We're excited this morning to announce the 2008 ASLA Professional Award winners to the world. The 29 winning projects stretch across the country and around the world, and are really amazing. The Dirt shouldn't say which is his favorite, but he can profess a certain fondness for the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, this year's Excellence winner in General Design. Click through to check out all the winners, and make sure to click on the thumbnails to see the high resolution images. Congrats to all our winners!

Not to toot our own horn, but ASLA members are now able to access the latest issue of the Business Quarterly. Getting down to brass tacks: the February BQ quarterly economic outlook survey results indicate the demand for landscape architecture services remains strong in the face of a slowdown in the housing market. Other article topics include small firms staying competitive, ASLA’s Firm Finder, and new ASLA contract documents. Members, click here and follow the instructions to log on to read all the details and learn about firms' hiring plans for 2008.

Interested in becoming a member of ASLA? Click here to read all the benefits of membership and how to join.

This letter from ASLA National Student Representative Paul Fusco appears in the latest issue of LAND Online. Please let your voice be heard by using the comment system below.

It is starting to get to that time of the year again when students are looking to apply for internships in their field of study for the upcoming summer. It also becomes a busy time for firms looking for that ideal intern. Their search through all the applications can become a daunting task. What catches their attention?

In my research I have been trying to zero in on the key components for a dynamic resume, cover letter, and portfolio. These are probably the most important items you need to address when applying for an intern position. The first impression of who you are definitely comes into play. Added to the physical application is the interview, which too can be nerve-racking.

Dealing with creating a resume seems like a simple process and you can find an outline online, but for many design majors there is more to look at than just the information on the page. You have to think about it in many forms such as having to deal with page layout, page size and shape, and also color. There are many different ways to present your resume, but you must figure out what works best for you. These issues and more must also be addressed when dealing with your portfolio, such as what projects you include and how you describe each of them. It might be necessary to rework projects you have gotten comments on from your professors. Then, after choosing your projects, you have to decide how to present them and what kind of theme or order you will have to your portfolio. But there is an important factor that needs to be kept in mind when designing the layout for both your resume and portfolio. Have you highlighted what shows your talent and when it is too much or too little?

After completing all the components of your application, you now have to decide which firms you would like to apply to. This is a hard part of the process, because you don’t know which firms are looking for interns or how many people they will accept. Is the internship paid or for experience only? Besides all of that, you have the issue of location. Are there firms around your college or your home, or do you need to move? These are important questions that have to be asked to see the range of firms you will apply to. Once you have decided which firms to apply to you have to deal with the difficulty of figuring out how to contact the firm. Do they want you to email your cover letter and resume first, then send your portfolio? Or do they want it all mailed or emailed as a package? The application process has many different components to it, and it is important to handle it properly.

I am interested in hearing from you about what you feel has worked and not worked with your resumes, cover letters, and portfolios in the past. Also, it would be great to hear from professionals about what they like and dislike seeing in applications from students.

With the Call for Entries for ASLA's 2008 Professional and Student awards released this week, are you in need of some inspiration? If so, then watch the 2007 ASLA Professional Awards videos, narrated by none other than Susan Stamberg of National Public Radio:

•    General Design
•    Residential Design
•    Analysis & Planning
•    Research
•    Communications
•    The Landmark Award

You can watch each section streaming online, or download them to enjoy later. Just a reminder: entries for the 2008 Professional Awards are due February 1, 2008, and May 9 for Student Awards. Good luck!

This is a reminder that we are still in the 45-day open comment period for the Sustainable Sites Initiative preliminary report. Featuring over 200 recommendations for designing and building sustainable landscapes, the report is part of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a partnership between ASLA, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary guidelines and a rating system for sustainable landscape design. The 107-page preliminary report is available for download here and is filled with different strategies to help make sustainable choices for landscapes. So far the report has garnered strong interest and the sustainablesites.org website has seen a large bump in traffic since the report was announced. You are invited to give feedback on this report; comments are due no later than January 11, 2008. Save a tree and read the report online in pdf form!

This letter from ASLA National Student Representative Paul Fusco appears in the latest issue of LAND Online. Please let your voice be heard by using the comment system below.

