Honors & Awards
2023 Fellows Profiles
ASLA Elevates 48 Members to the Council of Fellows
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has elevated 48 members as ASLA Fellows for their exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large. Election to the ASLA Council of Fellows is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members and is based on their works, leadership/management, knowledge, and service.
ASLA Fellows will be elevated during a special investiture ceremony at the 2023 Conference on Landscape Architecture. Additional information about the 2023 Class of Fellows, as well as previous ASLA Fellows, is available on the ASLA Council of Fellows webpage.
2023 Fellows-Elect
Patrick Beam, ASLA
Beam Designs, Dublin, OH
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Ohio Chapter
Pat Beam is Ohio’s foremost landscape architecture leader in watershed management and in licensure advocacy and defense. For more than four decades, he has created and preserved environments that enhance the quality of life and inform people about the rich diversity and delicate balance of the natural world. A practice innovator, community activist, and advocate at the national, regional, state, and local levels, Pat leads through private practice, and through public appointments and leadership with the Maumee River Basin Partnership of Local Governments, Scenic Ohio, the Ohio Landscape Architects Board, CLARB Board of Directors, ASLA Ohio, and others. His leadership accomplishments are all the more significant because Pat works with extremely constrained budgets in struggling rural and small communities, but he finds ways to build coalitions and leverage every dollar. Pat’s efforts were critical in transforming watershed management and garnering millions of dollars of federal and state transportation and conservation funds focused on significant watershed protection improvements in the nationally and globally important Lake Erie Western Basin and Ohio River Basin watersheds. In addition, Pat’s leadership in professional licensure advocacy was critical to the passage of the practice law in Ohio in 2002. Pat was a significant contributor and leader on the ASLA/CLARB Best Practices for Advocacy and the first ASLA /CLARB joint licensure summit. His exemplary leadership was recognized with the 2019 Ohio Chapter Service Award.
Robb Berg, ASLA
Design Workshop, Denver
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Colorado Chapter
Robb Berg is one of those rare landscape architects who possesses exceptional design skills and significant management abilities. At a young age, Robb became president of one of the nation’s largest and most respected landscape architecture firms, a recognition of his leadership and management potential, hard work, determination, and dedication to the profession. Driven by the belief that complex problems are best solved by the collective ideas of a diverse interdisciplinary team, Robb has leveraged his role to take swift and persistent actions to elevate diversity, equity, and inclusion within the workplace and larger profession. As a highly sought-after guest lecturer for university landscape architecture programs, Robb delights in helping students discover their passions and skill sets and finding a good fit based on their interests. With a steady hand and an active mind, he has led ASLA at local and national levels, including serving as chapter president and trustee, and is now presiding over the transition of his firm from shareholder ownership to an employee-owned organization. Furthermore, his leadership style is evident in the projects he undertakes as he engages his team in rigorous design processes that combine environmental sensibility, social sensitivity, economic viability, and artful curation with intellectual curiosity and integrity. Robb’s professional portfolio, built in over two decades of practice, includes large-scale master plans, complex urban infill developments, and highly detailed site designs and he is frequently project leader for some of the firm’s most complex projects.
Tina Bishop, ASLA
Mundus Bishop, Denver
Nomination in Works by the Colorado Chapter
Tina Bishop has forged a path in landscape architecture that elevates the art, stewardship, and social responsibility of the profession. She seeks to create dynamic public spaces informed by context, stories, ecosystems, microclimates, and people. In her forty years of practice, her design work and advocacy efforts have advanced the cultural landscape movement by valuing cultural systems and historic resources as much as nature and ecology. As founder of Mundus Bishop, Tina’s expertise as a designer, planner, historic preservationist, urban designer, and environmentalist has been sought for projects of every scale, with a special ability to carefully transform and revitalize master works. Her distinctive and inspiring portfolio of thriving built works includes revitalized landmarks, transformed historic sites, resilient parks and open spaces, and activated civic spaces and public gardens. Among Tina’s award-winning projects in Denver are: Babi Yar Park: Her visionary master plan and design for a deteriorated site of Lawrence Halprin and Satoru Nishita gave form to the park’s cultural narrative of remembrance, action, and hope within a restored remnant shortgrass prairie; Denver Art Museum: As lead landscape architect, urban designer, and historic preservation expert, Tina transformed the museum site to reconnect downtown, its cultural institutions, and city neighborhoods; and Montbello Open Space Park: Tina created Denver’s first nature education park, based in native plant communities with integrated green infrastructure and play and outdoor skills development features, serving underrepresented communities.
C.L. Bohannon, ASLA
The University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Nomination in Knowledge by the Virginia Chapter
C. L. Bohannon is a transformational educator, researcher, administrator, and leader and is nationally recognized for his ground-breaking community-engaged research and place-based explorations in community mapping and storytelling. His work, focused on landscape, race, and the culture of place, offers the profession a model to more fully understand the complex histories of our shared public realm, interrogate traditional design practices, and point the way toward a more equitable future. C.L.’s comprehensive and progressive scholarship on community-engaged design and research uproots dominant narratives of power and place and addresses asymmetrical power relationships and systems that produce social and environmental inequalities within marginalized communities. Recognized for “Excellence in Service Learning” by CELA, C.L. incorporated community-engaged design into his studios and seminars to enable his students to work with his RP3 approach—real people, in real places, with real problems. C.L. centers questions of justice and equity on intentionally cultivating pathways for transformation through his pedagogy, scholarship, and community work. He is building a vision of community-driven projects in which landscape architects can be responsive to the unique histories of people and place. In recognition of his many years of work in these areas, in 2022 he became the inaugural Dean of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) for the architecture school at the University of Virginia, where he is a tenured professor.
Renée Byers, ASLA
Renée Byers, Landscape Architect, Greenwich, CT
Nomination in Works by the New York Chapter
Renée Byers has repeatedly demonstrated an exceptional talent for creating harmonious engaging environmentally responsible residential landscapes, while championing the importance of landscape architects for such projects. She has proven that an unerring commitment to artistic design, respect for cultural heritage, and environmental stewardship can seamlessly co-exist. Early on in her forty-year career, Renée recognized the power of multidisciplinary collaboration and gained management tools required to bring complex programs to fruition, developing expertise in precise grading and stormwater systems design along the way. Leading teams of professionals and artisans, often in collaboration with architects, Renée integrates topography, plantings, and built forms to create engaging, environmentally responsive designs, avoiding the “grand gesture.” With a profound respect for a region’s iconic architecture and natural landscapes, she is known for creating usable outdoor spaces in frequently steep and rocky terrain. Among her award-winning projects are: Hillside Haven, Bronxville, NY, where she carved the land while preserving heritage trees and synthesized historical precedent with the family’s needs; at Creekside Residence, Scarsdale, NY, she established strong interior/exterior connections and privacy while unifying the landscape that was bisected by a creek; and at Hudson Valley Retreat, Ulster County, NY, she integrated a multilevel house on a steep slope while preserving specimen trees, adding a pool, and opening views. An ambassador for the profession, Renée not only creates places of rich user experience, she shares her expertise as an energetic community advocate.
Taewook Cha, ASLA
Supermass Studio, New York City
Nomination in Works by the New York Chapter
Visionary landscape architect Taewook Cha has dedicated himself to advancing public spaces with a focus on creativity, diversity, and social-ecological responsibility. With a design approach grounded in people and their stories, he has a proven track record of making spaces that are not only beautiful and functional, but also meaningful to the communities they serve. His commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion at ASLA and in his practice has earned him recognition as a respected leader in minority-owned landscape architecture practice. Throughout his career, Taewook has demonstrated a strong record of partnership, collaboration, and stewardship, earning him the respect of his peers and a reputation as a diplomat and consensus builder. Among his projects are: Mulberry Commons Park, Newark, NJ, a transformational three-acre civic open space designed to help create a new center of gravity for downtown and critical open space linkages; LaGuardia Airport New Terminal B Concourse Park, New York City, the reinvention of an icon that evokes vibrancy, individuality, and cultural diversity, and includes a series of organically shaped modular precast glass fiber reinforced concrete planters that promote fluid and intuitive movement; and Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex (ETEC) at University at Albany, Albany, NY, respecting the unified architectural style of the campus, the site plan was driven by overall grading and topographical strategies to organize the circulation and create both functional and sculptural landforms for planting and stormwater management.
