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Membership Matters
Landscape architecture is gaining ground. ASLA is the engine behind that progress—protecting your license, proving your value to clients, and making sure your voice is heard where it counts.
This is the real-world list of the results that your membership makes possible.
How the profession’s latest wins are creating more leverage, visibility, and opportunity for your work.
Your license is protected — and the standards behind it just got stronger
Licensure is the foundation of your professional credibility — the line that defines who is qualified to design the public realm. In Illinois, that line was at risk: the state's Landscape Architecture Registration Act was set to expire, which would have ended professional oversight entirely. In Colorado, an outdated framework left qualified candidates on an inconsistent path to entry.
The Illinois and Colorado Chapters, working alongside National ASLA, engaged state leadership and regulatory boards directly. Governor Pritzker signed SB 3897 on July 31, extending Illinois's Registration Act through 2032. Colorado's State Board adopted CLARB's Uniform Licensure Standard on July 17, establishing a rigorous, nationally consistent process for evaluating education and experience — effective September 14, 2026.
Your license isn't just a credential — it's a public protection. These victories keep that standard intact and the pathway open for the professionals who come next.
Latest Gains
Your license is your most powerful asset—and advocacy keeps it that way
Most landscape architects don't spend much time thinking about licensing laws until they are under threat. But the legal right to practice is a boundary that requires constant maintenance. This year, that boundary was tested and held in two very different states through coordinated advocacy.
In Alaska, the state licensing board—the very foundation for your credentials and reciprocity—faced a scheduled "sunset" that could have disrupted your ability to practice. In Hawaiʻi, outdated statutes had fallen out of step with the technical and cultural complexities of the islands. To protect the profession, the Alaska and Hawaiʻi Chapters joined forces with ASLA National to engage lawmakers and make the case for professional standards.
The results were decisive. Alaska reauthorized its licensing board, securing professional continuity for years to come. Hawaiʻi signed into law a modernized framework that validates specialized local expertise through a state-specific exam. In both cases, the risk of a regulatory gap was replaced by the security of a stronger, more resilient license.
The result
Your license is backed by the constant vigilance of ASLA advocates—ensuring that the legal right to do your work is never eroded and always moving forward.
Images: Adobe Stock
Latest Gains
Your voice shapes even the most high-profile projects
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts isn’t just an iconic landmark—it is a public space that reflects the full value of landscape architecture at its highest level. So, when sweeping changes were proposed without public review or expert input, it raised a bigger concern: what happens when decisions about the public realm move forward without the people trained to shape it?
In response, a broad coalition, including ASLA, stepped in to challenge the process—drawing a clear line that even the most high-profile projects must include transparency, public input, and professional expertise.
The result: your role isn’t sidelined when the stakes get higher. It’s reinforced—protecting your influence, your credibility, and the standard of the public realm you help create.
Image credit: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Securing the budget for nature-based solutions shouldn't be an uphill battle. With the introduction of the WISE Act by U.S. Reps. Nikema Williams (D-GA) and Emilia Strong Sykes (D-OH), a permanent 20% set-aside within the Clean Water State Revolving Fund would be established specifically for environmentally friendly water infrastructure.
ASLA joined as a key supporter of this legislation to ensure that resilient, green infrastructure is a funded national priority rather than an optional add-on.
Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes (D-OH)
Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA)
Your feedback, turned into real changes that strengthen your work and the profession.
ASLA 2024 Professional Urban Design Honor Award. Urban Balcony Embracing Rewilded Nature. Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China. Turenscape
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The views at Arlington were designed to last. You're making sure they do.
The visual axis connecting Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington Memorial Bridge, and the Lincoln Memorial represents more than a century of deliberate landscape thinking — sight lines calculated, spatial relationships composed, meaning built into every approach and prospect. Viewsheds aren't scenic amenities. They're structural elements of a cultural landscape, as integral to the design intent as any monument within it.
When a proposal threatened those relationships, ASLA stepped in. ASLA endorsed H.R. 9047, the Arlington National Cemetery Viewshed Protection Act, and submitted formal Section 106 comments to the National Park Service documenting potential adverse effects on the Memorial Avenue Corridor, Arlington House, the Lincoln Memorial Cultural Landscape, and the National Mall Historic District. Members can add their voice through the iAdvocate Network.
The Advantage
Landscape architects defend good design all the way to Capitol Hill.
Proof that your expertise and impact are being recognized by the voices that shape our culture.
Heard in the Field
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I want to highlight the work of landscape architects around the world. Landscape architects design and steward public spaces to bring people together and improve our quality of life. Their work is seen in parks, streetscapes, and civic spaces that support public health, strengthen local economies, and respond to environmental challenges.…
Let’s recognize these professionals, including the American Society of Landscape Architects, who are shaping healthier, more sustainable, and better-connected communities nationwide.
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.)
in celebration of World Landscape Architecture Month 2026 via X
Image courtesy of Dina Titus
Sharpening your practice with the high-level insights and industry intelligence that set you apart.
Competitive Edge
Your specifications are how the profession leads on climate
Every specification you write is a climate decision. But without clear guidance on which materials, surfaces, and systems actually reduce emissions, that decision often defaults to the familiar. Getting there means changing what gets specified, job by job.
ASLA's updated Decarbonizing Specifications guide — now in its second version — gives you exactly that playbook. Developed by practitioners at Sasaki, LPA Design Studios, and Hunter Industries, it covers 24 specification areas across seven design principles, with ten new and revised sections added in 2026: from playground equipment and synthetic surfacing to site furnishings and vegetated roof systems. A companion email template helps you open the conversation with suppliers about low-carbon concrete.
The Advantage: You don't have to reinvent the wheel on every project — you have a peer-tested, field-ready guide that makes low-carbon decisions the path of least resistance.
ASLA 2025 Professional Urban Design Honor Award. Generosity of Place: Water Street Tampa’s Continuous Canopy, Tampa, Florida, Reed Hilderbrand | Sahar Coston-Hardy
When you speak the business case, your work moves forward
When developers see the numbers, landscape architecture gains ground. Walkable communities can command 20% to 35% higher home values, greener retail streets can drive 15% to 20% higher sales, and park-adjacent development can grow dramatically faster than surrounding areas. In the two-part series, "How Developers Value Landscape Architecture," those returns came into focus.
The advantage: You gain more than talking points—you gain the hard evidence needed to prove your market value to clients, helping you get brought in earlier and move your best ideas further.