ASLA 2025 Conference Education Session Highlights, Part 1

September 18, 2025
City Park, New Orleans

With the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture mere weeks away, now is the time to familiarize yourself with what's happening when so you don't miss a thing. Explore the 160+ sessions offering professional development hours (PDH) through the conference website and mobile app (if you have last year's app, please delete it and download it fresh) by track, speaker, continuing education type (LA CES/HSW, LA CES/non-HSW, FL, NY, AICP, GBCI, ISA, and more), and target audience.

In case you need one more way to peruse this extensive education program, check out our education session picks organized by Professional Practice Network (PPN) practice areas. Below, we run through the first half of these education highlights; next week, we'll cover the second half of the alphabet, International Practice through Women in Landscape Architecture.

Please note: these posts cover just the conference's concurrent education sessions. See the website or app for the conference's field sessions (many are already sold out—get your tickets ASAP if you'd like to join one!), EXPO events, PPN meetings, and all the other special gatherings coming up soon in New Orleans.

If you can’t make it to the conference this year, a number of education sessions will be recorded and shared via ASLA Online Learning so you can still learn about the latest in landscape architecture and earn PDH on-demand.

See below for the education sessions related to each PPN practice area, or click the PPN name above to jump to that section.

Campus Planning & Design

FRI-A10: The Available Landscape: Designing Beyond the Normative Cityscape Toward an Inclusive Future FRI-D07: Not Your Garden-Variety Landscape Architects: Leading Nontraditional Careers SAT-B03: Fostering (not Fighting) Change: Innovative Approaches to Preservation Practice SUN-A05: Living Landscapes: Managing Design Legacies Through Time and Change SUN-B03: Future Trees: Strategies for Designing and Managing Canopies for Institutional Landscapes MON-B04: Landscape Climate Adaptation Planning for a Resilient and Iconic Campus

Children's Outdoor Environments

FRI-A08: Play It Cool: Designing the Future of Play in a Warming World FRI-A11: Unlocking Potential: Activating Vacant Parkland for Inclusive Communities SAT-A01: ADA Construction Issues—Designed Right, Built Wrong! SAT-A05: Inner-City Revival: Building Community Through Placemaking and Urban Recreation SAT-A07: Magical Mistakes: Embracing Unexpected Moments of Joy in the Urban Landscape SAT-C09: Shading In: Research, Engagement, and Design to Add Shade in Under-Resourced Communities MON-B02: Experiment, Play, Innovate: Fostering Curiosity in Firm Culture MON-B06: Shape the Future—One Schoolyard at a Time
MON-FS-05: Louisiana Children’s Museum: A Joyous and Resilient Landscape in City Park / image: courtesy Kevin Scott

Community Design

FRI-A05: Finance. Market. Entitlements. Placemaking: Essential and Knowledgeable Ingredients of the Development Process FRI-A09: Public Housing as Place: Landscape Architecture’s Role in Urban Housing Renewal FRI-A10: The Available Landscape: Designing Beyond the Normative Cityscape Toward an Inclusive Future FRI-B02: Coastal Hazards Overlay District Guide: Creating More Resilient Communities FRI-C01: 20 Years Later: Spatial, Economic, and Civic Lessons Learned Since Katrina FRI-C04: Building Capacity with Frontline Communities: Resilience Hubs for All FRI-C10: Unhoused, Unseen: The (In)visibility of Homelessness in “Public” Space FRI-D08: Rethinking Participation and Power: Expanding the Potential of Design for Everyone SAT-A05: Inner-City Revival: Building Community Through Placemaking and Urban Recreation SUN-A04: Innovative Community Engagement: Digital and Map-Based Techniques SUN-B06: Mayoral Innovation: Rethinking Landscape Architecture in Local Government SUN-C03: Dismantling Disaster: Working with Communities Before the Storm MON-A01: Community-Centered Design and Planning: Insights from Boston’s Urban Design Initiatives MON-B06: Shape the Future—One Schoolyard at a Time

