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40 YEARS+
Florida Chapter
George G. Gentile, FASLA
Where are you from and how long have you been a landscape architect? I was born in Connecticut, however my family moved to Florida in 1956 then to Palm Beach County, Florida in 1959. I have resided in Palm Beach County most of my life and now live and have my office in Jupiter, Florida. My firm, 2GHO,Inc., Landscape Architects, Planners, Environmental Consultants is 35 years old and you might know one of my business partners Emily M. O’Mahoney. Our other Partner is Troy Holloway all three Landscape Architects and all members of ASLA. Emily and I are both Fellows. How did you begin your career journey in Landscape architecture? I was afforded an opportunity to work for a Landscape Architect when I was attending Palm Beach Junior College (now Palm Beach State College). Before I was married, I went to work for an Engineering and Architectural firm and worked in their Planning and Landscape Architecture department until I left for the University of Florida, Department of Landscape Architecture where I received my BLA in 1977. I joined ASLA when I was at the University of Florida and became the Student Representative on the Florida ASLA Executive Committee. That was one of the most rewarding and beneficial moves I made in my career. After graduation I started in Government as a Planner then moving to the head of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the Engineering and Architecture firm I Started with when I was in Junior College. I started a private practice firm with two Architects in 1982 and left in 1988 to start the firm I am still President of today. During that time I was President of the Florida Chapter twice, and served as Trustee for two years. I continue to attend both State and National Meeting. What do you think is the most important issue facing landscape architects today? I believe we will always be trying to get the public to understand what a Landscape Architect does and how diverse our profession is. I also believe we need to really play a role in Stewardship of our world and become the key profession dealing with Global Warming. What have you gained by being a member of ASLA for 45 years? If you truly become involved in your membership, your will have more educational opportunities than you could ever obtain elsewhere. You also gain the best friends of your life and I really mean that. Friends that support you when you need assistance and when you just need to bounce something off someone as you continue on your journey as a Landscape Architect. What would you share with others as a reason for belonging to ASLA as a member? Continued education, Friendships, family and cutting edge knowledge of the many ways Landscape Architects work in our Artistic and Scientific Profession. I had my sponsor tell be just before walking up to receive my Fellows Medal, the great times of your life in this profession is the gathering of the Clan (Landscape Architects gathering for the annual meeting) What would you share with those new to the profession of landscape architecture? Landscape Architecture is one of the most diverse professions that you could be part of. It touches everything we do and live within. What is your favorite project in your career and why? Would you like to submit/share a picture of it? In 1986 I was asked to prepare and end-use plan for one of the oldest landfills in Florida. The Dyer landfill Reclamation Plan was featured in LA Magazine and showed the ability of Landscape Architects to lead in the collaboration of a multi-discipline team to retore a landfill into a major passive and recreation facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. From restored wetlands to soccer/football fields to a model airplane launch and landing facility and a major mountain bike track. The best picture is in the magazine, however I will try to send one. What in your view is the most important thing that landscape architects provide? Artistic design and Scientific research on every project they work on. Is there anything else you would like to share to commemorate your 45 years with ASLA? I am an elected Commissioner for the Jupiter Inlet District, a member of the Economic Council of Palm Beach County, Charter member of APA, A member of the Board of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, past president of the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County all that have had some impact on my Career, however my membership in ASLA is the heart and soul of my profession and I will continue to be involved with ASLA as long as I can.
