ASLA 2003 Professional Awards Juror Biographies

left to right: Witold Rybczynski, Hon. FAIA, Brooks Breeden, FASLA, and Benjamin Forgey

James Brooks Breeden, FASLA, is the Professor of Landscape Architecture at The Ohio State University's (OSU) Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture. He earned his B.L.A. from North Carolina State in 1965 and worked in private practice in Atlanta until 1971. He returned to school at the University of Georgia School Of Environmental Design in 1971 and completed his M.L.A. in 1974. Upon graduation, he moved to Columbus, Ohio to join the School of Architecture, Division of Landscape Architecture. He was promoted to associate professor in 1980 and to full professor in 1986. At OSU, Professor Breeden has been active in the Center for Teaching Excellence and with the OSU Office of Technology Enhanced Learning and Research’s Instructional Technology Advisory Committee. In 2002 he received The Award of Distinction from The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture and was elected to the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows.

Benjamin Forgey

Benjamin Forgey, Hon. AIA, is the very popular architecture critic for The Washington Post. Mr. Forgey is a long-time observer of Washington architecture and urban design. In addition to his weekly column, “Cityscape,” he writes essays and reviews for the Post and other publications. He has contributed several articles to Landscape Architecture magazine over the past 15 years. Before joining the Post in 1981, Forgey was the art critic of the Washington Star.

John Jackson, III, ASLA, is a principal with Jackson Person & Associates in Memphis, TN. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Mississippi State University in 1983. Mr. Jackson has over twenty years of experience as project manager and principal-in-charge of projects in urban site analysis, conceptual design, master planning, streetscape design, cost estimating, construction administration/inspection, and feasibility study. He is a registered landscape architect in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia whose projects include: the National Park Service/Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site; Veterans Affairs Washington, DC VA National Cemetery; Pyramid Multi-Purpose Arena/Public Building Authority; Tougaloo College 500 Acre Development; Peabody Place Development, National Civil Rights Museum/State of Tennessee, and 1996 Olympic Field Hockey Venue/Atlanta Committee Olympic Games.

Joseph J. Lalli, FASLA, is president and managing principal of EDSA. A graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture, he received his Master of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan. Mr. Lalli became an assistant professor at West Virginia State University and a visiting lecturer at Pennsylvania State University, the University of Florida, Michigan State University, Kansas State University, and University of Arkansas. He is registered as a landscape architect in Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. With EDSA since 1971, a principal since 1973, he is currently chairman of the firm’s Beijing office. Mr. Lalli has served as a Juror for the AAN Awards Program and as a Member of the Federal Portfolio Review Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Florida Fine Arts Commission. He is a member and served for one year as co-chairman of the CEO Roundtable.

Carol Mayer-Reed, FASLA, is principal-in-charge of landscape architecture and urban design at Mayer/Reed. She received a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning from Utah State University in 1977 and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Ohio State University in 1973. She is registered as a landscape architect in the states of Oregon, Washington, and Ohio. Ms. Mayer-Reed’s 25 years of experience represents a wide array of project types, in both the public and private sectors, ranging from waterfront site master planning, transportation, corridors, urban renewal, parks and recreation, and corporate and higher education campus projects. She is a member of the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB) and the Architectural Foundation of Oregon.

Witold Rybczynski, Hon. FAIA

Witold Rybczynski, Hon. FAIA, is the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architecture from McGill University (Montreal) and has a Master of Arts (hon.) from the University of Pennsylvania. Previously professor of architecture at McGill University, he has authored many acclaimed books: Home (1986), translated into eight languages; City Life (1995); and A Clearing in the Distance (1999), a biography of Frederick Law Olmsted. Currently writing a book on Palladio, he contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic Monthly, and is co-editor of the Wharton Real Estate Review.

Frederick Steiner, ASLA, is the Dean of the School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin. Professor Steiner received his Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts degrees in City and Regional Planning and a Master of Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a Master of Community Planning and a Bachelor of Science in Design from the University of Cincinnati. Previously, he was Director of the School of Planning and Landscape Architecture, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Arizona State University and taught planning, landscape architecture, and environmental science at Washington State University, the University of Colorado-Denver, and the University of Pennsylvania. As a Fulbright-Hays scholar in 1980, he conducted research on ecological planning at the Wageningen Agricultural and Environmental Science University, The Netherlands. In 1998, he was the National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize Fellow in Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome. Professor Steiner has written numerous books, articles, and papers. His newest book, Human Ecology: Following Nature’s Lead, was published in December 2002 by Island Press.

Ramiro Villalvazo, ASLA, is chief landscape architect for the USDA Forest Service in Washington, DC. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1982 and obtained his professional registration from the State of California in 1988. Prior to arriving in Washington, he worked as forest landscape architect on five national forests, including the Caribbean National Forest in Puerto Rico, and most recently, on the Angeles National Forest in Southern California. He has extensive experience in Latin America, including work in Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico.

Joan Woodward, ASLA, is Professor and Graduate Coordinator of Landscape Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Joan is an alumna of DePauw University and University of Colorado at Denver and has worked as a planner and designer for the National Park Service in Denver and Alaska, as well as in her own private practice. She teaches advanced courses in theory, research, and design, and is co-principal of the 606 Studio, which has garnered multiple national professional ASLA awards and whose cumulative effects have been documented in her co-authored paper, Patterns of Perseverance: Twenty-five Years of Ecological Design in Los Angeles. Her book on Denver region design, Waterstained Landscapes: Seeing and Shaping Regionally Distinctive Places, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2000. Her teaching, research, service, and practice earned her the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture’s Award of Recognition for outstanding junior faculty in 1996. Her current research and design focus is on resilient landscapes of the Los Angeles region.