Beth Clark, ASLA
Clark Condon Associates, Houston
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Texas Chapter
Beth Clark’s leadership is rooted in her visionary approach to stewardship of the land. She has charted a trailblazing course in advancing the profession’s visibility and practice, as well as conservation and biodiversity issues. As principal and lead designer at Clark Condon Associates, Beth led the firm in restoring ecosystems and protecting biodiversity in compelling projects that serve as models for integrating prairies and habitat into new developments throughout the state. Early on in her career, Beth committed her time and resources to intensive study of prairie ecology, wildlife habitat, native grasses and forbs, soil microbiology, organic landscape practices, wetlands, and stream bank stabilization, extending her education beyond the typical landscape architectural degree curriculum. Her in-depth knowledge is used to address the advancement of development into coastal prairie lands, promote native plants and organic horticultural methods, and educate the public, staff, and students about sustainability and conservation. Through her work with several nonprofit organizations, Beth has been highly influential in many ways. From her volunteer leadership with Urban Harvest, which advocates for equity by addressing food instability in underserved areas and supporting local farmers and ranchers, to her work with Native Prairies Association of Texas (NPAT) and the Nine Natives Program, Beth is known throughout the state as an environmental leader and extraordinary resource. Her leadership and extensive professional work exemplify the contribution that landscape architects can make to promoting conservation, resilience, and equitable communities.
Allison Kirkpatrick Colwell, ASLA
Colwell Shelor Landscape Architecture, Phoenix, AZ
Nomination in Works by the Arizona Chapter
A visionary leader at the forefront of environmentally responsive design for hot, arid climates, Allison Kirkpatrick Colwell has made significant contributions through her expertise in demonstrating water harvesting strategies, creating stormwater bioretention gardens, and developing microclimates to mitigate climate. Her innovative and beautiful designs serve as models for designers in desert cities everywhere. Allison is dedicated to environmentally and socially responsible design, while advocating for the profession and tirelessly supporting young professionals and women. As a founding partner of Colwell Shelor Landscape Architecture, she has led the design of some of the most imaginative and technically challenging projects in the west and southwest with diverse works of varying scale and complexity. Among her award-winning projects are: Orange Mall Green Infrastructure, Arizona State University, Tempe —the transformation of a portion of a paved vehicular roadway into a shady, pedestrian mall in the heart of campus, defined by large bioswales that manage an 18-acre watershed; Western Spirit, Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, Scottsdale, AZ—an urban high performance landscape of curated spaces with a series of bioswales that provide enhanced green spaces and social amenities and capture 100% of the condensate and rainwater runoff; and Ghost Wash, Paradise Valley, AZ—a 2.5-acre property transformed into a legacy home/property reconnected to its original native flora, including a “ghost wash” that uses all stormwater captured by the roof and cascading terraces of alternating patio and garden spaces.
Aida M. Curtis, ASLA
Curtis + Rogers Design Studio, Miami, FL
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Florida Chapter
Aida Curtis has built a practice over four decades focused on the enrichment of the public realm. Through the range of her experience—from the largest public projects in South Florida to meaningful philanthropic efforts—she leads with a spirit of collaboration centered on design and social equity. Long before it became fashionable, she demonstrated that landscape architects can and should be at the forefront of the climate action movement. On the national level, her work on the ASLA Climate Action Committee resulted in the Climate Action Guide being paired with a Field Guide to help practitioners develop strategies to increase their climate activism. Aida has been active on several other ASLA committees, among them the ASLA Conference Education Advisory Committee and the Ethics Committee. The leader of a minority/woman-owned firm, she is the only landscape architect appointed to serve on the Climate and Heat Health Task Force of Miami-Dade County and helped to develop its first Extreme Heat Action Plan. Aida convinced the City of Miami to establish an ordinance that requires a landscape architect to be involved in all projects that involve stormwater and encourages all waterfront development to follow the Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines—a rating system that ensures sustainable practices. Aida’s passion for creating beautiful, sustainable, and functional outdoor spaces will continue to have an impact on landscape architecture for generations to come.
M. Eric Davis, ASLA
Surface 678, Durham, NC
Nomination in Works by the North Carolina Chapter
Eric Davis is an innovative design leader recognized for creating beautiful, sustainable, and powerful landscapes and spaces in four continents, five countries, and twelve states, with a special emphasis on institutions of higher learning and the critical role that open space plays in the daily education, health, and vitality of the academic community. His community-focused design is evident in his passion for public engagement and empathetic collaboration, his deep respect for history, culture, and context, and an instinctive ability to translate design challenges into elegant design solutions. As the cofounder of Surface 678, Eric has created an extensive body of work that exemplifies his commitment to the land, the culture, and the preservation of the art of landscape architecture and connecting the community. Among his works are: Raleigh Union Station, Raleigh, NC, a LEED Certified project that seamlessly weaves diverse and demanding railroad, bus, automobile, and pedestrian infrastructure system functions with strategies for carbon sequestration storm mitigation and places for civic activities; his over twenty projects throughout the academic and medical campuses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill transformed open spaces while elevating the importance of sustainability, increasing accessibility, and strengthening outdoor spaces as vital to health; and John Chavis Memorial Park, Raleigh, NC, where Eric and a team worked with city residents and stakeholders to reimagine and redesign the severely deteriorated Jim Crow-era park.
Sharon Deep-Nelson, ASLA
Former City Landscape Architect, Hoover, AL
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Alabama Chapter
With over twenty-five years of local government service and over ten years of experience in design and land development, Sharon Deep-Nelson has inspired, guided, and significantly influenced landscape architecture in Alabama and adjacent states. Sharon’s creative solutions and advocacy for the profession have transformed how engineers, architects, government officials, and developers view landscape architects and best practices for sustainability, land preservation, and conservation. As the first city landscape architect for fast-growing Hoover, Alabama, she developed a program to implement a new Landscape and Tree Conservation Ordinance and set the standard for other cities. She designed and managed a variety of public projects, including planning, development, and management for park renovations, playgrounds, and gateway designs; retrofitting sidewalks in older communities; and promoting accessibility and universal design. Her work protecting and restoring Moss Rock Preserve (MRP), an in-city 250-acre (now 349-acre) nature preserve, resulted in saving an incredible, environmentally diverse preserve of rock outcroppings, waterfalls, rare plant species, and a rare sandstone glade and has been much lauded and appreciated. In 2005, Sharon was tapped to become the state ASLA president and revive the chapter and in short order, she and the then-president of Mississippi ASLA conceived a new annual conference called “AL&MS ASLA Twin States Conference” to provide high quality, affordable continuing education. Recently retired, Sharon continues to keep landscape architecture in the forefront through volunteering and actively participating on civic commissions and professional and nonprofit boards.
Michelle Delk, ASLA
Snøhetta, New York City
Nomination in Works by the New York Chapter
Michelle Delk creates work that shows new dimensions of landscape, environment, and sustainability, and expands the urban landscape vernacular, while expressing the subtleties of place. For over 20 years, she has led a breadth of projects ranging from master plans and brownfield redevelopments to realizations of urban plazas, parks, streetscapes, and riverfronts. Michelle strives to advance the interplay between humans and nature while exploring the social life of public spaces. As a partner and landscape architecture discipline director at Snøhetta, she has deepened the knowledge, capacity, and voice of the profession within the existing transdisciplinary foundation of the firm. Michelle is a dedicated advocate for the profession, serving on institutional boards and mentoring students. At One City Plaza, Greenville, SC, Michelle led the redevelopment of an underused three-acre downtown plaza into a treasured energized gathering space along the city’s vibrant Main Street, weaving together people and activity, sun and shade, water and garden with contemporary technologies, form, and materials. The Willamette Falls Riverwalk Vision Plan, Willamette Falls, OR, envisaged the future riverwalk through a 22-acre waterfront site, composed of a physical stratum of geology, hydrology, and ecology intertwined with remnants of constructed industrial structures. Calgary Public Library Plaza, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, was designed to realize the city’s vision for a technologically advanced public space for innovation, research, and collaboration, establishing a vibrant and welcoming public space in the heart of the city.
