Bring a Student Award Winner to the Annual Meeting
Eight firms have contributed sponsorships for student expenses.

Todd Johnson, FASLA

ASLA’s 2007 Student Awards Jury Chair Todd Johnson, FASLA, is working with ASLA National Student Representative Paul Fusco, Student ASLA, on an exciting new initiative to bring student award winners to the annual meeting in San Francisco, October 5-9, so they may accept their awards in person.

In a joint letter sent July 24 to firm principals across the country, Johnson and Fusco solicited pledges for $1,500 sponsorships for each of the 25 award winners’ travel and hotel expenses. ASLA is providing each award winner with a complimentary full registration to the annual meeting (a $240 value). For group entries, one complimentary registration will be provided to the group representative.

The ASLA Student Awards program has grown dramatically in the past few years, in terms of both the number of entrants and the schools represented. This year was the most competitive in ASLA history, with 276 submissions representing nearly every program in the United States and Canada, as well as programs in Israel, Iran, China, Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

“The work is imaginative and vibrant and addresses the entire spectrum of challenges the profession is facing today and will face in the future,” said Johnson, a principal with Design Workshop. “Design Workshop has agreed to sponsor an award recipient and would like to challenge other firms to join in this important endeavor.”

The student awards will be announced the week of September 10, once most schools have reconvened. ASLA will recognize sponsoring firms in LAND Online, in the student awards announcement press release in September, as well as at the annual meeting during the awards ceremony and in the printed program on October 8. Special seating will be reserved for sponsoring firms for the awards ceremony and for the Closing General Session, featuring former Vice President Al Gore, Hon. ASLA.

To date, eight firms have pledged $1,500 sponsorships for student award winners, providing funding for eight student award winners to attend the meeting:

BNIM Architects
Design Workshop
LRM, Ltd. Landscape Architecture
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.
Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Spurlock Poirier Landscape Architects
Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC
Wood + Partners, Inc.

To join these firms in recognizing the achievements of ASLA student award winners by sponsoring one—or more—of them to attend the meeting, please click on this link and complete the form to pledge a contribution to the ASLA Fund. Contributions to the ASLA Fund are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information, please contact Ann Looper, ASLA’s Director of Public Relations and Resource Development, at 202-216-2369 or alooper@asla.org.