The 2007 Annual Meeting in San Francisco had a record-breaking attendance and an amazing selection of lectures, exhibitors, and tours. A full and eclectic weekend offered information beneficial for both professionals and students. From a student’s perspective, the “Inside the LA Studio” seminars were particularly advantageous, because they can help students gain a better understanding of the professional studio atmosphere and the excitement that employees enjoy in different office settings.

I know some of my fellow students and I share a goal of someday starting our own firms. With the help of these lectures and the “Small Firm” roundtable, we were given better insight into the entrepreneur route within this expansive industry. There were also numerous lectures on stormwater management, plants, soils, and much more. As a student, I was initially overwhelmed trying to process this information and its relativity to the working community. However, after attending these lectures I have been able to use the information as stepping-stones toward my professional future and presently connect them to my designs in school.

This year’s EXPO was extremely successful with more than 1,000 exhibitors, filled with wonderful new technology and products. There were numerous new construction materials, lights, water features, and site accessories, plus the added bonus of lots of free shirts, CDs, information, and other goodies—always a benefit for the student community. The Expo also showcased ASLA’s JobLink booth, which offered information and opportunities to talk to firms about jobs and internships.

Outside the convention center, San Francisco is a magnificent city. There were so many fabulous sites to see, such as Levi’s Plaza Park designed by ASLA Fellow Lawrence Halprin, Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square, Lombard Street, and numerous parks and memorials. It is such a beautiful city that you never want to leave. After being at the conference and seeing it all, I must say that it was an amazing experience. There are so many people to meet and lectures to learn from. I recommend that students and professionals do whatever they can to make it to ASLA’s next conference in Philadelphia in 2008.

At the ASLA Annual Meeting in San Francisco ASLA announced the Sustainable Sites Initiative, the development of a new rating system for sustainable landscape design. ASLA made this announcement along with the University of Texas at Austin’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the United States Botanic Garden.

Just as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system measures a building’s environmental impact, the Sites Initiative will measure the sustainability of designed landscapes of all types, including public, commercial, and residential projects. The U.S. Green Building Council is lending its support to this project and plans to adopt the Sustainable Sites metrics into its LEED system once they are finished.

“This will provide the missing link for green building standards,” said Nancy Somerville, Executive Vice President and CEO of ASLA. “Developers, designers, owners, and public officials will now have the tools at hand to significantly increase sustainability in the built environment, from interiors to landscapes.”

Additional partners in the Sites Initiative include the U.S. Green Building Council, the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenScapes Program, the National Recreation and Parks Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Environment and Water Resources Institute, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the Nature Conservancy’s Global Invasive Species Initiative, and The Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information, visit www.sustainablesites.org.

It's been a whirlwind few days in surprisingly sunny San Francisco for conference goers. The Annual Meeting broke all attendance records with over 6,000 attendees. From Charlie Thorton's opening general session on the inspiring ACE Mentor program to ASLA Fellow Lawrence Halprin's surprise closing interview, ASLA members have spent their days here learning, sharing, and reconnecting with fellow landscape architects. We've celebrated award winners, learned about new trends in continuing education sessions, and, yes, had fun at various galas, dinners, and parties.

Look for in-depth recaps of all the major events both here on the Dirt and in upcoming issues of LAND Online. Five new Dirt podcasts featuring Vladimir Djurovic, International ASLA, Christian Werthmann, ASLA, Alex Washburn, Affiliate ASLA, Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, and Charles' interview with Lawrence Halpin, FASLA, will be available soon.

With the Annual Meeting kicking into high gear today, local San Francisco media outlets are highlighting the good work of the Society and our members. Both the San Francisco Chronicle and the SF Examiner have covered the meeting (and local ASLA Award Winners) this week in print and online.

The Chronicle's piece "Bay Area landscape architects take the lion's share of ASLA awards" focuses on both the Meeting and the Bay Area award winners. The Examiner's (hold your nose on the first word) "Landscapers go green" discusses USGBC's LEED and the Sustainable Sites Initiative. Both are worth the read, and look for more coverage as the Meeting progresses.

Hello from sunny San Francisco and the beginning of the ASLA Annual Meeting. The Dirt will be live-blogging the major events, speakers, announcements, and more for the next 5 days. If you are attending the Meeting, please leave your thoughts in the comments and us all know about what you're most excited about at this year's meeting, the largest in ASLA's history. See you on the EXPO floor!