Nord Eriksson, ASLA
EPTDESIGN, Pasadena, CA
Nomination in Works by the Southern California Chapter
Over the past four decades Nord Eriksson has distinguished himself as an exquisite designer, a leader on multiple fronts, and a mentor who has left an indelible mark on the landscapes of Southern California and around the country. His projects are custom-tailored to each site’s unique historic, cultural, and environmental context with timeless solutions. Nord’s design talent spans a broad range of project scales and types: creating compelling and efficient commercial and campus environments is complemented by equal expertise in the detailed craftsmanship required in high-end estate gardens. He is a recognized mentor, who has nurtured generations of landscape architects with his design skills and human-centered work culture. Among his notable works are: Google Backlot, Venice, CA, where Nord designed an intensive expansion to Google’s campus and developed a rich variety of zones for events, lounging, dining, working outdoors, and “all-hands” meetings; Hercules Campus, Playa Vista, CA, the historic site of the storied Hughes Aircraft Company, now hosting a new generation of innovators, was reimagined by drawing inspiration from the site’s history of aviation and incorporating it into every aspect of the landscape; and 5900 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, where Nord addressed the original 1968 landscape design which separated people from the city and positioned it to engage the street scene while providing more amenities for tenants and reducing water use.
Connie Fan, ASLA
LSG Landscape Architecture, Tysons, VA
Nomination in Works by the Potomac Chapter
As the president of an award-winning 37-year-old metropolitan Washington, DC, area design practice, Connie Fan’s work emphasizes site-specific design details and thoughtful planting strategies to achieve sustainable, well-loved spaces. Whether seeking to enliven, guide, heal, educate, or inspire, her goal is always to create engaging places in which to live, work, and play. She has won design awards for large medical campuses and office parks; for high-end housing and affordable housing projects; for active senior communities and gardens for memory care patients; and for private schools and playgrounds in low-income neighborhoods. Her career has been shaped by a strong interest in healthcare projects, including hospitals, continuing care retirement centers, and facilities for the aging, frail, and mentally challenged population, specializing in biophilic, people-centric designs. Connie’s portfolio includes: The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, Loudoun, VA, a master plan for the 689-acre live-work facility weaving the natural setting and acclaimed architecture into a seamless design that fosters collaboration among scientists; Ashby Ponds Continuing Care Retirement Community, Loudoun County, VA, a master plan for the 132-acre site surrounding the Virginia Piedmont landscape, with three neighborhoods knit together with native species and plant groupings; and The Signature at Reston Town Center, Reston, VA, uniting the new President’s Park to Reston Town Center and the greater Reston Area trail network with a cascading waterfall and lush planting. Connie is an at-large member of the ASLA Potomac Executive Committee.
Craig Farnsworth, ASLA
Ball State University, Muncie, IN
Nomination in Knowledge by the Illinois and Indiana Chapters
For more than three decades, Craig Farnsworth’s distinctive knowledge and skill in design communication and collaboration with allied professionals and the general public have made an indelible impression on landscape architecture. With a keen devotion to landscape architectural graphic communication to create stunning works of art, he is a craftsman who works with images. But his focus and attention to detail extend beyond creating works of art to sharing his love of design and illustration with current and future generations of landscape architects. Craig specializes in a particular kind of presentation drawing—the “analytique”—which disassembles the parts of a design and then reforms them as a new composition, with each part considered anew. He uses this type of montage often in his work. His authorship and illustration of design planning guides have helped the public embrace sustainable principles that are changing communities around the country, and his illustrations in Sustainable Landscape Construction and Time-Saver Standards for Urban Design continue to be used as national standards for industry best practices. After a 35-year award-winning design career, in 2019 Craig joined the faculty at his alma mater, Ball State University, as Visiting Roan Distinguished Professor of Practice in Landscape Architecture. His pivot from private practice to full-time teaching and his illustrations, designs, and communication skills are true assets in the education of aspiring landscape architecture students.
Kelleann Foster, ASLA
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the ASLA Council of Fellows
Throughout her career, including 34 years at Penn State University, Kelleann Foster has distinguished herself as an exemplary leader, a visionary, an innovative and highly skilled administrator, an educator, author, volunteer, and ambassador for the profession. Her exceptional accomplishments reflect the trailblazing nature of her work: applying research in photo-realistic image manipulation software to empower landscape architects and the communities they serve to better understand possibilities; engaging landscape architecture and other students in online learning through a collaborative, virtual studio environment; and introducing GIS as a tool for landscape architects. She was the driving force behind the geodesign degree programs offered entirely online through Penn State’s award-winning World Campus, teaching thousands of people how geodesign could change their environment. Her award-winning book, Becoming a Landscape Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design, demonstrates the diverse nature of the profession through the lives of practitioners and with a unified voice, promotes the profession to the public and future generations of landscape architects. Her leadership and accomplishments as a volunteer with the University Tree Commission and the University Design Manual, the Heritage Tree Program, and the ClearWater Conservancy demonstrate her contributions to the public recognition of the profession. Kelleann’s exceptional leadership skills, her breadth of knowledge, and her significant contributions to advancing the profession of landscape architecture throughout a distinguished career will be felt for generations.
Kenneth Francis, ASLA
Surroundings Studio, Sante Fe, NM
Nomination in Works by the New Mexico Chapter
Kenneth Francis’s influential work combines the intuitive and artful with the pragmatic and demonstrable, using water, light, earth, and flora to steward resources, delight users, and inspire future landscape architects. He is dedicated to complex dialogue and deep exploration of sustainability and water conservation integrated into innovative design responses. His lifelong drive has been to create pioneering works while illuminating landscape architecture’s fundamental role in creating sustainable resilient environments, many of them recognized with local, regional, and national awards. At El Parque del Rio, Santa Fe, NM, Kenneth reimagined and expanded landscape improvements along a 1.8 mile stretch of the Santa Fe River, integrating green infrastructure to revitalize the riparian health of the river, adding much needed youth recreational opportunities, and providing respite for itinerant workers that congregate at a highly visible corner of the project. For the Los Golondrinas Master Plan, Santa Fe, NM, Kenneth led a multidisciplinary team to create a comprehensive development plan for this Hispanic Culture living museum, introducing sustainable strategies to support the site’s precious historic agricultural landscape, its historic structures, and its aged infrastructure. El Paso Downtown Tree Plan, El Paso, TX, is a master strategy for renovating the streetscapes of the historic downtown of El Paso, based on a long-term approach to creating a sustainable environment for the urban trees and for pedestrians who walk beneath them.
Jay Gehler, ASLA
Coleman Company, Savannah, GA
Nomination in Service by the Georgia Chapter
Jay Gehler’s years of dedicated service and advocacy at all levels of ASLA have been instrumental in generating far-reaching benefits to the advancement and public recognition of the profession. Jay had a leadership role in ASLA Wisconsin for many years, including four years as chair and four years as treasurer. During his tenure, Wisconsin ACT 123 Professional Licensure for Landscape Architects was signed into law. Jay was instrumental in connecting Green Industry members and landscape architects and played an active role in the legislative process in passing of 2009 Wisconsin AB142 Practice Licensure for Landscape Architects. Jay was elected chair of the WI ASLA Advocacy Committee in 2016-2018 and led a successful effort to defend against legislation that would eliminate practice licensure for landscape architects in Wisconsin. Since relocating to Savannah, his work continues. His long-time effective advocacy for the profession has provided elected leaders with critical guidance at the local, state, and national levels as to the stewardship of our built environment, our communities, and our natural and cultural resources. Jay is a recognized and respected voice of the profession and an outstanding model and mentor.
