Mt. Hood Section News: Survey

If you are a member of the Mt. Hood Section of Oregon ASLA, please follow the link below to fill out a brief survey to help plan the events for 2021

Click here to take survey

2021 ASLA Oregon Student Honor + Merit Awards are in process!

The ASLA student Honor and Merit award program, administered through the ASLA chapters, is a collaborative effort between chapters and landscape architecture programs. The awards recognize academic achievement, design competence, and interpersonal skills, and are distributed to outstanding students in programs across the country.

This spring, the Oregon Chapter of ASLA and the University of Oregon’s Department of Landscape Architecture are convening a jury of ASLA members to hear 20-minute virtual presentations from each of the four student nominees and select the winners. UO LA and ASLA Oregon will present the awards in person at ASLA Oregon’s Annual Awards Soiree.

Stay tuned for more to come!

Save the Date: 2021 ASLA Oregon Design Symposium

We are pleased to announce that the 2021 Design Symposium will be held virtually on April 9th and 10th this year.

More information coming soon!

Save the Date: UO's Shadow Mentor Day will be held virtually this year on Friday, February 26!

The University of Oregon ASLA Student Chapter is pleased to announce the twenty-eighth annual Shadow Mentor Day on Friday, February 26th.

For one day, students experience the working world of landscape architecture by spending a day with professionals. This event serves as a mutual learning experience made possible by the support of professionals like you.

Shadow Mentor Day is an event led by the UO ASLA Student Chapter for UO students in the BLA or MLA program at UO to preview the work environment and career opportunities they will navigate as emerging professionals after graduation. We are committed to retaining this invaluable student tradition by transitioning to an online format.

2020 Professional Award Winner

Portland Japanese Garden has been recognized by the National American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) with the Award of Excellence for the Cultural Crossing Project. This is the highest honor of ASLA’s professional design awards program, where each year, submissions are made by the best in landscape architecture from around the globe.

The Cultural Crossing Project’s landscape architects, Walker Macy and Portland Japanese Garden, led by Garden Curator, Sadafumi Uchiyama, worked together within a highly collaborative, multicultural, and multidisciplinary team that included Kengo Kuma Associates, Hacker Architects, KPFF Consulting Engineers, Hoffman Construction, and a team of skilled landscape and gardening craftspeople. The Award of Excellence recognizes the project’s beautifully executed details; the team’s cohesive, place-based and landscape-led design approach; the interweaving of design excellence and technical problem-solving; and the team’s articulate balance between traditional Japanese and contemporary design and construction methodologies.

To learn more about the project visit the ASLA website at: Cultural Crossing Transforms Portland Japanese Garden into a Place of Cultural Dialogue.

2020 ASLA Student Award Winner

We are thrilled to celebrate the excellence of University of Oregon, MLA graduate Deanna Lynn. Lynn received an ASLA National Honor Award in Student Research for her masters project ‘Landscape Design for Carbon Sequestration’. Lynn’s work is beautifully crafted, inspiring and a timely contribution to the field. 

The jury commended Lynn’s work noting, “...this project filled an important gap in the existing research on carbon sequestration—namely, the potential use of soil to proactively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. With the goal of providing a template for climate-positive design through improved soil health, this study proposes strategies to increase biodiversity with layers of plants.” Sincere congratulations to Deanna Lynn and the UO Department of Landscape Architecture!

To learn more about Lynn’s project visit the ASLA website at: Landscape Design for Carbon Sequestration Honor Award Research. Additionally, the work will be available in the September Issue of LA Magazine and on Issue.

2020 Design Symposium Recap

NOURISH!

The 2020 Design Symposium NOURISH took place virtually on September 11 and 12. 175 attendees heard presentations on themes of well-being, of our bodies and minds but also of the land and of our society. Falon Mihalic of Falon Land Studio in Houston, TX opened the Symposium with a talk on how designers can nourish the creative process. She was followed by Sharon Selvaggio of The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, who discussed the benefits of designing pollinator habitat into urban spaces, as well as related planning and design considerations. Chuck Eggert of Oregon’s Wild Rose Foods had the audience in thrall to his holistic approach to closed loop farm design and management and vertical integration with food retailers. Our Keynote Speaker, April Phillips, linked systems thinking to climate positive design strategies to foodshed planning. And Professor Roxi Thoren of the University of Oregon moderated a panel discussion among all the speakers, bringing the threads together to focus on how landscape architects nourish and, importantly, who we are nourishing with our work. The presentations sparked lively discussions among our speakers and attendees on subjects ranging from strategies to protect creative time while running a business, to effective specifying of biochar, to how landscape architects can daylight the labor force that brings our designs to life and food to our table. ASLA Oregon is grateful to our fabulous speakers; to our wonderful sponsors and volunteers, without whom we could not produce these events; and to you, our lively and engaged community, for making NOURISH a success!

2020 Awards Soiree Cancelled

ASLA Oregon has made the difficult decision to cancel this year's Awards Soiree, due to the restrictions on large gatherings required by the pandemic response.  With all of us online all the time these days, we felt that the Soiree deserved better.  So we look forward to seeing you all again next November, in person, where we can greet you properly and celebrate our accomplishments together!  If you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you at info@aslaoregon.org

Best wishes,

ASLA Oregon Executive Committee

BLACK LIVES MATTER.

In response to recent and historic police violence against Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, and in acknowledgement of the systemic racism upon which the United States was built, ASLA Oregon is adding its voice to the many individuals and institutions supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and committing to change.  We desire to exercise anti-racism in the administration of our Chapter and to support it in our Members’ practice of landscape architecture.  

ASLA Oregon would like to humbly acknowledge that the profession of landscape architecture in Oregon took root and thrived in fertile soil provided by systemic racism.  For example, our practice was made possible by, and continues to benefit from, the theft of this land – the very medium of our work – from the Indigenous peoples whose home it was.  Violence, followed by abandonment of treaties, forced assimilation and termination, assured that the land transferred to and remained largely in White hands, and that the benefits thereof accrued almost exclusively to White people. Further, our practice flourished upon and continues to benefit from social and economic capital accrued through racist policies such as discriminatory zoning, redlining, and racist neighborhood covenants.  

But it’s not all in the past. ASLA Oregon acknowledges that there may be mindsets and modes of practice through which our Members continue to unwittingly support or perpetuate racial and social injustice.  While we assume that our Members take their role as stewards of public health, safety and welfare to heart, we acknowledge the primacy of impact over intent, and that we must learn and make change.

We welcome the energy and momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement.  We welcome the leadership and perspective of the Black Landscape Architects Network.  We commit to taking action.  As first steps, ASLA Oregon will:

• Develop and implement a racial and environmental justice lens to inform Chapter decision making on matters from budgets and programming to Executive Committee recruitment.  

• Develop continuing education programming that examines how the design and management of public open spaces are affected by racial inequity.

• Identify and facilitate connections between ASLA Oregon, our members, and minority K-12 and community college students to actively promote landscape architecture as a career option, and work to increase student diversity in undergraduate enrollments.

• Establish categories and criteria for Design Awards to elevate Black, Brown and Indigenous community-building accomplishments and contributions.

2020 Call for Nominations!

Do you know someone who would be a well-organized Secretary for Oregon ASLA’s Executive Committee? Someone creative and great at planning events to serve as a Vice President? Someone engaged and energetic to serve as our Education Chair?  

Or how about you? Would you like to develop your leadership skills serving as our Vice President for Member Services? Practice project management by spearheading the annual Design Awards? Step up to an executive position by becoming President Elect?  

Especially in this time of need, these vital and fun leadership positions, and others, will come open this October.

Oregon ASLA is seeking nominees to run for election to the Executive Committee. The election will occur in June-July and the results will be announced in August. ExCom members are introduced to their new roles after the elections and officially begin their term of office in mid-October, after the ASLA Annual Conference on Landscape Architecture, in Miami.

Click here to nominate!

Nominate yourself, a colleague, an old classmate, a mentor – anyone you think would be an excellent advocate for landscape architecture and could push Oregon ASLA to the next level. We’re looking for individuals to lead and inspire our members, help bring our community of professionals together and lead the organization into 2021.

ASLA Full and Associate members can nominate individuals for the following open positions on our Executive Committee:

• Trustee: Three-year term. The primary purpose of this office is to be informed on Chapter and Society goals, policies, services, activities, and events; serve on the Chapter Executive Committee and serve as the Chapter representative on the Board of Trustees by bringing Chapter perspective to the Board of Trustees and the national perspective to the Executive Committee and members of the Chapter. 

Must be a Full Member of ASLA.

• President-Elect: First year of a three-year term on the Executive Committee. One of the primary purposes of the office of president-elect is to monitor and become familiar with current chapter programs, budget and operations. The term of the president-elect is also used for planning and transition. Becomes President in the second year and Immediate Past President in the third year. 

Must be a Full Member of ASLA.

• Vice President of Member Services: Two-year term. The primary purpose of this office is to support members to maintain their membership status; track and report on membership to National ASLA; and lead significant chapter events, including the annual Design Awards. 

Must be a Full Member of ASLA.

• Vice President of Chapter Services: Two-year term. The primary purpose of this office is to lead significant chapter events, including the annual design symposium.  

Must be a Full Member of ASLA.

• Secretary: Two-year term. The secretary has the primary duty of recording minutes of business meetings of the chapter, administering election results, and maintaining the chapter constitution and bylaws. 

Must be an Associate or a Full Member of ASLA.

• Education Chair: Two-year term. The Education Chair is responsible for managing the Chapter-sponsored continuing education program through LA CES, organizing LARE preparation seminars, and preparing other professional development activities. 

Must be a Full Member of ASLA.

• Mt. Hood Section Co-Chair: Two-year term. The Mt. Hood Section Co-Chair or Chair represents membership in the Northern Willamette Valley region on the Executive Committee, and plans and executes educational and social events for members. 

Must be an Associate or a Full Member of ASLA.

• High Desert Section Co-Chair: Two-year term. The High Desert Section Co-Chair or Chair represents membership in the central and lower Willamette Valley region on the Executive Committee, and plans and executes educational and social events for members.  

Must be an Associate or a Full Member of ASLA.

• Crater Lake Section Chair: Two-year term. The Crater Lake Section Chair represents membership in the Southern Oregon and Crater Lake region on the Executive Committee, and plans and executes educational and social events for members.  

Must be an Associate or a Full Member of ASLA

Click here to nominate someone you believe in! We also encourage multiple nominations for any category. You can even nominate yourself!

Interested in running for office but want to learn more about the job? Please contact Charlie Brucker at presidentelect@aslaoregon.org.

Full and Associate Members will receive electronic nomination forms via email.

Don’t delay! Nominations close at midnight on Monday June 3, 2020.

Application now open for Japanese garden design intensive!

https://japanesegarden.org/thecenter/with-an-eye-towards-nature-japanese-garden-design-intensive/apply/