Design-Build

FRI-A02: Beyond the Sample Closet: Strategies for Smarter Materials Management FRI-B05: Designing with Purpose: Three Unique Perspectives on Achieving Functional Beauty for Residences FRI-C02: Beyond Off-the-Shelf: Material Innovations that Create Value and Place FRI-C05: From Setback to Comeback: Reviving an Urban Icon FRI-DD-02: Managing It ALL: Exploring the Role of Project Manager (note: deep dive sessions require a ticket) SAT-A01: ADA Construction Issues—Designed Right, Built Wrong! SAT-B06: Rebuilding Los Angeles: Implementation of Fire-Resistant Materials and Building Strategies SAT-B09: Transcending Limits: Crafting High-Impact Landscapes Within Any Framework SAT-C11: When Specs Meet Reality: Partnering with Nursery Growers for Successful Planting Design SUN-A02: Building Trust and Trails Throughout Detroit SUN-A03: Healthy Team, Healthy Site: People-First Approach to Integrated Project Delivery SUN-A05: Living Landscapes: Managing Design Legacies Through Time and Change SUN-B08: The Home Landscape Lab: Unlocking Small Business Opportunities for a Biodiverse Future MON-A05: Mastering Plant Procurement: Bridging Gaps from Design to Delivery MON-B01: Beyond Last Century’s Tools: Innovation in Firm and Project Management MON-B05: Scaling Beyond Boundaries: Strategies for Growing, Sustaining a Small Landscape Architecture Firm

Digital Technology

SUN-A04: Innovative Community Engagement: Digital and Map-Based Techniques SUN-A07: Staying in the Loop: Balancing Automation and Identity in the AI-LA Era SUN-B09: The Story of Site as Organism: Poetic Perspectives of Dynamic Landscapes SUN-C04: Emergent AI in Professional Practice

Ecology & Restoration

FRI-A01: Bees, Butterflies, Beetles—Oh My! Science-Backed Framework for Urban Pollinator Conservation FRI-A02: Beyond the Sample Closet: Strategies for Smarter Materials Management FRI-A03: Building a Bigger Table: Participatory, Low-Tech Design Strategies for Designing Healthy Agroecosystems FRI-A06: From Lab to Landscape: Opportunities for Scaling Biochar in Landscape Practice FRI-B04: Designing Biodiversity Through Landscape Interactions: Applied Science at Varied Scales FRI-B07: Feral: Making Wild Landscapes FRI-C07: Nature at the Water’s Edge: Designing Resilient and Biodiverse Urban Waterfronts FRI-D06: Listening to the Land: Integrating Indigenous Perspectives for Restoration and Healing FRI-D09: Rewilding New York City—History, Design & Ecology FRI-D10: Tapping into Ecological Memory: A Key to Resilient Design SAT-C03: Ecological Approach to Enhancing Biodiversity in a Tree City of the World SUN-A01: Biodiversity-Positive Transformations of Blighted Urban Landscapes SAT-A03: Ecological Citizens: Bottom-Up Climate Leadership in Southeast Louisiana SAT-A06: Islas y Canales Verdes: Land Conservation + Intercultural Design in South America SAT-B04: From Pavement to Pollinators: Building Biodiverse Urban Habitats SAT-B05: Inside the LA Studio—Phyto Studio SUN-B08: The Home Landscape Lab: Unlocking Small Business Opportunities for a Biodiverse Future SUN-B09: The Story of Site as Organism: Poetic Perspectives of Dynamic Landscapes SAT-B11: Weaving Relations: Co-creation for Change Through Healing of Land, People, and Culture SUN-C02: Biodiversity: Strategies for Landscape Architects SAT-C08: Revealing Place: Context, Cultural History, and Ecological Memory in Landscape Architecture SAT-C10: The Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective: Reconnecting Communities to Environment and Culture MON-A02: Flipping the Paradigm: Transforming a Neglected, Contested Landscape into a Social-ecological Amenity MON-A03: From Seed to Design: Enhancing Urban Biodiversity Through Local Networks MON-A07: Landscape Architecture 2040: The New ASLA Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan MON-B03: Heat, Flood, Fire, Drought: Integrated Regional Landscape Resilience Strategy for Los Angeles MON-DD-01: Nature as Client: Co-creating with More-than-Human Species (note: deep dive sessions require a ticket)