Robert Gunderson, ASLA
SGA Group, Buffalo, MN
Nomination in Service by the Minnesota Chapter
With over four decades as a professional, teacher, and advocate, Bob Gunderson’s innate leadership skills have contributed to increased stature and image of the profession. He has freely and consistently shared his expertise and leadership in service to the national and state ASLA and its partner organizations, including prominent positions of responsibility where he has demonstrated innovative leadership and initiative. For five years, Bob served as a secretary, board member, committee member, and candidate for president-elect of CLARB, where he provided strategic and fiduciary oversight for the organization and helped position CLARB to operate better in the present and thrive in the coming decades. Bob’s leadership at ASLA Minnesota included serving as president elect, president, and past president. At the University of Minnesota, in addition to his adjunct teaching responsibilities, he helped with student outreach activities and served on curriculum, accreditation, and search committees. In 2011, Bob cofounded SGA Group, to focus on parks and recreation and they have produced neighborhood and community park plans across Minnesota. And in an unconventional way, Bob has also served the profession through his extensive military career in the US Army. His skills as a landscape architect were recognized by his superiors, providing him with the opportunity to apply his training to the benefit of the army and its complex mission under extremely challenging wartime conditions. Bob’s philosophy of leadership through action, excellence, and humility is a model to the community.
Bryan Hanes, ASLA
Studio Bryan Hanes, Philadelphia
Nomination in Works by the Pennsylvania-Delaware Chapter
For well over two decades, Bryan Hanes has guided the transformation of major public spaces across the country with a sensitivity and understanding of the natural and cultural systems of a site. With his firm, Studio Bryan Hanes, he strives to create places that enrich human experience and express artful celebration of the everyday. His diverse, award-winning portfolio of public and private design and planning has been guided by subtlety in the landscape and observation of the social habits of people within their communities. In Philadelphia especially, he has created archetypal parks for the public realm, all the while teaching, lecturing, and working with young people. Among his projects are: The Rail Park, Phase I, Philadelphia, where an industrial relic, the Reading Viaduct, was transformed into a vibrant park connecting three disparate underserved neighborhoods, with a path moving between plantings and seating punctuated with multi-faceted wooden platforms; Sister Cities Park, Philadelphia, a new small space worth spending hours in with its elevated net, interactive water jets, a hiding nest, a cafe pavilion, the Sister Cities Fountain, and ample shade; and Simon and Helen Director Park, Portland, OR, where a vibrant urban downtown piazza was built atop an underground parking garage, and transformed a city block with a variety of public spaces and a range of microclimates, amenities, and activities, incorporating strategies for urban greening and stormwater management.
Jeffrey Hou, ASLA
University of Washington, Seattle
Nomination in Knowledge by the Washington Chapter
Jeffrey Hou is one of the foremost scholars, educators, and advocates for democratic design in the global built environment. An international leader, he elevates grassroots activism for environmental equity and justice into the public, professional, and academic spheres. His work in the realms of urbanism, community design, and design activism have profoundly affected the profession at multiple scales. Jeff has worked with indigenous tribes, farmers, and fishers in Taiwan, neighborhood residents in Japan, villagers in China, and inner-city immigrant youths and elders in North American cities, in projects ranging from conservation of wildlife habitats to design of urban open space. During his two-decade-long academic career, he has produced a significant body of work on community design, public space and democracy, bottom-up urbanism, service learning, and cross-cultural placemaking. This work includes twelve co-authored, edited, and co-edited books, over twenty journal articles, and more than forty book chapters, as well as built work, developed in collaboration with community organizations, that has received local and regional awards. With extensive experience in academic administration and service on boards of local, national, and international organizations, Jeff’s intellectual leadership also helps elevate the profession publicly and academically. He has won many awards, including the 2023 Outstanding Educator Award from CELA; the 2019 Award of Excellence in Research and/or Creative Work Award, Senior Level, CELA; and the 2019 LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership.
Dorothée Imbert, ASLA
The Ohio State University, Columbus
Nomination in Knowledge by the Ohio Chapter
Dorothée Imbert has dedicated her career to advancing the knowledge of landscape architecture and to creating progressive and inclusive learning environments. As one of the profession’s most admired scholars and influential educators, she has written and lectured extensively on the emergence of the landscape architecture profession, modernist and contemporary landscape architecture, and the relationship between cities and productive landscapes. Her focus on international narratives has brought attention to the complexity of design practice and its distinct spheres of influence and engagement. She has also been a highly effective and respected academic leader, educator, and mentor, creating opportunities in landscape architecture for women and minoritized communities. Dorothée’s dual training as a landscape architect and architect and the crossover nature of her research have allowed her to equally engage specialists and general audiences. She has lectured and written extensively on landscape modernism, and published over 40 chapters, essays, and articles. Dorothée is the author of the books The Modernist Garden in France, Garrett Eckbo: Modern Landscapes for Living (with Marc Treib), and Between Garden and City: Jean Canneel-Claes and Landscape Modernism. As an academic, she has shaped landscape architecture programs, mentored faculty, and taught scores of students in design and history. In her leadership roles at Harvard University, Washington University in St. Louis, and now The Ohio State University, she has built strong bridges between academia and practice, and brought expertise and critical rigor with passion and good humor.
Manisha Kaul, ASLA
Design Workshop, Chicago
Nomination in Works by the Illinois Chapter
Manisha Kaul carries a deep passion for using the site and its environs to create synergies between the built and the natural worlds through an equitable, resilient, and regenerative approach to planning and design. In federal, public, and institutional projects around the world, she has successfully implemented integrated and sustainable strategies through meaningful collaboration with stakeholders. Cultural sensitivity and appreciation for social equity and environmental resilience are foundational to her practice. As the leader of Design Workshop’s Chicago studio, Manisha challenges the status quo every day, mentoring a talented team of landscape architects to make significant change. Through lectures and publications and her service on the ASLA Climate Action Task Force she shares the lessons learned from her extensive experience addressing issues of resilience. The United States Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, DC, was the first phase of GSA’s plan for adaptive reuse of historic St. Elizabeths campus, where Manisha developed a landscape integration plan (LIP) to guide future design decisions made by the architectural and utilities teams. At AlJamea Tus Saifiyah New Educational Campus, Nairobi, she created the landscape vision of “Campus in a Garden” and a restorative and productive landscape that promotes biodiversity, improves microclimate, and encourages water conservation. At Dickinson College, Carlile, PA, Manisha was design principal for site design projects and project manager for the landscape master plan and developed standards for the campus hardscape, site furniture, lighting, signage, and planting.
Kate Kennen, ASLA
Northeastern University, Boston
Offshoots, Boston
Nomination in Knowledge by the Boston Chapter
Kate Kennen has brought the science of phytoremediation—plant-based pollution mitigation—to the landscape architecture profession with her research, publications, speaking, teaching, and practice. Her work in translating, reinterpreting, and disseminating the complicated science of phytotechnologies into understandable principles that can be used by the design practitioner is a significant contribution to the field of landscape architecture over her 25-year career. Her seminal and award-winning book, PHYTO: Principles and Resources for Site Remediation and Landscape Design, coauthored with Niall Kirkwood in 2015, serves as the standard text in the field. She founded her own firm in 2006 dedicated to using the latest science in plant-based pollution mitigation to inform the landscape design work she writes and lectures about. Her firm has received over 20 local and national awards for its productive planting-design-focused work, where spatial and aesthetic qualities of productive vegetation are explored, including prophylactic “plant buffering” typologies for targeted land uses to prevent future contamination. Kate also advances knowledge through her full-time faculty position at Northeastern University in Boston, teaching planting design and core landscape architecture technologies. Kate’s contributions as an academic researcher and a practitioner inspire students and conference attendees alike to create productive planting designs locally, nationally, and internationally. Her work is a model for landscape architecture where new ecological plantings set up a framework for an increasingly resilient and connected built environment.