40 YEARS+
International Chapter
Jon Charles Coe, FASLA
Where are you from and how long have you been a landscape architect? I grew up in Southern California and graduated with my BLA from UC Berkeley in 1964. I’ve been a landscape architect for 58 ½ years. I later earned my MLA from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1966. I’ve lived in Germany, and practiced in the USA, Brazil (as a US Peace Corp Volunteer), Canada and presently in Australia. How did you begin your career journey in Landscape architecture? My father was a professor of horticulture, nurseryman, and landscape gardener I worked with from age 12. At the time I knew little about the scope of the profession, but landscape architecture seemed the logical next step. What do you think is the most important issue facing landscape architects today? Effective climate change adaptation. What have you gained by being a member of ASLA for 45 years? A sense of professional fellowship and a strong theoretical base to work from. I was honoured to be awarded FASLA in 1993 in design excellence. What would you share with others as a reason for belonging to ASLA as a member? For fellowship and to stay in touch with emerging practice opportunities and useful technology and to support the ASLA in improving opportunities for women and minorities and pro-environmental initiatives. What would you share with those new to the profession of landscape architecture? Broaden your knowledge and communication skills. What is your favorite project in your career and why? A very difficult request. I am best known for the advances I’ve helped to invent and popularize in the field of zoo and wildlife sanctuary design and management. But most proud of the work I did as consultant to the United Nations Environment Programme in Afghanistan (eleven missions 2009 - 2016) helping design, develop, and implement self-help programs for remote mountain villagers in climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and livelihood improvement. Why? Because we helped some of the poorest, most persecuted people make their own lives more self-sufficient, sustainable, and profitable. Why? Because I learned so much from these people and from this very challenging and arduous experience. Would you like to submit/share a picture of it? (See above). I’m the bearded person in the back row with hand raised leading a village planning session in the Afghan Central Highlands in about 2010. What in your view is the most important thing that landscape architects provide? Assuming they develop the needed skills, the ability to communicate with, manage, and lead multidisciplinary planning and design teams. Is there anything else you would like to share to commemorate your 45 years with ASLA? Success depends upon actual visible high-quality achievements. No clients have ever asked me where I went to university, what my profession is or what organizations I belong to. They only what to know what value I bring to their realization of their dreams and needs. I frequently need to remind my clients that I am a landscape architect and not an architect, zoologist, or ecologist, because my work integrates these fields and more. Could you please upload a headshot? Or picture of you in your favorite place? Here I am in 2012 showing respect to a dominant male orangutan in an exhibit I helped to design at the Louisville Zoo with my old firm CLRdesign in Philadelphia. My ability to empathize with both human and animal clients has been essential to success in this field. I will say this project is in my top-5 zoo exhibit design projects, but the only one of these with my photo in it. (Photo: Marcelle Gianelloni)
40 YEARS+
Alaska Chapter
Paul L. Schrooten, ASLA
Where are you from and how long have you been a landscape architect? I was born in Minnesota and graduated fro the University of Minnesota in 1979 with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree. I completed my landscape architect-in-training in private practice and became a licensed professional in 1982. How did you begin your career journey in Landscape architecture? Until I graduated from college, I worked as a student intern at the State of Minnesota State Planning Agency. Upon graduation I began my career with Brauer and Associates, Ltd located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. I began specializing in recreational facility design, including parks, trails, ball fields, and golf courses. I served as the Minnesota ASLA chapter as secretary and president from 1981-1983. I also had the opportunity to document the Minnesota chapter history and wrote a comprehensive archival manual to document the archival record. I also was in private practice in Connecticut from 1984-1991. I finished my career in Alaska working for both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. I retired from active practice in 2018. What do you think is the most important issue facing landscape architects today? Landscape architects have come a long way since I began my career. I am proud every time I hear of another success story regarding our profession or about a particular professional who has excelled in serving humankind. I believe the most important issue facing landscape architects today is the need for continued creative problem solving in a design profession that requires highly variable results. What have you gained by being a member of ASLA for 43 years? Although I am now retired, ASLA membership has allowed me to remain connected to other members and has kept me informed and engaged in current news and accomplishments. What would you share with others as a reason for belonging to ASLA as a member? ASLA is the professional organization that provides vital services for each and every member, whether it be licensure status, key national and state legislation, or important technological advancements. My advice: stay with a proven organization that helps you do your job! What would you share with those new to the profession of landscape architecture? New or younger members of the profession certainly have a leg up on occupational opportunities and technological advancements. If I were to venture a guess, professional development now or at any time in the past is the greatest challenge that requires mentorship and guidance. Professional collaboration, team building, and personal ethics remain high priorities for ultimate success in any off the design professions and younger people have not necessarily acquired these skills. What is your favorite project in your career and why? I have over 250 design projects in my portfolio spanning more than 40 years. One of my favorite projects was a 1982 rehabilitation of the historic railroad depot in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I had the opportunity to collaborate with historical architects to revitalize an important structure deserving of a new purpose. It now serves as a regional visitor center. What in your view is the most important thing that landscape architects provide? Landscape architects provide a more holistic view of integrated design. Educated and trained with an environmental perspective, a landscape architect must utilize natural systems, structural integration and basic engineering principles to advance the overall completion of multi-disciplinary projects. Is there anything else you would like to share to commemorate your 43 years with ASLA? In the 1980's, I had the privilege to work with George Yarwood from Connecticut as he was a past state chapter president and at the time was serving as the ASLA national archivist. He encouraged me to carry on with many archival activities at that time. Prior to his death in 1987, he passed his personal files along to me. If ASLA would like to take possession of these files, I would be happy to make arrangements for that transfer.
40 YEARS+
Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter
C. Steven Victor, ASLA (pictured with wife, Bonnie at the Grand Tetons).
Where are you from and how long have you been a landscape architect? I’m a graduate of Iowa State University and I have been practicing since 1971. How did you begin your career journey in Landscape architecture? My first job after college was with Environmental Planning and Design under John Simonds. What do you think is the most important issue facing landscape architects today? Making sure that we remain visible in the every changing transitions that are taking place in our world, whether it be environmental, societal, or technology. What have you gained by being a member of ASLA for 44 years? We are a small profession that does a vast variety of work. ASLA has kept me informed as to what my fellow professions are doing and thinking. What would you share with others as a reason for belonging to ASLA as a member? I would encourage all landscape architects to stay informed and connected by the ASLA What would you share with those new to the profession of landscape architecture? It’s a wonderful profession that has allowed me to live a meaningful life where I can contribute to our world. What is your favorite project in your career and why? I have worked on over 4,000 projects, from the very small to a few big ones. Not all are rewarding or exciting, but I have tried to put the same level of energy and detail on each one. What in your view is the most important thing that landscape architects provide? A perspective that we don’t just design for our client, but we also design for the contractor who will build it, for the public who will view it and the person who will ultimately live with it.
30 YEARS+
Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter
Edward A. Theurkauf, ASLA
