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Molly Feltham Adams, ASLA
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Jerry Adamson, ASLA, has been a landscape architect for 32 years and an active ASLA member for the majority of that time. From 1978, when he was elected as Vice President of the Great Plains Chapter, to the present, he has provided continual leadership at the local, regional, and national levels of the profession. While serving as president, he spurred increased interest and membership in the Great Plains chapter and laid the foundation for a unified group that truly represented the interests of the three member states. As Trustee, he elevated the status of his chapter within ASLA national.
Since moving to Colorado in the late 1980s, he has dedicated himself to securing professional licensure for landscape architects in his state. Reflecting his belief in the importance of licensure, Adamson has devoted countless hours to the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB) as a committee member and chair. He participated in the development of the Landscape Architectural Registration Exam (LARE) and was one of the first to be designated a Master Grader.
Although he counts his two terms as Trustee of the Great Plains Chapter and his four years of service as Chairman of the Uniform National Exam Committee of CLARB among his significant accomplishments, Adamson goes on to say, "I have always felt that I received more from my participation in ASLA and CLARB than I contributed. I never imagined that I would be elected a Fellow for doing something I loved doing. I am truly honored and humbled to be elected a Fellow. No words can adequately express my feelings."
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As a long-time manager in the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT), Scott D. Bradley, ASLA, has distinguished himself in an area of state government not known for producing leaders from the landscape architecture profession. By expanding the role and influence of landscape architects, Bradley has made the MNDOT one of the best state transportation departments in the country—an agency known throughout the world for successful landscape programs, appropriate guidelines, high standards and specifications, and excellent training.
Bradley has won numerous state and national awards for his administrative work. These include commendation from the Minnesota governor for his Rejuvenating Community Environments program and the National Arbor Day Foundation's Joyce Kilmer Award-an honor bestowed on a single individual deemed to have contributed the most to tree planting, conservation, and environmental stewardship at a state level. The Landscape Partnership Program Bradley developed for MNDOT not only garnered over 275 community partnership projects valued at $6 million, but also received over 70 state and national awards, including the first Federal Highway Administration Environmental Excellence Award.
Bradley cites his childhood in a family of artists, engineers, and scientists as well as his passion for the natural environment as the inspiration for his career in landscape architecture. His background, he says, "led me to consider, explore, and embrace landscape architecture as a melding and integration of all these fields and interests." Not surprisingly, Bradley describes his most significant accomplishment in similar terms. "It has been a success in building and nurturing teams, partnerships and alliances that demonstrate if there is a collective will and vision, you can achieve unprecedented results."
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When he joins the Council of Fellows at the annual meeting this fall, Don Brigham. ASLA, will be the first Idahoan to join that august body. His service to ASLA at both the chapter and national level is extensive. He was treasurer and president of the Idaho-Montana Chapter before moving on to represent these states as Chapter Trustee. While Trustee, he chaired a special ASLA task force on Governance Restructuring and served as a member of another special task force for the new ASLA headquarters building.
Throughout this period, Brigham was running his own firm and reaching out to the nearby communities of Clarkston, Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho. Brigham volunteered design services for numerous community projects, chaired community planning and environmental committees and commissions, and organized Arbor Days that have grown to encompass a two-state region. Since 1986, the Lewis-Clark Valley has enjoyed an annual Dogwood Festival, which Brigham founded and continues to direct. In addition to raising the profile of the profession among his fellow citizens, Brigham keeps in touch with the next generation of landscape architects at the University of Idaho, where he has taught planting design for over 21 years.
Brigham traces his choice of profession to his childhood love of plants and his parents directive "to leave things in a better condition than we found them," advice which "applied equally to gardens developed over a span of years at our homes or to campsites visited for a weekend." Certainly, his work at home and with ASLA local and national groups illustrates this principle. "Ever since my early forays into ASLA leadership, I have revered those members of our profession who carried the distinction 'Fellow' behind their names," he says. "Therefore, it is humbling to find that I have been honored by inclusion in their ranks."
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Throughout his career in facilities planning and management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), Gary A. Brown, ASLA, has worked to maximize the status of landscape architects and the impact of consistent, long-term planning strategies at the university and throughout Wisconsin. At the chapter level, he served ASLA as an executive committee member and chapter president. He also sat on the registration committee, which coordinated the licensure effort to license landscape architects in Wisconsin. He testified before the Wisconsin legislature and met with legislative committee chairs, individual legislators, and allied professionals to gain support for the title bill that was eventually passed.