John Kett, ASLA
Reed Hilderbrand, Cambridge, MA
Nomination in Works by the Boston Chapter
John Kett’s body of work attests to his belief that deep study, careful listening, and synthesizing many voices strengthens the work of landscape architects and advances their art and practice. As a principal and managing partner at Reed Hilderbrand, John’s design leadership has delivered projects where big ideas find expression in carefully resolved details. Throughout his twenty-five-year career, he has preserved places of cultural significance, revealed sites obscured by history, and celebrated landscapes whose meaning is only now emerging through work with communities. John is also recognized for his generosity in sharing both process and work product with students, ASLA members, and the larger landscape architecture community through site tours, workshops, panel discussions, and other presentations. Among his many important works are: Interpreting Louisiana’s Ecology Through the Experience of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art Besthoff Sculpture Garden Expansion, where John connected the extension to the historic City Park through an approach of “continuity and differentiation,” reinterpreting riparian and coastal landscapes; Placing Community in Conversation with Olmsted, Franklin Park Action Plan, Boston, balances investment in ecological management and governance with new interventions that help the park to serve more people more equitably in this historic cultural resource; and Framing a Posthumous Collaboration, Marshcourt, England, where the work on this Edwardian Estate discovers, renews, and builds on the distinctive chalk geology of this landscape and the original intentions of its creators.
David Koga, ASLA
The Land Group, Eagle, ID
Nomination in Works by the Idaho/Montana Chapter
For forty years, David Koga’s enviable professional practice, remarkable for its breadth and high quality, has transformed places through a deep understanding of the broad natural and cultural contexts. Throughout his career, David has been an advocate for and innovator in landscape architecture, from his successful efforts to authorize landscape architects to design and stamp grading plans, to his leadership as the principal and lead consultant on complex multidisciplinary teams. His legacy will continue to define the Intermountain West’s future through the people he has connected with, the places he has created, the company he envisioned, and the impact he has had on the profession, including his mentorship for current and future landscape architects. His projects include: Barber Valley Master Plan, Barber Station Mixed-Use Community and Marianne Williams Park, Boise, ID, a mixed-use master plan that addressed the site’s pre-design condition which included polluted industrial settling ponds, a degraded side channel, highly erosive land cover, and spotty riparian vegetation along the Boise River; Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve, Boise, ID, a biophilic design for a 54-acre reserve that repurposes a former gravel pit into a functional, aesthetic, and educational jewel in an underserved community; and Old Boise Placemaking Projects, Boise, ID, a multi-phase project addressing the utilitarian spaces of Boise’s alleys with a combination of green stormwater infrastructure and placemaking elements.
Joy Kuebler, ASLA
Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect, North Tonawanda, NY
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the New York Upstate Chapter
For over two decades, Joy Kuebler has distinguished herself through exceptional leadership, as a passionate mentor, an empowered community advocate, and a true supporter of landscape architecture as a means to transform communities and institutions. With a long track record of community involvement, 25 plus years with the New York Upstate Chapter and National ASLA, and as an adjunct instructor, her reach has been far and wide. For example, she created Pop Up Park Buffalo, a nonprofit engaging more than 500 disadvantaged children with community-based free-play events; she has been a tireless mentor of students and emerging professionals; she has been involved with 600 some landscape architecture, planning and engagement projects; and she has worked to empower distressed and disadvantaged communities to take charge of their futures through placemaking. Her long-held belief that creativity and play can be used to strengthen and affirm landscape architecture’s value led her to develop an innovative play-based social science methodology for community engagement. Joy established PLAYCE to facilitate design through creative and meaningful play for design professionals, students, and municipal and community leaders around the world. Her goal is to change how people think and to help them see their communities, their possibilities, and each other differently. Joy has transformed landscape architecture by empowering collaboration among communities to create meaningful built environments for everyone and through her personal commitment to fostering the next generation of passionate and engaged professionals.
Marieke Lacasse, ASLA
GGLO, Seattle, WA
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Washington Chapter
Marieke Lacasse’s leadership in multidisciplinary practice and the profession of landscape architecture brings a spirit of collaboration that emphasizes an inclusive process that results in built work reflecting the character, values, and needs of the community. Her dedication to leading conversations around pertinent topics within the built environment, such as climate positive design and affordable housing, has paved the way for more thoughtfully integrated projects. At GGLO, a multidisciplinary office of 120+ employees based in Seattle, Marieke leads the team of 12 landscape architects and is passionate about communication, mindfulness, respect for others, inclusivity for all voices, and open dialogue, including healthy design discourse. She has made a lasting impact in her field at the local, state, and national levels. When she took on the role of interim president of WASLA at the board’s request, she was faced with threatened licensure in the state. Her quick action was instrumental in preventing the bill from moving to the House floor. This experience led her to become an ASLA trustee to further her advocacy impact. Marieke’s experience with allied professions is part of her DNA as a leader and designer, and she uses their work as a lens through which to inform her daily work. Marieke goes above and beyond her given roles and leads by example, demonstrating compassion through her actions, commitment to equity and justice, and a genuine passion for mentoring the next generation of landscape architects.
Theodore E. Lee, ASLA
HGA, Minneapolis
Nomination in Works by the Minnesota Chapter
Throughout his three-decade long career, Ted has focused on the creation and development of sustainable, enduring landscapes, bringing a unique sensibility for site history to each project. With his strong design concepts and technical expertise, he consistently creates thoughtful, award-winning well-detailed cherished environments. As the landscape architecture department leader for HGA (Hammel, Green and Abrahamson), Ted has applied his passion for plant materials and the use of stone to hundreds of built projects with campus environs that include public institutions, government agencies, Fortune 500 corporations, universities, and major hospitals. His projects all demonstrate that landscape architects can protect and honor the legacy of places by basing design on historic and environmental analysis. Among those projects are: the restoration of the Minnesota State Capitol grounds, St. Paul, MN, re-envisioning the grounds around the Capitol while preserving and protecting a national landmark, resulted in creating two new outdoor spaces—the Aurora Promenade, and the Capitol Plaza, a civic gathering space at the foot of the grand south stair; Minnesota Military Family Tribute, State Capitol Mall, a sensitively designed tribute that recognizes the families of Minnesota’s veterans—past, present, and future; Minnesota Medal of Honor Memorial, State Capitol Mall, a memorial to honor those who went above and beyond the call of duty in service to our country; GSA/FBI Central Records Complex Winchester, VA, a sustainable campus and the GSA’s first SITES project; FBI San Diego Field Office, melding security, sustainability and functionality on a federal campus, one of six that he has designed across the country; and GSA/Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Campus, Ft. Snelling, MN, creating a vocabulary of design elements that allowed security features to be transformed into attractive, inviting earthworks linked to the surrounding natural landscape.
Robert Loftis, ASLA
MRWM Landscape Architects, Albuquerque, NM
Nomination in Service by the New Mexico Chapter
Over his nineteen-year career in landscape architecture, Robert Loftis has been a tireless advocate for ASLA values and priorities at the local, state, and federal levels. His prolonged commitment to service has left an enduring impact on the communities he works in, on New Mexico’s state licensure act, and on ASLA’s federal advocacy initiatives. Rob has served five terms on the ASLA Government Affairs Advisory Committee, the two most recent as chair. His experience with multimodal design, especially related to the use of federal transportation funding, allowed him to be an effective voice on the committee and helped to establish ASLA as an authority on infrastructure matters. At the state level, Rob has been the chapter Advocacy Chair for New Mexico since 2012, during which time they were awarded “Chapter Advocacy of the Year” three times. A thoughtful and creative designer, he helped found Albuquerque NeighborWoods program in 2017, as a partnership to implement an ambitious urban tree planting program that prioritizes tree planting in economically disadvantaged areas. Through his leadership and advocacy and in his role as adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico, the state continues to retain professional licensure; local students and emerging professionals are engaged with chapter leaders and professional mentors; and associated professions and elected officials have an elevated awareness and admiration of the landscape architecture profession.
