Chapters Finish Out National Landscape Architecture Month on a High Note
Several chapters make a final push to demonstrate the importance of landscape architecture in their communities.

April, putting together fabulous events to gain public awareness for the profession, and also reaching out to help their communities. Here’s a rundown of just some of these events.

More than 140 landscape architects, architects, and University of Colorado at Denver landscape architecture students, faculty, families, and guests turned out for the Colorado Chapter’s First Annual Jane Silverstein Ries Memorial Lecture and Banquet. Featured speaker Witold Rybczynski, author of the New York Times Notable Book of the Year, A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century, provided a stimulating and thought-provoking talk, offering a great deal of insight into the unique and prolific life of Olmsted, father of landscape architecture. The student awards portion of the evening followed the lecture, with university faculty recognizing many students in a variety of categories including sustainable design, written and graphic communication, and community service categories, as well as overall academic excellence and achievement.

Witold Rybczynski addresses the First Annual Jane Silverstein Ries Memorial Lecture and Banquet.

The Potomac Chapter had wonderful weather and a great group of more than 60 people for its walking tour of featured monument designs, located along Washington's National Mall. The chapter did a great job promoting its NLAM event—the event listing was featured in the Washington Post City Guide—and a number of non-ASLA community members showed up for the tour. The tour, titled The Confluence of Water and Design on the Mall, was guided by the projects' contributing designers and expert fountain consultants. It described the design process, the conceptual origins of the water features, and the details created to achieve some of the unique water effects of the projects. The tour featured the following projects: National Museum of the American Indian [EDAW], World War II Memorial [Oehme, van Sweden & Associates], Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial [CMS Collaborative], and the George Mason Memorial [Rhodeside & Harwell].

Members of the Potomac Chapter present a tour of the World War II memorial.

The Louisiana Chapter installed a park for the day in an on-street parking space for its Park from Park(ing) event, which was part of the Downtown Spring Spectacular in Baton Rouge. Many people stopped by and asked about it, particularly when everyone was gathering downtown for the Live After Five free concert across the boulevard from the site. Even the local CBS news crew, WAFB-TV, stopped by that morning to film for a piece that aired later that night on the news. Louisiana did such a great job of adding a little green space to the city that many asked if they could keep the park up for Earth Day.

Baton Rouge residents enjoy the Park from Parking installation by the ASLA Louisiana Chapter.

The New Mexico Chapter and the Student Chapter at the University of New Mexico worked together on a community mapping activity in support of the Safe Routes to School and the Ditches to Trails initiatives. They mapped out routes and potential trails around and extending out from the Albuquerque Valle Vista Elementary School area. The initiative was held in conjunction with the National Park Service, the 1000 Friends of Albuquerque, the Alliance for Active Living, and the Vecinos del Bosque Neighborhood Association. It was a successful testimony of the collaboration between the professionals and students of the local landscape architecture community.

Members of the New Mexico Chapter mapped out potential trails near the Albuquerque Valle Vista Elementary

The North Carolina Chapter had a hit with its Greensboro Center City Park Luncheon, which acted as a progress report for Center City Park. The event took place downtown at a restaurant adjacent to where the park is being built. About 40 people attended, including the Mayor Pro Tem, Sandra Anderson Groat. NCASLA presented two citizens awards to individuals for outstanding service as a volunteer to make the park a reality. The celebration continued across the street on the top of a parking deck overlooking the site, which is currently under construction. Landscape architect Bob Uhlig, ASLA, from Halvorson Design Partnership in Boston, gave a presentation from the bird's eye view. A local TV station (Fox 8) filmed the event and it aired that evening on the 6:00 news.

NCASLA sponsors a luncheon to mark the progress of Center City Park.

And finally, the Connecticut Chapter of ASLA and the newly formed Connecticut Olmsted Heritage Alliance co-hosted the first Olmsted Day Conference at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. As the inaugural observance of Frederick Law Olmsted Day in Connecticut, this conference focused on Olmsted’s early life in Connecticut. Conference speakers included CTASLA president Aris Stalis, ASLA; Connecticut senator and chairman of the Environment Committee Bill Finch; Tupper Thomas, Prospect Park administrator and president, Prospect Park Alliance; Frederick Law Olmsted authority and lecturer Charles Beveridge, Honorary ASLA; Faye Harwell, ASLA, director, Rhodeside & Harwell, Alexandria, Virginia; and University of Connecticut professor emeritus Rudy Favretti, FASLA.