Brown's knack for using technology to advance the profession has manifested itself repeatedly. He developed, hosted, and managed the first online list-serve specifically for ASLA-member landscape architects and was instrumental in advancing the use of the internet and web-based communications throughout ASLA. He developed an automated land records information system for UW's 18,000+ acres of land holdings as well as a series of master specifications for landscape construction on all state projects, throughout the UW system, and in other state agencies.
Now the Director of Planning and Landscape at UW, Brown continually finds ways to promote the profession and exploit its potential to benefit multiple constituencies. "I credit ASLA with instilling in me a passion for leading people and managing the design process so that everyone wins," he says. "I love facilitating large groups and public forums where controversial topics consistently arise. People are passionate about their surroundings, and I enjoy helping them make informed decisions about their environment."
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Robert Owen Brush, ASLA, pioneered two areas of expertise for the landscape architecture profession—forest management and visual assessment. The first full-time research landscape architect hired by the USDA-Forest Service, he developed research plans, conducted studies, and published results measuring the scenic value of forest vegetation. He also collaborated in the application of E. L. Shafer's original study quantifying forest scenery to the management of forested landscapes. This research had a significant impact on later USDA-Forest Service work dealing with scenic value assessment, helping to initiate an important new aspect of US Forest Service activities.
Brush's work on forest aesthetics has appeared both in scholarly journals and books frequently cited in subsequent forest scenery studies. With Erv Zube, FASLA, and Julius Fabos, FASLA, he worked on planning the first international conference on landscape assessment, and edited and published the conference proceedings.
"To me, the most intriguing aspects of landscape architecture are the diversity of academic disciplines it draws upon and the range of clients it serves," Brush says. "This award acknowledges the breadth and scope of our profession. I am proud to play a part in this."
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A veteran in directing numerous municipal planning offices, Troy L. Bunch, ASLA, explains that he tried to promote "awareness of the landscape architecture profession by guiding growth management, urban design, historic preservation, environmental protection, and administering consistency requirements at the local and regional levels." As a community leader and public servant employing an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, he has been instrumental in protecting the man-made and natural environments while promoting economic development and redevelopment.
Currently the Planning Director of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bunch is responsible for the only locally adopted, mandated comprehensive plan in the state. In addition to initiating a brownfields program for the city that has leveraged over $20 million in construction and redevelopment costs, he has implemented a variety of programs aimed at wetlands restoration and mitigation of non-point source pollution. These efforts have garnered several awards and recognitions.
Of the Fellow designation, Bunch says, "This acknowledgement provides me with a renewed inspiration to demonstrate dedication to the profession of landscape architecture. It stimulates me to continue to utilize my knowledge and skills to promote landscape architecture as a profession to solve community problems."
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As an educator, Malcolm D. Cairns, ASLA, doesn't have a large portfolio of built works. Rather, his accomplishments are best understood as feeding the roots of landscape architecture through training successful professionals and building awareness of the diversity of landscape architecture practice. "My sense of achievement has always been derived from appreciating the role I might have played in helping to create professional people."
Cairns fosters the concept of service as a professional duty of those who have chosen landscape architecture as their path. By teaching and living these principles, he guides the next generation of practitioners into viewing service in their professional organizations as a must. He has served ASLA on both national and local levels, with multiple terms on the executive board of Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, and leadership positions within his college, university, and state registration board to his credit. Cairns is widely recognized for his commitment to local advisory and policy groups, promoting regional interaction between professionals and students, and maintaining strong alumni connections nationwide.
"Becoming a Fellow has sparked renewed interest in continued participation," Cairns admits. "In that sense this isn't a culmination, but rather an encouragement for the future."
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Patrick W. Caughey, ASLA, feels that his most significant career accomplishment "has been sharing the field of landscape architecture with others." He has spent the past 20 years of his professional life with the firm Wimmer Yamada and Caughey.
His service to ASLA began early, as a founding member and vice president of the Arizona State University student chapter. He has served the San Diego chapter in numerous capacities, including chapter president. At the national level, Caughey was elected Vice President for Professional Practice and national co-chair for the 2002 Annual Meeting in San Jose, California.
Caughey's fascination with cutting-edge technology led him to search for creative ways to help the profession and promote the Society. Collaboration with Masterspec to benefit landscape architects specifically, the creation of ASLA contract documents to assist practitioners, and the partnership between ASLA and CAD Details to increase design creativity exemplify his work toward uniting professional resources and adding value to all members. "I have been afforded so many opportunities to positively influence my staff, our clients, and friends on the invaluable contribution our field makes to our environment," he muses. "Becoming a Fellow of ASLA is a profound honor."
Over the next month, LAND Online will profile each of the 32 members of the 2004 Class of ASLA Fellows. Watch for our continuing series "Focus on the Fellows."
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