Jeanne Lukenda, ASLA
Resilient Great Lakes, Boston
Nomination in Service by the ASLA Executive Committee
Jeanne Lukenda has elevated the role and recognition of women in design for over thirty years, initiating strategic change to address gender equity while enlightening design industry allies on the positive impact of landscape architecture in communities. Whether working on local community platforms or internationally, Jeanne brings landscape architecture into critical conversations and has been fearless in creating new opportunities for convening and promoting women. Her pro bono service is deeply rooted in national professional membership organizations with international reach. Jeanne joined the AIA Women In Design (WID) Leadership Board and became the first landscape architect to serve as chair; she cofounded WID’s first ever publication—co-editing and co-producing its first two books. Then, as the sole landscape architect, she cofounded the AIA Women Principals Group and was its first landscape architect chair. Active with the ASLA Boston Chapter for two decades, Jeanne cofounded their annual publication, Fieldbook, which celebrates the local and regional landscape architecture community and has become the chapter’s largest source of income. Nationally, she has held many roles at ASLA, most recently as the Vice President of Public Relations and Communications and Chair of the ASLA Task Force on Gender Equity in the Profession (a groundbreaking initiative transforming workplace equity through leadership in management, practice, and service). Throughout her career, there have been many occasions where she was the “first,” always leading the profession into a stronger more equitable practice.
Laurie Matthews, ASLA
MIG, Portland, OR
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Oregon Chapter
Laurie Matthews is a national leader and advocate for re-envisioning cultural landscape practices and historic preservation. For more than 20 years, she has expanded the boundaries of cultural landscape analysis, documentation, and planning. Through teaching, speaking, and writing, Laurie has influenced the next generation of landscape architects and increased awareness and understanding of cultural landscapes. At MIG, Laurie serves as the first Director of Preservation Planning and Design, where she has led her colleagues and clients to integrate cultural landscape thinking into landscape architecture and historic preservation practice. Her in-depth knowledge of US history informs her design decisions. From Yosemite to Death Valley, Sand Creek Massacre Site to Little Bighorn Battlefield, from Hearst Castle to Honolulu, Laurie has bravely tackled difficult and challenging issues, while managing professionally diverse teams. Laurie served as president of the Oregon Chapter, which honored her with the distinguished practitioner award in 2022. Throughout her career, she has exemplified the very best of landscape architecture through her significant works and contributions to the field of cultural landscape planning and design, demonstrating the crucial role of landscape architects in the stewardship of our nation’s landscape heritage. Laurie’s contributions have advanced our understanding of the meaning and value of landscape preservation and the thoughtful integration of historic preservation and contemporary challenges.
Emily McCoy, ASLA
Design Workshop, Raleigh
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Nomination in Knowledge by the North Carolina Chapter
Emily McCoy, a leading practitioner and innovator in landscape performance in environmental design, has long been committed to evidence-based design. She experiments with emerging technologies that have added value to countless sites and clients, resulting in award-winning designs that protect and enhance environmental function. As a national leader in the use of drone and sensor technologies to create smart landscapes that provide site data in real time, Emily’s groundbreaking research and publication in measurement and testing for landscape performance has been transformational to landscape architecture practice. Her seminal report, A Landscape Performance + Metrics Primer for Landscape Architects: Measuring Landscape Performance on The Ground, has placed design performance research on the international stage. She works to empower other landscape architecture professionals and students to be more scholarly and meaningful in their work, but also bridge the common goals of sustainability, environmental justice, and resiliency with other allied professions and communities. Through landscape design, planning, restoration, and conservation practices, Emily is committed to mitigating the impact of development on ecosystem systems and health. Her work is rigorous, well-documented, and transferable to related sites. As an associate professor of practice at North Carolina State University, she explores the interplay between professional practice and scholarly research. Her persuasive tools of artful storytelling, innovative design thinking, scientific accounting of the impact of landscape architecture, and expansive thinking in organizational structures and knowledge management have greatly enhanced the knowledge base of the profession.
Karen McCoy, ASLA
MKSK, Columbus, OH
Nomination in Works by the Ohio Chapter
Karen McCoy has been creating beautiful, artful, sustainable places for human interaction and respite throughout her four-decade career. Her lifelong commitment to biophilic design and healing landscapes has shaped her work, creating spaces beloved by the communities they touch. A principal at MKSK, her body of work is recognized for the artistic quality of design details, borne from the site context, history, and culture. Throughout her career, Karen has maintained her commitment to mentoring students and young female landscape architects, and lecturing at Ohio State University, also participating frequently as a studio juror. Among her many award-winning projects are: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Clinical Sciences Pavilion, Cincinnati, where she created public access to the pavilion to provide an outdoor calming environment with a series of terraced gardens and three 25-foot water walls; Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Columbus, Ohio, where Karen designed and executed a number of beautiful, people-centered spaces in the 90-acre historic park, including a Community Gardens Campus, and provided gathering places through artfully designed planting areas, terraces, structures, and edible landscapes; and Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, where she led the master planning and design for the site and larger adjacent area of neighboring cultural and academic institutions, transforming the campus with a series of phased projects comprising a tapestry of gardens and exterior galleries for public use, events, and exhibition of the permanent sculpture collection.
Guy Michaelsen, ASLA
Berger Partnership, Seattle
Nomination in Works by the Washington Chapter
Guy Michaelsen’s projects display innovative thought in the function and experience of urban ecologies, embrace culture to reflect and uplift the communities he partners with, and grow in impact as they catalyze community investment in the spaces he elevates. Not only do Guy’s landscapes thoughtfully navigate the challenges of high-profile settings regarding their sacred, historic, or cultural significance, but he has sustained this high level of work for thirty years in the profession. As partner at Berger Partnership, his work reshapes damaged landscapes into hyper-performing ecosystems and strengthens sense of place. With his roots and heart solidly in the Pacific Northwest, Guy understands the value of connecting with the civic community and broader public where he works. Among his award-winning projects are: Riverfront Spokane, Spokane, WA, the site of the 1974 World’s Fair, reimagined to honor the past while looking forward and becoming the region’s cultural heart; Magnuson Park, Seattle, reshaped half the 350-acre former naval station into an active recreation complex and created wetlands with thriving habitats and species not seen in Seattle in 40 years; and Redmond Central Connector, Redmond, WA, a five-mile, former BNSF railroad corridor that bisected downtown transformed into a linear park and trail designed and developed in collaboration with artists, reinvigorating Redmond’s downtown and spurring renewed commerce and thousands of new residents.
Willett Moss, ASLA
CMG Landscape Architecture, San Francisco
Nomination in Works by the Northern California Chapter
For more than twenty-seven years, Willett Moss has been an advocate for sensitive revitalization of cultural landscapes through design. Informed by his Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, Willett designs public spaces with clear purpose, both symbolic and utilitarian, recognizing how memorable landscapes contribute significantly to the creation of community identity. He cofounded CMG Landscape Architecture in 2000 and advanced a design approach rooted in pragmatism, the pursuit of innovation, and collaboration. With emphasis on creating places with a striking sense of purpose, Willett has led the firm’s largest culturally and historically significant projects as design principal over the past two decades. Among his best-known projects are: Revitalization of the Lower Sproul Plaza and Student Community Center, Berkeley, with a design honoring the site’s historic use as host to Berkeley’s civil rights and free speech movements and its midcentury modern character, and artfully integrates social and ecological improvements into the campus center; Civic Center Public Space Plan, San Francisco, directing an interagency effort and engaging over sixty community organizations to revive historic axial relationships, welcome citywide gatherings, and serve daily open space needs with playgrounds, gardens, and memorials; and St. James Park, San Jose, CA, leading a transformation of the 150-year-old historic downtown park by repositioning existing civic monuments, adding new ones, and conserving the expansive historic tree canopy, while reorganizing an undefined public space for a variety of new community uses.
