Dan Wenk Visits ASLA
The deputy director of the Park Service encourages landscape architects to get involved.

Throughout the years, the National Park Service (NPS) has enjoyed a successful relationship with landscape architects. At many points throughout its history, NPS has served as the largest public employer of landscape architects. During the 1950s and early 1960s when interest in and visits to national parks were at their highest, NPS was headed by Conrad Wirth, FASLA, the only landscape architect to serve as the system’s Director. Currently, the National Park Service has an approximately $2.3 billion budget, 20,000 employees, including landscape architects, and more than 600 ongoing park projects.

Roxanne Blackwell, manager of federal government affairs, introduces Dan Wenk, deputy director of the National Park Service.

So, it was no surprise that on September 13, 2007, local landscape architects working in the public sector filled ASLA’s conference room to hear featured guest speaker Daniel Wenk, the recently appointed Deputy Director of the National Park Service who is a landscape architect. As part of ASLA’s Federal Landscape Architects Discussion Group, landscape architects working in the NPS and other federal agencies came out to hear Wenk’s comments and vision of the role of the landscape architect in developing federal policies affecting the park system and other public lands.

Prior to taking over as NPS’s Deputy Director, Wenk served in a number of critical and high-profile positions within the Park Service. After graduating from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, Wenk joined the NPS as a landscape architect at the Denver Service Center. He worked on planning and design projects throughout the National Park System including landscape plans for the Arch in St. Louis. Subsequent assignments included park landscape architect for Yellowstone National Park, with responsibilities for Old Faithful areas, and superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial. In December 2001, Wenk’s career came full circle when he was selected as the director of the Denver Service Center, the central office with responsibility for the planning and design and construction programs of the entire National Park Service and the place where Wenk began his public service.

Wenk’s discussion focused on examples of the value judgments made by landscape architects and other Park Service employees on a daily basis. Currently, Wenk and other public servants overseeing the nation’s public lands grapple with policies that promote and protect natural resources and values, while supporting cultural values as well. To illustrate, Wenk pointed out that some private citizens and Park Service officials are disheartened by the Grand Teton National Park’s new visitor center because it is too lavish, overpowers the park, and is gaining more recognition than the park itself. Similar sentiments are being expressed over plans for a visitor center at Baltimore’s Ft. McHenry, which is best known for inspiring the national anthem.

Deputy Director Wenk also expressed extreme concern regarding public apathy toward national parks and believes that lack of concern is the greatest threat to the park system. Wenk proposes that the NPS assess its parks and park policies and evaluate them based on today’s notions of the “visitor experience,” instead of outdated models. Further, as the country becomes increasingly diverse, Wenk proposes that the NPS take steps to make national parks more appealing to minorities and other groups, who in the past have had limited experiences in the park systems.

Wenk also sympathized with audience members who expressed concerns over the limited park service and other public sector positions for emerging landscape architects. Wenk agreed that the public sector should develop policies, positions, and internships to employ recent graduates from university landscape architecture programs.

Finally, Wenk concluded that many of the policy issues and concerns affecting the NPS and other federal lands should be addressed by ASLA and its members. He charged ASLA with becoming more active in developing positions on federal policies affecting the profession and pledged to work with ASLA on these plans.

Wenk’s charge is timely, because ASLA has recently convened the Federal Landscape Architects Discussion Group, which meets every other month to discuss and develop strategies on federal policies affecting the profession and to determine how ASLA can partner with and support landscape architects throughout the federal government. ASLA would like to invite any local landscape architects working in the public sector realm to join the Discussion Group so that it can begin to address and shape these important policies. For more information or to sign up for the Federal Landscape Architects Discussion Group, please contact Roxanne Blackwell at rblackwell@asla.org or call 202-216-2334.