ASLA’s Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network (PPN) and its Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) Subcommittee encourage all ASLA members and allied professionals to consider submitting for the 2023 HALS Challenge, Working Landscapes.

For more on this year’s competition theme and on how to enter, including tips from a five-time HALS Challenge winner, see these recent posts from The Field:

Consider Participating in the 2023 HALS Challenge
by Douglas Nelson, ASLA, a HALS Challenge honoree in 2022, 2021, 2017, 2014, and 2012
Doug’s advice for HALS aspirants:

• Find a landscape of interest to you or one that you already know
• Conduct research on your subject landscape
• Keep it concise – use the HALS Short Form History Template
• Focus on the statement of significance
• Include a chronology of events
• Document your sources

An Introduction to Historic Working Landscapes
by David Driapsa, FASLA

Historic “working” or “productive” landscapes may be agricultural or industrial and unique or traditional. Some topical working landscapes convey water for irrigation or provide flood control. Please focus your HALS report on the landscape as a whole and not on a building or structure alone. For this theme, the HAER History Guidelines may be helpful along with HALS History Guidelines.

Short format histories should be submitted no later than July 31, 2023, to HALS at the National Park Service. Please download the MS Word digital HALS Short Format Historical Report Template and read it thoroughly before entering the competition. If you like to learn by example, you may view or download the HALS Challenge Winners from 2018 and before.

ASLA’s RFQs, Opportunities, and Events page provides the latest information on everything from calls for papers to competitions. Anyone who would like to share an opportunity may submit information online.