Galen Newman, ASLA
Texas A&M University, College Station
Nomination in Knowledge by the Texas Chapter
Galen Newman is internationally renowned for his work on community resilience and urban regeneration, and his interdisciplinary work in marginalized communities. Using a unique, evidence-based approach that incorporates land use science, geodesign, and landscape performance, he has assisted underserved, flood-prone, and depopulating communities, especially those affected by climate change. His scholarly research and extensive publications (almost 100 refereed journal articles, 2 books, and 17 book chapters) have advanced knowledge about how landscape architects can make resource-deficient communities more resistant to flooding and economic decline. His 2022 book, Landscape Architecture for Sea Level Rise: Innovative Global Solutions, is rapidly becoming an influential resource for the profession. Galen has helped create several applied tools, including the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard (PIRS)™, now widely used internationally to assist local practitioners in evaluating their multiple local plans, measuring the alignment between networks of plans, and developing strategies for increasing flood resilience. As a result, many of the under-resourced communities he has worked with have received millions in funding to improve their local conditions. He is an excellent collaborator on evidence-based research, generous in sharing research opportunities with faculty peers and students, and contributes his time, experience, and deep knowledge with others through volunteer leadership roles with CELA, LAF, and ASLA Climate Action Network, among others. Galen has been awarded almost $60 million in research funding. An award-winning professional, he has been honored many times by Texas A&M, ASLA, and many other related groups.
Nancy Owens, ASLA
Nancy Owens Studio, New York City
Nomination in Works by the New York Chapter
With a background in art, activism, and public agency work, Nancy Owens has created a unique practice that melds conceptual art sensibility with pragmatism and technical expertise. Her diverse experiences have strengthened her commitment to transforming neglected urban areas into beautiful, restorative, and resilient spaces beloved by their communities. Nancy and her award-winning firm have designed and implemented many public projects on challenging sites in underserved neighborhoods, bringing a fresh perspective to historic preservation, public housing, and community park and green infrastructure design. Nancy’s commitment to advocacy and stakeholder engagement in site design, policy development, and urban planning has been unwavering. Among her many projects are: Astoria Park, Queens, NY, a 60-acre waterfront park brought back to life with a dynamic new playground and water play spaces in the historic Works Progress Administration (WPA) pool complex, as well as site drainage and grading improvements, including rain gardens that collect and treat stormwater; Berriman Playground, Gateway Estates, East New York, Brooklyn, NY, a one-acre barren landfill site remade into a vibrant park within a dense affordable housing community, with walking paths, seating areas, and lush plantings that create “rooms” and define spaces; and Estella Diggs Park (Rocks and Roots), Bronx, NY, a rubble-filled lot redeveloped into a much-needed neighborhood oasis, weaving historic and contextual referents into her lushly planted design.
Ebru Özer, ASLA
Florida International University, Miami
Nomination in Service by the Florida Chapter
Ebru Özer’s exemplary efforts have touched the lives of many students and future landscape architects through many different avenues and at all levels—local, state, and national. The breadth of her work has touched all corners of the professions—from her success at introducing the ACE Mentor Legacy Project to Miami in 2020 (which has become a nationally recognized benchmark project) to her extensive work with CELA, including the development of the Fountain Scholar Program for black, indigenous, and students of color. In 2015, Ebru played a key role in developing the Future Landscape Architects of America (FLAA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting landscape architecture to K-12 students. The model program she developed for Miami-Dade County has now been duplicated at other universities. Her work at Florida International University where she teaches landscape technology, construction, and community design has been recognized through awards and medals, including the international 2022 Excellence in Teaching Award from CELA. And her volunteer service at the local, regional, and national levels, including that of ASLA Vice President of Education, was recognized with the ASLA 2022 Community Service Award. Through a variety of platforms, initiatives, and audiences, Ebru has given selflessly to the community, while demonstrating sound principles and values of landscape architecture and, by elevating the visibility of the profession, brings a new awareness of the benefits and potential of landscape architecture to countless people.
Robert F. Poore, ASLA
Native Habitats, Flora, MS
Nomination in Works by ASLA Council of Fellows
Robert Poore has devoted 36 years to careful observation and recording of Mississippi’s natural habitats to create imaginative and wonderfully functional and delightful sustainable designs. As one of the most significant interpreters of ecological design, he incorporates cultural, economic, and historical traditions into his work. He has helped establish a modern regional vocabulary and appreciation of southern heritage and his passion for art is also expressed in his designs for the natural environment. His designs work in harmony with nature’s processes and patterns, taking in ecological, cultural, and economical phenomena in a single system. With a lifelong passion for native habitats and wetland issues, Robert was the primary author of the original wetland policy of ASLA. Perhaps one of his most celebrated projects was his collaboration on the award-winning Crosby Arboretum, Picayune, MS, the premier native plant conservatory in the Southeast, winner of ASLA honor award in 1991 and best public garden in America award in 2016. Other significant works include his collaboration with Ed Blake on the design for the Hattiesburg Convention Center, which won an ASLA Centennial Medallion Award in 1999, and Catfish Row Art Park, Vicksburg, MS, a 1.2 acre park that takes its inspiration from the steamboats that once plied the Mississippi, abstracting smokestacks as totems, and providing a gathering place. Robert has devoted himself to the Mississippi Urban Forest Council over the last thirty years and received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
Kenneth B. Prince, ASLA
Planning and Community Development, City of Mishawaka, IN
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Indiana Chapter
For over 20 years, Ken Prince has played a pivotal role in lifting Mishawaka up from a city blighted by a history of abandoned legacy industries to becoming a model community in the State of Indiana. Employing his vast knowledge and experience in planning and landscape architecture, Ken has demonstrated leadership that has helped transform his community, which began with the redevelopment of the former Uniroyal Brownfield in Mishawaka’s historic downtown. The result was a cascade of investment and mixed-use development that is continuing to this day. Ken has also led the efforts for the development of a Master Plan for nine different city parks, spearheaded the renovation of Mishawaka’s Central Park, managed the development of the Mishawaka Riverwalk, and introduced a variety of public art into the city’s public spaces. Through all this redevelopment, he has honored the community and its history, leading the planning effort to save several historically significant structures within the city and creating a local historic district. Going beyond typical roles for landscape architects, Ken has served as deputy Mayor since 2017, serves as president of both the Utility Board and the Board of Public Works and Safety, and led the city’s recovery plan during the COVID pandemic. Ken has left an indelible mark on Mishiwaka and enhanced its livability, sense of place, and community pride.
Robert Rennebohm, ASLA
Rennebohm & Associates, Johnston, IA
Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Iowa Chapter
In his 51 years of practice as a landscape architect, Bob Rennebohm has had an exceptional impact on his profession and his community. With his ability to lead and his commitment to a multidisciplinary team approach to projects, Bob demonstrated the role of a landscape architect as critical to a project’s management and understanding across many professional settings. Over his long and celebrated career, he served as head of a multidisciplinary planning and design firm, tree service corporation, real estate development company, and owner of a design/build firm. He also led efforts in South America to develop and transfer simple, sustainable projects for those facing economic and environmental challenges. Bob served in a variety of volunteer roles and helped communities understand and appreciate not only the insights of landscape architects, but the benefits of environmentally responsive and sensitive areas. As one of the Midwest’s most knowledgeable authorities on plant material selection and design, Bob has been sought after for set design and plant selection for several films and as a frequent contributor to numerous videos, books, and publications for a lay audience. Bob’s influence in the Midwest created significant impacts at local and regional planning and policy levels, where he was successful in getting set-asides for open space and environmentally sensitive areas. Through his actions and leadership over five decades, Bob has inspired and continues to inspire generations of landscape architects.
