Announcing the 2025 ASLA Oregon Design Symposium Theme and Speakers

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Announcing the 2025 ASLA Design Symposium Theme and Speakers

Lenses: Perspectives on design

What lenses do we use to design landscapes? This year’s symposium investigates how the design process engages cultural, natural, and technological perspectives. Do landscape architects and designers have an expansive vision, or are we being myopic? What viewpoints are we prioritizing, and how might we look at things from new perspectives to create more inclusive and impactful spaces? As a prism refracts light into a spectrum of colors, landscape architecture reveals multiple interpretations of a site and its context. Join Lenses: Perspectives on Design and explore how we shape our lenses, and our lenses shape us. Approved for 6 HSW CEUs.

April 26th at the World Forestry Center

Schedule (subject to change)

7:00 AM Vendor Setup

8:00 AM Doors/Registration Open and Continental Breakfast

9:00 AM President’s Welcome

9:20 AM Update from Biodiversity and Climate Action Group

9:30 AM Speaker #1 (1.0 HSW CEU)

10:30 AM Break and Exhibitor’s Showcase

10:45 AM Speaker #2 (1.0 HSW CEU)

11:45 AM Lunch break (boxed lunches)

12:30 PM Speaker #3 (1.5 HSW CEU)

2:00 PM Break

2:15 PM Speaker #4 (1.0 HSW CEU)

3:15 PM Break and Exhibitor’s Showcase

3:30 PM Speaker #5 and Panel Discussion, President’s closing statements (1.5 HSW CEU)

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM Happy Hour

6:00 PM Wrap up/break down

Click here to register.

Early bird pricing ends April 11th at midnight and registration closes April 24th at midnight.

Speakers:

Lori Hennings, Senior Natural Resources Scientist, Metro

Lori Hennings is a senior natural resource scientist in Metro’s Parks and Nature Department. She has Masters’ degree in Wildlife Science with a Forest Science minor from Oregon State University. Lori helps coordinate four external working groups in the Portland-Vancouver region: the Regional Habitat Connectivity Working Group, the Oak Prairie Working Group, the Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium and the new Climate Adapted Plant Materials Working Group for restoration practitioners. Lori produced a topical recreation ecology literature review available here: Recreation ecology literature review | Metro.

Kelsey Zlevor, Mental Landscapes

With a background in creative writing, environmental science, and urban planning, Kelsey is a spatial strategist and design researcher at the convergence of planning policy, climate justice, and social change. Kelsey is the founder of Mental Landscapes, an emergent emotion-meets-design lab informed by Kelsey’s 8+ years of experience as a parks planning consultant to public sector clients. Her culture-shifting work weaves understanding around depression with recognition of the oppressive forces that exacerbate its symptoms. Kelsey partners with community workers, outdoor space stewards, and cultural institutions committed to creating and reimagining spaces that comfort, support, and accompany people through mental health experiences over the course of their lives. Through Mental Landscapes, she was named the Fall 2023 Artist-In-Residence at Allerton Park and Retreat Center, and a speaker at SXSW 2024. Kelsey is a board member of Women in Planning and Development in Chicago, and holds a master’s of Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and a B.A. in Environmental Science from the University of Iowa.

Ashley Ludwig, ABLE

Ashley is the founder of ABLE, a Seattle-based landscape architecture practice. With an engaging design approach and respect for technical craft, Ashley works alongside communities bringing them into the design process to transform sites into beloved public spaces. Ashley founded ABLE to move landscape practice toward a more equitable future that centers justice, accountability, mutual support, and joy. Prior to ABLE, she worked on complex park projects including Domino Park in Brooklyn and India Basin Shoreline Park in San Francisco. Ashley is a landscape architect registered in Oregon and Washington and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Emmanuel Didier, Didier Design Studio

Emmanuel Didier is a landscape architect, artist, and founding principal of Didier Design Studio. Emmanuel brings a highly creative design approach paired with an innate ability to communicate, collaborate, and inspire people. Emmanuel leads Didier Design Studio as a mission-based practice, forming partnerships with clients and project teams around a shared sense of vision and purpose. With a strong focus on the West, Emmanuel instills a collaborative approach to Place + Making, bridging art and science, and revealing site and ecology through artful interventions. His designs respect and express an authentic sense of place and identity while inviting people to connect to nature. Emmanuel holds a Master of Architecture and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia as well as a Fine Arts degree from the École des Beaux Arts in his native country of France and has been teaching at the University of Colorado Denver since 2010.

Brad McCauley, Site Design Group and ASLA President Elect

Brad McCauley, PLA, FASLA, CDT, is a Partner and the Managing Principal at Site Design Group, who leads the firm’s overall direction. Through Brad’s extensive knowledge in transforming design into buildable projects, and people into collaborative teams, he has helped facilitate over 160 award-winning projects and public spaces across the United States. Brad’s commitment to inclusive practices has transformed the culture of the firm to meet today’s market demands and leadership expectations. Brad extends his leadership to various professional organizations, including The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s Stewardship Council and his Alma Mater’s Department of Landscape Architecture Resource Committee at the University of Illinois. He has been actively involved in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) at the local and national levels, currently serving as the national President-Elect. Past roles include the Vice President of Membership, Trustee, and Illinois Chapter President. A licensed landscape architect in over eighteen states, Brad has also received Construction Document Technology certification from the Construction Specification Institute.

Thank you to our 2025 Design Symposium Sponsors: