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Materials, Methods, Sourcing

Professional Practice Network


This PPN is for landscape architects specializing in planting design, landscape maintenance, design-build practices, and residential projects—collaborating closely with nurseries, materials suppliers, and other industry partners.

ASLA 2025 Professional General Design Honor Award. Mill 19: A Catalytic Postindustrial Landscape. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. TEN x TEN. D.I.R.T. Studio.

Gaffer Photography, TEN x TEN

The Materials, Methods, Sourcing PPN is for landscape architects who care deeply about how great design actually gets built, coupled with how the decisions we make today affect performance, resilience, sustainability, cost, and craft over time. This PPN is uniquely positioned at the intersection of design, technical execution, material innovation, and construction realities. 

While other PPNs may focus on project types or design typologies, this network focuses on the systems, materials, detailing, sourcing strategies, and implementation methods that shape every landscape project regardless of scale or sector.

Who Should Join

  • Designers who want to deepen their understanding of constructability and detailing.
  • Technical practitioners and project managers.
  • Emerging professionals looking to strengthen their specification and documentation knowledge.
  • Firm leaders focused on quality, resilience, and risk management.
  • Professionals interested in sustainable sourcing, low-carbon materials, and evolving construction technologies.
  • Anyone passionate about bridging the gap between design vision and built reality.

Why Join

Because the future of landscape architecture depends not only on what we design, but on how we build it. 

This PPN will create a space for meaningful conversations around: 

  • Material innovation and performance.
  • Constructability and detailing. 
  • Sustainable and ethical sourcing. 
  • Climate-responsive materials and methods. 
  • QA/QC best practices. 
  • Emerging technologies and fabrication methods. 
  • Lessons learned from the field. 
  • Collaboration between designers, contractors, fabricators, and suppliers
Click Here to Join

PPN Chair

Shawn Weidner, PLA, ASLA

Shawn, PLA, serves as Principal and Director of Siteworks Studio I. He thrives on details - celebrating projects that showcase intricate masonry, wood, and metalwork, and collaborating closely with artisans, architects, and designers. Fully engaged in every step, Shawn enjoys participating in design decisions and offering valued input on pricing, materials, and planting selections, always balancing design intent with construction realities. As Principal overseeing quality assurance and quality control, he directs construction observation and ensures that each project is executed with the precision and character for which the firm is known. 

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What gets me out of bed in the morning is the challenge of translating ambitious design ideas into landscapes that are durable, buildable, resilient, and beautifully executed. I’m passionate about the technical side of practice because that is where vision meets reality. The details matter. Materials matter. Methods matter. And the decisions we make as landscape architects have long-term consequences for both people and the environment.

Shawn Weidner, PLA, ASLA

Leadership Delegates 2026-2027

Leadership Delegates are volunteers who help turn the Chair's vision into action by leading projects, contributing to deliverables, and driving the network's goals forward. 

  • Matt Dingeldein 
  • Michael Ledbetter 
  • John Lambert Pearson

Want to Join a Professional Practice Network?

Joining a PPN is a ASLA membership benefit. Members can join up to three networks without additional cost!

Click Here to Join