.
Field Sketching for Environmental Designers / Routledge
“To learn to really ‘see’ what you draw is to go beyond merely copying what you observe; the ultimate goal is to find the soul and meaning of the landscape,” writes Chip Sullivan, FASLA, professor of landscape architecture at University of California at Berkeley, in this charming how-to guide. A welcome companion for both beginning and advanced drawers, this book’s wealth of inspiration and practical tips will improve the ability of any sketcher. Take it with you on your next walk.
Noguchi’s Gardens: Landscape as Sculpture / ORO Editions, 2024
Japanese modern artist Isamu Noguchi is famous for his akari light sculptures and public art. But he also crafted landscapes like sculpture, with “space as their primary vehicle,” writes Marc Trieb, Hon. ASLA, a prolific author, landscape historian, and professor emeritus at University of California Berkeley. This book covers Noguchi’s unrealized and built parks, gardens, and playgrounds around the world, offering some rare photographs.
Silt Sand Slurry: Dredging, Sediment, and the World We Are Making / Applied Research + Design, 2024
“We are manipulating sediments at a tectonic scale,” write the members of the Dredge Research Collaborative — Rob Holmes, ASLA, Brett Milligan, ASLA, and Gena Wirth, FASLA — who have co-authored a compelling call to action to “design with sediment– intelligently, democratically, and equitably.” Sediment is often ignored but is vitally important because it shapes the “current and future conditions of life.” Other key members of the collaborative — Sean Burkholder, Brian Davis, ASLA, and Justine Holzman — contributed essays.
Speculative Futures: Design Approaches to Navigate Change, Foster Resilience, and Co-Create the Cities We Need / North Atlantic Books, 2024
Artist and urbanist Johanna Hoffman, who studied landscape architecture at University of California at Berkeley, calls for partnering with communities to visualize “new and potential worlds.” This world-making can help us “move us beyond what currently exists into what could one day be.” She is inspired by the creative fields of “art, film, fiction, and industrial design” and how they use “speculation to provoke, imagine, and dream into what lies ahead.” The book outlines novel engagement approaches that enable communities to dream big and make vision reality.
What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures / One Books, 2024
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, the keynote speaker for the ASLA 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture, has written a follow-up to her bestseller: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. Her new book guides readers through “solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture, and justice.” She brings together visionaries, such as landscape architect Kate Off, FASLA; climate leader Bill McKibben; and MoMA curator Paola Antonelli in a conversation about what a healthier, more equitable future could look like.
Buying these books through THE DIRT or ASLA’s online bookstore benefits ASLA educational programs.
ASLA 2024 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Bay: “One Park for All” in Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida. Agency Landscape + Planning / HAPS agency / Michael Todoran
ASLA is now accepting submissions for its 2025 Professional Awards Program.
ASLA bestows Professional Awards in the following categories:
General Design
Residential Design
Urban Design
Analysis & Planning, which includes the ASLA/IFLA Global Impact Award
Communications
Research
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.
Registration must be received no later than 11:59 PM PST on February 19, 2025. Submissions are due no later than 11:59 PM PST on Friday, March 7, 2025.
Award recipients receive featured coverage in Landscape Architecture Magazine and will be honored at a special Awards Presentation ceremony at the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture, held October 10-13 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Important Update:
In January, ASLA will launch an upgraded membership system to better serve you and make managing your account smoother and more efficient. To make these changes, we anticipate some scheduled system downtime in January. All systems will be back to normal before the January 31 awards registration deadline.
However, we encourage everyone to register before December 31, 2024, to ensure your registration is confirmed without delay.
FAQs:
Do I need to be a member of ASLA? Yes, individuals must be a member to submit for an ASLA Award.
What is the entry fee? The fee is $400 for each submission. $125 for each ASLA Landmark Award submission.
