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Hear From The Ohio State LABash 2026 Team
LABash will be hosted by The Ohio State University students March 11-13, 2026, in Columbus, OH, and the early bird registration deadline is February 9.
LABash is a landscape architecture conference led by students, for students. Held in North America by a different landscape architecture program each year, the conference brings hundreds of students and professionals together to learn, network, and help shape the future of the profession.
This year, LABash will be hosted by The Ohio State University students March 11-13, 2026, in Columbus, OH, on the theme “Cross-Pollinate,” exploring the synergies between people, place, practice, and profession.
The early bird registration deadline is extended until February 9, so there are a few days left to get discounted tickets.
For the past few months, The Ohio State LABash 2026 team has been publishing articles, conducting interviews and gathering updates from landscape architecture students around the country. Today, we are sharing highlights from those posts below, with links to labash.org for you to peruse it all in full.
Inside Canada’s Only Accredited BLA Program with Emily Pham, Student ASLA, and Kaithleen Gacita
by Zach Curry, Student ASLA, and Sam Clemente, Student Affiliate ASLA
"One thing unique to University of Guelph this year is the student rep committee. We talk about how students are feeling about curriculum, workload, and studio culture. We try to find solutions like peer support, resources, and curriculum changes. The committee bridges the gap between students and professors. For example, students had trouble with portfolios or AutoCAD, and we worked to update outdated plant inventories. Professors have been really receptive."
– Emily Pham, Student ASLA, and Kaithleen Gacita
Landscape Architecture Has a PR Problem
by Zach Curry, Student ASLA, and Sam Clemente, Student Affiliate ASLA
"...as landscape architects we still want to be like our predecessors and master all trades. We want to be the general expert in the room, but then we also know how to collaborate with the civil engineer, the ecologist, the botanist, the planner, or the policy maker. It’s up to us as landscape architects to learn more about how to be leaders and collaborators, working with all the different disciplines like conducting an orchestra."
– Gillian Ford, Student ASLA
From One-Eyed Cats to 1,000 Trees: A Conversation with Michigan State University’s Grace Densham, Student ASLA
by Claire Baltimore and Sam Clemente, Student Affiliate ASLA
"We're actually the oldest program in the United States, and a few years ago we had our 125th Anniversary. We're older than Harvard in terms of program (established 1898!), but they are older than us in terms of graduates. But if anyone asks and they say Harvard had the first program, say, 'Actually!'"
– Grace Densham, Student ASLA
Curriculum, Culture, and Challenges: An Interview with USU’s Lauren Johnson, Student ASLA, and Ryder McClaugherty, Student ASLA
by Zach Curry, Student ASLA, and Sam Clemente, Student Affiliate ASLA
"I think something that's really great about our studios is we don't gatekeep – we really do try to collaborate. So if you see somebody that's working on a really cool graphic, you can approach that person and say, 'hey, how are you making this?' And then usually people respond, 'oh, this is the tool I use and how to do it.'"
– Lauren Johnson, Student ASLA
"Standing Your Ground" with University of Nebraska-Lincoln Landscape Students
by Piper Kozlowski, Student ASLA, Nadia Ndematebem, Student ASLA, Sam Clemente, Student Affiliate ASLA, Zach Curry, Student ASLA
"So the collaboration with the other disciplines primarily comes from the collaborative studio in our fourth year when we actually have all three disciplines come together. Losing landscape architecture would be a serious detriment to the collaborative studio because you lose the space-making with the exterior. You're able to put in a courtyard and plaza, but you don't have the same understanding of space with the plant materials, seasonality, and the actual ecological considerations that you put into it. I fear that without landscape architecture in those projects, it would be more about tree placing than space making."
– Danielle Braunsroth, Student ASLA
Cross-Pollination Sustains More Than Plants
by Sam Clemente, Student Affiliate ASLA
"At LABash 2026, we’ll celebrate how landscape architecture truly excels in facing wicked problems. We’ll grow your repertoire of design precedents, dive deeper into the forces that shape our landscape designs, and improve the skills that make our field unique. But, we’ll also look beyond North America and the traditional precedents of our time. We will examine how landscape architecture interacts with other disciplines, how language might impact our perspective on the field, as well as the power we hold outside of the design realm."