Reports From the Field: Women in Landscape Architecture and International Practice PPNs
The seventh article in a series that highlights the work PPN members are doing in their practice specialties.

ASLA’s Professional Practice Networks (PPNs) are subcommunities where landscape architects sharing professional interests can communicate and network. ASLA recently asked all PPN members to allow a glimpse into their unique work portfolios. This space in LAND Online is where we share what we’ve learned.
This week we highlight the work of members of two PPNs: Women in Landscape Architecture and International Practice. The Women in Landscape Architecture (WILA) PPN focuses on personal and professional development for landscape architects. The International Practice PPN promotes the practice of landscape architecture abroad as an instrument of public service and as a source for professional opportunities. Together, members of these PPNs span the universe of landscape architecture in its personal and professional dimensions.

Women in Landscape Architecture
WILA coordinates a mentoring program, promotes networking, and encourages consideration of workplace and quality-of-life issues for all landscape architects. Membership in the group is open and encouraged for both women and men. Two accomplished members of this PPN sent in their reports:

Terry W. Ryan, FASLA, of Jacobs/Ryan Associates, is interested in women's issues and leadership development, and she gives her time to mentoring young women professionals. Based in Chicago, she has appeared at the Morton Arboretum to present on the works of Illinois women landscape architects. In March 2006, she addressed an international audience of park designers in Portugal with a presentation on Chicago's legacy parks. Among other specialties, Ryan practices campus landscape architecture, including recent work on four college campuses and a city school. For the school, Ryan designed a small green roof that was featured in the Illinois ASLA newsletter and in an exhibit at the January 2006 Illinois Parks and Recreation conference. Ryan’s work for a Naval base won a 2005 Naval Facilities Engineering Command Merit Award for Environmental Design. Ryan has been chair of the Editorial Board for Landscape Architecture in the past and currently serves as trustee for the Illinois Chapter.

Patricia S. Loheed, ASLA, is principal of Pat Loheed Landscape Architect and also the first program director for a start-up BLA program at the Boston Architectural College (BAC). The program, an open admissions degree-granting evening program, will offer the opportunity for students to study and work concurrently. BAC has already recruited its first class, and upon the class’s graduation ASLA’s Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB) will consider the program for accreditation. In addition to her work to establish the program, Loheed presented a paper at the September 2005 CELA meetings on BAC’s educational model. She credits BAC President Ted Landsmark, Associate AIA and current president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, with “creative leadership that is agile and inspires program management and support staff.”

International Practice
The objectives of this PPN are many: promoting ASLA membership and professional organizational development worldwide; establishing networks with organizations concerned with global environmental issues; promoting the profession among international lending and assistance groups; and developing seminars and conferences dealing with international practice.

Mingkuo Yu, International ASLA, of Mingkuo Yu and Associates, works on the planning and design of city streetscapes, urban plazas, school campuses, and recreational areas. One of the firm’s projects, the design for the Taipei County Civic Plaza, won the IFLA Eastern Regional Merit Award. The Taipei County Civic Plaza encompasses an area of 50 hectares and sits between a new 39-story county office building and the new Ban Chiao-Taiwan station. The existing railway was moved underground, and underground parking for 900 cars and 1,400 motorcycles was added. The plaza was designed as a completely traffic-free public space for multifunction activities.

Thomas P. Skinfill, ASLA, works for Studio CITE, a firm whose president began working in the Pacific Basin in 1979 and acquired an enduring passion for international work. Overseas projects now account for about 45 percent of the company’s work, which includes projects from the Far East to the Middle East. Working with RNL, Studio CITE is designing a major development in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The firm is also working with JDS Studio, Shanghai on the design of a 3,000-unit housing project.

John Crone, ASLA, is professor of landscape architecture at the University of Arkansas. Crone says that “having studied the relationship of villages to the agricultural contexts in Bali, Italy, and Thailand, I am amazed how traditional systems embrace sustainable agriculture at a time when agribusiness has made living off the land difficult for small owners.” At a recent CELA conference, Crone presented a comparative analysis of federally built New Deal farm communities in Penderlea, North Carolina, and Dyess, Arkansas.

Chingwen Cheng, Associate ASLA, has recently moved to Tampa, Florida, for a new position at Land Design Inc. starting in July. Cheng has personal connections to Taiwan and has worked on projects in China, including a high-end residential development in Beijing. A licensed landscape architect in Illinois, Cheng was secretary/treasurer and board member for the Congress for the New Urbanism Illinois Chapter, a member of the Illinois Chapter ASLA Education Committee, and is a LEED Accredited Professional who recently led tours for Great Places and Spaces in Chicago in May.

ASLA thanks all of the members of the Women in Landscape Architecture and International Practice PPNs who shared reports of their exciting work and achievements. We know that many more of you have exciting news to share, so we encourage all PPN members to be prepared to respond when the Second Annual Survey goes out in February 2007. In the meantime, turn to your PPN Listserv and newsletter to exchange information, swap stories, and share achievements with your PPN colleagues. And watch this space for more reports from the field by members of other PPNs.

For more information on ASLA's PPNs, please contact Jennifer Strassfeld, ASLA's professional practice manager, at jstrassfeld@asla.org, or visit the PPN website.