Kirt Rieder, ASLA
Hargreaves Jones, Cambridge, MA
Nomination in Works by the Boston Chapter
Kirt Rieder has advanced knowledge and techniques of land formation and material detail to produce award-winning projects that delight their users and work with the dynamics of natural processes in order to make cities, riverfronts, and neighborhoods more resilient and equitable for all users. With over 25 years of experience as a firm leader at Hargreaves Jones, Kirt has served as principal-in-charge of some of the firm’s most celebrated projects and is a recognized master of the art of landscape grading, creating carefully sculpted topographies that are integrated with bold design concepts. His projects craft landforms that function efficiently for drainage, accessibility, and soil stabilization, while revealing site history and ecology and amplifying cultural expression. For Crissy Field, San Francisco, Kirt developed early design concepts for this 100-acre site based on intensive archival research and he developed the grading strategy of cutting 18 acres of soil volume for the constructed tidal marsh, reconfiguring this same volume over the 30-acre restored grass airfield. Reinventing the Crescent Master Plan and Crescent Park, New Orleans, was a multidisciplinary design team collaboration on the more than 5-mile-long post-industrial waterfront master plan, identifying sites for parks and open space; the first realized project, Crescent Park, turned derelict port lands into a 20-acre public park. Kirt led development of the Richmond Riverfront Plan, Richmond, VA, which was a vision for recentering downtown on the James River and included the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge, an adaptation of a1901-era dam as a 1,778-foot-long shared-use trail.
Stephen W. Schrader, Jr., ASLA
Renta Urban Land Design, Birmingham, AL
Nomination in Service by the Alabama Chapter
Not content to be just a member, Stephen Schrader has actively dedicated himself for almost two decades in a variety of settings and organizations across the Southeast and beyond, using each new opportunity to raise awareness of the profession of landscape architecture. After relocating from New Orleans to Birmingham following Hurricane Katrina, he quickly plunged into his new environment and began serving on the chapter executive committee, which he has done for more than 13 years. Among Stephen’s many activities is participating on the steering committee for the Twin States Conference for fourteen years and representing landscape architects in a coalition of design professionals advocating for tort and contract law reforms at the state level. His service ethic led him to be on the ASLA Board of Trustees for seven years and to be president of the Alabama Chapter; in 2019 he was recognized with the Chapter Service Award. For the last four years, through AlabamaDesign, Stephen has participated in multidisciplinary charettes in small towns with little access to affordable design services, creating hometown advocates for special projects, and introducing them to landscape architects’ skills and scope of practice. He is a well-known speaker, sharing practical knowledge with other landscape architects and allied professionals through presentations, webinars, lectures, and site tours. Stephen’s generosity of spirit, time, and expertise inspires those around him. He is a landscape architect with a servant’s heart, working to create and enhance beloved places throughout Alabama.
Kate Stickley, ASLA
Arterra Landscape Architects, San Francisco
Nomination in Works by the Northern California Chapter
Kate Stickley has been instrumental in creating a new ecological aesthetic for residential design in California, merging a keen understanding of site dynamics and natural factors with a highly developed sensitivity to people’s relationship to the land. In 32 years of practice, she has provided insightful design leadership with an extensive list of built work, and developed longstanding relationships with clients, strategic partners, and collaborators. As cofounder and CEO of Arterra Landscape Architects, she is committed to melding the inherent characteristics of the land into the expression of daily patterns of life with a broad vision and innate understanding of composition, informed by contemporary art and sculpture. Kate’s commitment to fostering sustainable ideals is manifested in her dedication to pro bono work as well as through her engagement with students and emerging professionals. Her notable projects include: Meadow in the Sky, Kentfield, CA, an early project that demonstrated that planting and sustainable design could be contemporary and sophisticated, embedding high performing systems into a peaceful, zen-like aesthetic; The George Mark Children’s House, San Leandro, CA, a four-year pro bono master planning process of a five-acre pediatric palliative care center, that wove the campus together and created a natural place of healing, respite, and wonder; and Slot House, Los Altos Hills, CA, a modernist house located amid oak woodlands where she created a series of sculpted cascading spaces and rendered the landscape with deliberate and targeted colors and textures that complement the home’s bold forms.
Jennifer Toole, ASLA
Toole Design Group, Silver Spring, MD
Nomination in Knowledge by the Maryland Chapter
Jennifer Toole is recognized as one of the most important leaders in multimodal transportation and promoting active transportation through interdisciplinary partnerships. Her impact on the profession is not only through her numerous publications and presentations at local, national, and international forums, but also through her executed works. As president and founder of Toole Design Group, a 280-person firm headquartered in Maryland with 18 branch offices throughout the US and Canada, Jennifer is dedicated to designing communities where walking, bicycling, and taking transit are safe and dignified transportation options for people of all ages, abilities, backgrounds, and incomes. Toole Design Group has planned and implemented over 20,000 miles of bikeways and streetscape projects. It has delivered over 500 state, regional, and local master plans to improve conditions for bicycling and walking. Jennifer has helped to forge a multidisciplinary approach to street design, bringing together landscape architects, engineers, and planners to make streets more walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly places. Jennifer’s work has had a profound and lasting impact on communities through built works, but also indirectly through the design manuals she has written that serve as references for nearly every pedestrian and bicycle facility constructed in the US since the early 1990s. She has helped elevate the role of landscape architects and the pivotal role they play in planning and designing complete street transportation systems and the communities they support.
Mauricio Villarreal, ASLA
PLACE, Portland, OR
Nomination in Works by the Oregon Chapter
Mauricio Villarreal’s forty-year career is distinguished by design excellence, environmental stewardship, social responsibility, authentic teaching pedagogy, and human-centered placemaking with iconic landscapes worldwide. Mauricio designs high-quality built environments that consume fewer natural resources and respond to historic, cultural, and social conditions. He strives to strengthen community resilience by integrating environmental design to improve livability and quality of life. A founder of PLACE, he is a prolific idea generator and his designs reflect long-term collaborations, mastery of craftsmanship, and a spirit of innovation. His collaborations span the globe, but he has remained grounded in Oregon where he served as the President and Vice President of ASLA Oregon. At Nike, Inc. World Headquarters, Portland, OR, he completed a decade-long transformation of 3.2 million square feet and 65 acres of open space campus expansion with a collection of now iconic landscapes that balance imagination with program and sustainable design. The University of Washington Prairie Line Trail (PLT), Tacoma, WA, is a reinvented landscape and repurposed industrial infrastructure unifying downtown Tacoma, connecting a regional network of trails, serving as a steward of watershed environment, and creating what the campus lacked—a central commons. For the Halprin Open Space Sequence Restoration/Activation, Portland, OR, Mauricio partnered with Portland Parks and Recreation and Halprin Landscape Conservancy to restore and renew the vitality of Halprin’s quartet of internationally celebrated midcentury modern interactive fountains, plazas, and connecting pathways.
Bo Yang, ASLA
The University of Arizona, Tucson
Nomination in Knowledge by the Arizona Chapter
Bo Yang is regarded as a leading scholar in landscape performance assessment and urban green infrastructure, with more than 35 funded research projects on those topics. His iconic co-authored book, Evaluating Landscape Performance: A Guidebook for Metrics and Methods Selection (with the Landscape Architecture Foundation), was downloaded from more than 40 countries. As a pioneering research leader in LAF’s Case Study Initiative, he not only directed the triple-bottom-line evaluations of nine built landscapes, but also authored many of the standard methods and best practices that are used to teach landscape performance to practitioners and students. A prolific and dedicated researcher, some of Bo’s other areas of interest include environmental planning and technology, stormwater management, elective vehicle (EV) site planning and design, urban tree performance, and landscape history and theory in China and East Asia. Currently the Associate Dean for Research, College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA), Bo received the 2019 President’s Esteemed Faculty Award from the University of Arizona and the President Award from CELA in 2018. He is a model collaborator and frequently involves faculty from other disciplines such as architecture, planning, real estate development, in his work. Through his integrative endeavors in research, teaching, community engagement, and leadership, Bo’s methodological framework of landscape performance assessment has become a catalyst for generating new knowledge in demonstrating the environmental, social, and economic benefits of sustainable landscape designs.