Education & Practice

FRI-A06: From Lab to Landscape: Opportunities for Scaling Biochar in Landscape Practice SAT-A02: Bridging Climate Divides: Integrating Research, Teaching, and Practice SAT-C02: Convening Research Platforms: Dissolving Boundaries in the Space Between Academia and Practice SAT-C09: Shading In: Research, Engagement, and Design to Add Shade in Under-Resourced Communities SAT-DD-02: Place-based Technical Assistance Strategies to Advance Climate-Resilient Solutions (note: deep dive sessions require a ticket) SUN-A06: No Bad Questions: How Three Practices Shape Cultures of Learning SUN-A07: Staying in the Loop: Balancing Automation and Identity in the AI-LA Era SUN-B01: Academia + Practice = Knowledge: A Research Collaboration Primer SUN-C07: Interviewing the Interviewer: How Students and Employers Evaluate Each Other SUN-C10: Ways of Seeing, Ways of Being: Reconsidering Expertise Across Knowledge Systems MON-A06: Shaping the Future of Landscape Architecture
Learn how the Mississippi River has inadvertently laid the foundation for systemic exploitation, failed infrastructure, and widespread environmental injustice with FRI-FS-08: Water as Conduit of Violence: How the Mississippi River Shaped Cancer Alley. / image: Pilar Zuluaga, ASLA, Spackman Mossop Michaels

Environmental Justice

FRI-A11: Unlocking Potential: Activating Vacant Parkland for Inclusive Communities FRI-C01: 20 Years Later: Spatial, Economic, and Civic Lessons Learned Since Katrina FRI-C06: How Urban Parks Can Transform Cities and Connect People with Cultural History FRI-C11: Greening While Growing: Retooling POPS to Improve Open Space Access & Equity FRI-D03: Bridging Boundaries: Adapting for Climate Through Collaborative Design FRI-D06: Listening to the Land: Integrating Indigenous Perspectives for Restoration and Healing SAT-A08: Making Space for Culture: Strategies for Supporting Cultural Programming in Public Landscapes SAT-B02: Ethical Decarbonization: Eliminating Forced Labor in Timber, Stone, and Rubber Supply Chains SAT-B11: Weaving Relations: Co-creation for Change Through Healing of Land, People, and Culture SAT-C04: Equity-Washing? Let’s Have a Real Conversation About Equity in the Profession SAT-C08: Revealing Place: Context, Cultural History, and Ecological Memory in Landscape Architecture SAT-C10: The Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective: Reconnecting Communities to Environment and Culture SUN-A08: Rooted in Treme: Healing, History, and Hope Under the I-10 SUN-B04: Highways Reimagined: Reconnecting Communities & Repairing the Past SUN-B05: Inside the LA Studio—Dana Brown & Associates SUN-C10: Ways of Seeing, Ways of Being: Reconsidering Expertise Across Knowledge Systems MON-A02: Flipping the Paradigm: Transforming a Neglected, Contested Landscape into a Social-ecological Amenity MON-A04: Lessons Learned: Cultural Landscapes that Honor African American Heritage and Legacy

Healthcare & Therapeutic Design

SAT-C01: Advocacy Through Design: Leveraging Existing Design Strategies Through a More Inclusive Lens SUN-B02: Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park: Reconnecting History and Community Through Design
MON-FS-09: Longue Vue House and Gardens: Exploring the Legacy of Ellen Biddle Shipman / image: courtesy Diego Bernal Photography

Historic Preservation

FRI-B10: Planning, Measurement, and Implementation: Climate Action in a Historic Urban Park FRI-C05: From Setback to Comeback: Reviving an Urban Icon FRI-C06: How Urban Parks Can Transform Cities and Connect People with Cultural History FRI-D06: Listening to the Land: Integrating Indigenous Perspectives for Restoration and Healing FRI-D09: Rewilding New York City—History, Design & Ecology SAT-B03: Fostering (not Fighting) Change: Innovative Approaches to Preservation Practice SAT-B11: Weaving Relations: Co-creation for Change Through Healing of Land, People, and Culture SAT-C08: Revealing Place: Context, Cultural History, and Ecological Memory in Landscape Architecture SUN-A05: Living Landscapes: Managing Design Legacies Through Time and Change SUN-A08: Rooted in Treme: Healing, History, and Hope Under the I-10 SUN-B02: Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park: Reconnecting History and Community Through Design SUN-C06: How Do We Stay Here? The Charleston Comprehensive Integrated Water Plan SUN-C10: Ways of Seeing, Ways of Being: Reconsidering Expertise Across Knowledge Systems MON-A04: Lessons Learned: Cultural Landscapes that Honor African American Heritage and Legacy

Stay tuned: ASLA's 10 other PPNs will have their education session highlights covered here on The Field next week.

Access to concurrent education sessions is available to full conference registrants. While the field sessions (nearly all sold out, but there are a handful on Monday, October 13, with openings available!) and deep dive sessions require a ticket, no additional registration necessary for the 75-minute concurrent education sessions.

See you in New Orleans!