Where are you from and how long have you been a landscape architect? I'm from Chester County, PA. MLA UPenn '86. Licensed PA LA since 1990. How did you begin your career journey in Landscape architecture? As a farm boy growing up in rural Chester County in the 1960’s, I thought I had it all. Broad textured fields with long views of distant hills; farmyards with horses and cows and chickens and dogs and cats; cold clean streams; and big deep woods with grey boulders, May Apples, and old gnarled trees: these were my places, my playground. But things were changing. The farms were being sold, and developed into housing and commercial centers. People were leaving the noise and congestion of cities, drawn to a quieter life in the picturesque countryside. But as they came, the farms disappeared, the woods were cut down, and the streams flooded with turbid runoff. The qualities that attracted our new neighbors were being steadily lost. Maybe the developers didn’t know better, but I blamed them. My deep affinity for the outdoors led me to study landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, under pioneer ecologist Ian McHarg. There I learned the science of the environment, of its rhythms, its cycles, its interdependencies, its limits, and how people can build and live in ways that do not destroy nature’s critical balance. So I would design for human purpose, but with nature. My time at Penn was happy and hopeful. In 1986, I began my career designing projects for land developers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I enjoyed my work, but it was clear that our clients didn’t care much about the places where they built, or their impacts on the surrounding communities. The scale and patterns of development were dictated not by the natural and social attributes of real places, but by economic aspirations and the maximum limits allowed by zoning. With their narrowly acquisitive priorities, developers to my mind ruined everything they touched. And I was helping them. To assuage deepening career choice regrets, I turned to residential garden design. At this scale, I could apply ecological concepts in the construction of outdoor places and teach clients about design, aesthetics, and building in harmony with natural systems. It was more personally gratifying than developer work, but my reach was limited and I was unsatisfied. Developers continued apace, playing by the rules they made for themselves, and I was often in the role of mitigating the harm caused by their decisions. By force of desire and luck, in 1998 I began working for local governments. I recognized that municipalities have power through policy and zoning to shape their own communities, and I could help them do that. Communities don’t have to accept an approach that maximizes the advantages of developers without regard to the environment and quality of life. Citizens don’t have to be increasingly isolated from healthful and restorative natural places and public spaces. Century old forests don’t have to be cleared, and streams don’t have to be fouled with pollution and mud. And development doesn’t have to be banal, sprawling, and ugly, but can be made vibrant, walkable, interconnected, and green. An improved approach to development begins, not with a balance sheet or the reactive focus of real estate analytics, but with principles of environmental health and sustainability. Also, this effort requires a complete and intimate understanding of cherished places and the cultural values of each community. And though builders themselves will benefit from the enhanced value of projects that are environmentally conscious and contextually appropriate, they are bound by custom and reluctant to change. The process needs a push. To achieve successful results, communities need conscientious, dedicated, and experienced advocates. This is the work I’m meant to do. And that is why I’m here. What do you think is the most important issue facing landscape architects today? Climate change, environmental degradation. What have you gained by being a member of ASLA for 30 years? Connections with practitioners in different realms of landscape architecture - professional status - exposure to new ideas, research, and methods What would you share with those new to the profession of landscape architecture? Landscape architecture offers nearly unmatched avenues to a rewarding professional life - LAs can work at any scale from detail design to regional planning - for private individuals, developers, government at all levels, academia, and nonprofits - locally, statewide, nationally, or around the world - as a solo practitioner, as part of a small, medium, or large organization - in partnership with engineers, architects, lawyers, and others. What is your favorite project in your career and why? So far, I have two favorites: 1) a comprehensive plan supplement for resource protection in the Hopewell Big Woods for Warwick Twp, Chester County PA. This is a deciduous forest resource of global significance, and the implementation strategies became the basis of environmental resource stewardship policy and regulation in the client municipality and in the region beyond. 2) Phoenixville Regional Comprehensive Plan for six municipalities that include urban, suburban, and rural landscapes - working within a highly diverse region of nearly 50,000 residents to establish consensus policies in areas of critical import has been deeply satisfying - this plan is instrumental in protecting the areas unique culture and environmental resources while advancing essential quality of life initiatives. What in your view is the most important thing that landscape architects provide? Breadth of perspective, understanding of natural and human systems. Is there anything else you would like to share to commemorate your 30 years with ASLA? I have very much enjoyed mentoring students and encouraging them to pursue LA as a profession. It's been a good ride. I'm not done.
50 YEARS
Ohio Chapter
Thomas F. Zarfoss, ASLA
Washington Chapter
Fred L. Beck, ASLA
40 YEARS
Boston Chapter
David A. Paine, ASLA
California Southern Chapter
Michael L. Cripe, ASLA
Tennessee Chapter
Steven A. Fritts, ASLA
30 YEARS
Illinois Chapter
Carol J. H. Yetken, ASLA
Indiana Chapter
John D. Jackson, ASLA
Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter
Frederick R. Steiner, FASLA
San Diego Chapter
Frank N. Brower, FASLA
25 YEARS
Colorado Chapter
Jamie Fogle, ASLA
Jana Dewey McKenzie, FASLA
Indiana Chapter
Janice Gustaferro, ASLA
Maryland Chapter
Kevin J. Campion, ASLA
Mississippi Chapter
Bradley R. Jones, ASLA
New York Upstate Chapter
Vincent P. Pietrzak, ASLA
North Carolina Chapter
Matthew D. Langston, FASLA
Texas Chapter
Steven D. Plumer, ASLA
Mitch Wright, ASLA
15 YEARS
California Northern Chapter
Nicholas Ohler, ASLA
New York Upstate Chapter
John Reddington, ASLA
Texas Chapter
Vaughn Eric Perez, ASLA
10 YEARS
Alabama Chapter
Jennafer S. Collins, ASLA
Boston Chapter
Andrew Gutterman, ASLA
Connecticut Chapter
Emily Weckman, ASLA
Maryland Chapter
Andrea Stirton, ASLA
New York Chapter
Alison Shipley, ASLA
New York Upstate Chapter
Michael D. Hale, ASLA
Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter
Tracey Lee Cohen, ASLA
5 YEARS
Florida Chapter
Mykhailo Ponomarenko, ASLA
International Chapter
Robert John Mikula, ASLA
New Jersey Chapter
Lubna F. Lakhwala, Associate ASLA
New York Chapter
Mark D. Hoopes, ASLA
New York Upstate Chapter
Patrick Costello, ASLA
Texas Chapter
Leroy Dean Wilson, Jr., ASLA
New Members
Boston
Leah Grossman, ASLA
Florida
Anielka Maria Arguello, ASLA
Lindsay Birkhimer, ASLA
Liudmila Fuentes, ASLA
Georgia
Michael Tyson, Affiliate ASLA
International Chapter
Zhang Yiyuan, International ASLA
North Carolina
Kristen Elena Locke, ASLA
Christina Turner, ASLA
Ohio
Rachael D. Harkleroad, ASLA
Oklahoma
Mitch Tabor, Affiliate ASLA
Potomac
Jacob Torkelson, Affiliate ASLA
San Diego
Tesha Rosenwinkel, Affiliate ASLA
Texas
Elizabeth Annabel Jenkins, Associate ASLA
Washington
Shuwen Ye, ASLA
Student
Raven Trenell Breaux, Student ASLA
Nathaniel Thomas Campbell, Student ASLA
Chad Dennis, Student ASLA
Nesreen Jallad, Student ASLA
Steven Kee, Student ASLA
Elena Landsman, StudentASLA
Maria Lourenco, Student ASLA
Anahita Niknejad, Student ASLA
Jacob B. Peach, Student ASLA
Lauren Sugay, Student ASLA
Xuezhu Tian, Student ASLA
Hanzhang Xiao, Student ASLA
Stella Yu, Student ASLA
Emily Jia Zhai, Student ASLA
Ying Zheng, Student ASLA
Student Affiliate
Haley Busch, Student Affiliate ASLA
Jennifer Chang, Student Affiliate ASLA
Ronald Eason, Jr., Student Affiliate ASLA
Michael Gerick, Student Affiliate ASLA
Eve Heitman, Student Affiliate ASLA
Sayli Limaye, Student Affiliate ASLA
Trella Lopez, Student Affiliate ASLA
Janelle Marquez, Student Affiliate ASLA
Sheri Presley, Student Affiliate ASLA
Olessya Shu, Student Affiliate ASLA
Evan West, Student Affiliate ASLA
Hsu Yun-Chen, Student Affiliate ASLA
Student International
Jiayu Chen, Student International ASLA
Li Ping Gao, Student International ASLA
Joonseong Moon, Student International ASLA
Shraddha Nagotanekar, Student International ASLA
Md Saad Shafi, Student International ASLA
Abhishek Shetty, Student International ASLA
Wenyi Tang, Student International ASLA
Kunyu Wang, Student International ASLA
Xiaoqi Xu, Student International ASLA