Applications Open for the LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership

The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) is accepting applications for the next cycle of the LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership. This $25,000 yearlong fellowship is a unique opportunity for mid-career and senior-level landscape architects to explore, research, develop, and test big ideas that will bring about positive change and expand the impact of the landscape architecture discipline. Participation in the fellowship also cultivates transformational leadership and intergenerational mentorship.

The next cohort will run from May/June 2027 to May/June 2028, with 3-4 fellowships awarded through a competitive application process based on a proposed project. Application materials are due September 15, 2026.

Eligible applicants must have a minimum of 6 years of professional experience in landscape architecture and be able to dedicate the equivalent of 12 weeks’ time to their proposed project over the course of the fellowship year. Projects may be grounded in theoretical or historical investigations, product or program development, new practice or service models, built work, new technology, or any activity that contributes to knowledge and drives impactful change beyond the traditional scope of landscape architecture practice.

During the fellowship, the six-member cohort of Fellows and emerging professionals from LAF’s Olmsted Scholars Program participate in three 2.5-day residencies in Washington, DC, as well as monthly video calls where they engage in critical discussions, build leadership capacity, and support each other towards the pursuit of their projects and ideas.

For more information on the fellowship program, eligibility, and application materials, visit: www.lafoundation.org/laf-fellowship. 

July 7 Office Hours

Join LAF staff on Tuesday, July 7, 3-4 p.m. EDT for a virtual LAF Fellowship overview and "office hours" for potential applicants to learn more about the program and the application and selection process. Attendees can then ask questions in an open format. Register here.

See presentations from past years

You can learn about the work of past LAF Fellows by watching their presentations at LAF’s Innovation + Leadership Symposium, the capstone of the fellowship year. The powerful 15-minute talks can be viewed to earn CEUs (recent years only) and see how landscape architects are engaging with pressing issues like decarbonization, biodiversity, food systems, waste, accessibility, AI, mass incarceration, and more.