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Beyond Boundaries
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In 2025, ASLA took our work where it has never been before—leaning into broader public conversations, deeper civic partnerships, and more consequential national dialogue. We grew our impact by reaching into new rooms, engaging more media, and amplifying more voices. From global climate stages to national prime-time television, landscape architecture is moving beyond traditional boundaries to lead in more places and impact more lives.
- America ByDesign: Elevating Landscape Architecture
- World Landscape Architecture Month: Scaling the Story
- Advocacy in Action: Turning Member Voices Into Policy Wins
- Groundwork: Finding Strength After Disaster
- Landscape Architecture 2040: Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan: One Plan for Two Crises
- Our Beliefs & Our Actions: Where ASLA Stood — and Why It Still Matters
ByDesign is thrilled to announce an official partnership with the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). This landmark agreement completes a powerful trifecta of support from the design and built world, joining the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).
America ByDesign: Elevating Landscape Architecture
In 2025, ASLA entered an official partnership with America ByDesign, joining the American Institute of Architects and the International Interior Design Association in what the series described as a "triangle of design industry support."
The partnership positions landscape architecture alongside architecture and interiors as an essential part of the built environment story—and brings that story to national audiences through CBS News Livestream, ten FAST channels, and on-demand streaming platforms.
As episodes film nationwide, the series is creating new visibility for the places landscape architects design and the role they play in shaping how people live, work, and connect.
World Landscape Architecture Month: Scaling the Story
In 2025, World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM) served as the profession's most powerful vehicle for public engagement. Centered on the theme of "Beyond Boundaries," the month mobilized practitioners, chapters, and partners to showcase how landscape architecture addresses the most pressing issues of our time.
By leveraging the collective voice of thousands of members, WLAM moved the conversation beyond the studio and into the public realm—proving that the profession's impact is as local as a neighborhood park and as global as the challenges we face together
Across the country, chapters, firms, students, and members expanded the profession's visibility through public events, social media, Earth Day activities, K–12 outreach, local proclamations, and community partnerships.
Advocacy in Action: Turning Member Voices Into Policy Wins
ASLA showed up where public decisions are made and kept landscape architecture in the policy conversation from Capitol Hill to federal agencies. Through the iAdvocate Network, members sent nearly 27,000 messages to Congress in 2025, turning grassroots energy into measurable influence.
When administrative orders threatened to divert the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) away from community parks, ASLA mobilized immediately, generating over 22,000 messages to protect critical park investment. Simultaneously, Congress passed the EXPLORE Act, securing dedicated funding for parks in underserved neighborhoods.
ASLA also successfully moved the needle on tax policy, winning four of its five top recommendations in H.R. 1, including the expansion of 529 savings plans to cover the costs of professional licensure.
27,000
messages sent to Congress through the iAdvocate Network in 2025
22,000+
messages generated to protect Land and Water Conservation Fund investment
EXPLORE Act
Dedicated funding secured for parks in underserved neighborhoods.
4 of 5 top recommendations adopted
H.R. 1 included key ASLA priorities, including expanded 529 savings plan eligibility for professional licensure costs.
“Advocating for the LWCF reminded me that when landscape architects mobilize, we have the power to protect the future of public space.”
Groundwork: Finding Strength After Disaster
2025 tested communities everywhere—wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and extreme heat struck across the country and around the world, leaving landscape architects to help lead the response.
When disaster strikes, recovery isn't just about rebuilding—it's a journey shaped by resilience, honesty, and community. ASLA President Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA, hosted four regional forums, Groundwork: Conversations on Disaster Recovery, bringing members together to share what they'd lived through—and what they'd learned.
These weren't lectures. They were members supporting members: practitioners and chapter leaders sharing real stories of loss, grit, and rebuilding with purpose alongside engineers, elected officials, and neighbors.
Landscape Architecture 2040: Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan
One Plan for Two Crises
Landscape architects demonstrated their continued leadership in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss by bringing these two priorities together. This updated plan charts a pathway for landscape architects to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions in their projects and operations, increase carbon sequestration, and protect and restore biodiversity in an equitable way by 2040. It is a significant update of ASLA's first plan, which was released in 2022.
Meg Calkins, FASLA, led a 5-member Task Force and 37-member Advisory Group to renew our vision for the landscape architecture community for 2040 and establish new goals and actions to achieve for 2026-2030.
The Task Force and Advisory Group created two plan volumes – one for ASLA members, which includes landscape architects, designers, academics, students, and product manufacturers, and one for ASLA and its Chapters. The new plan gives landscape architects the tools and resources they need to help communities reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase resilience to climate impacts, protect and restore biodiversity – and do this important work in an equitable way.
Where ASLA Stood — and Why It Still Matters
Throughout 2025, ASLA remained steadfast in its mission to advocate for landscape architects, advance climate resilience, and champion equitable, community-driven design — principles rooted in Vision 2030. As federal policy shifted, ASLA took deliberate, strategic action to protect members' interests and uphold those values, choosing not to react impulsively but to lead with intention.
ASLA's approach was not to react impulsively, but to lead with intention, ensuring that ASLA’s efforts are effective, disciplined, and aligned with our long-term goals.
ASLA named six priority areas and tracked action against each one publicly. This same approach, and these same priorities and more, continue to guide ASLA today.
