April 2022

Spring is springing! I hope everyone is warming up and staying busy and sane.

We had a successful PGASLA Awards Gala on April 7^th. It was good to be back in-person and gather as a design community. Congratulations again to the winning firms and students. Thank you to all who submitted. Please continue to do so in the future. As many of you know, the awards are subjective and juried by partner chapters. Some years are harder than others to win awards.

It's time again for open nominations for PGASLA ExComm positions. I would encourage anyone interested to please consider running for a position. Or, if you know of someone that might be interested, please share! Positions available this year are as follows:

Trustee

President Elect

V.P. of Sponsorship

V.P of Advocacy

Treasurer

Secretary

Wichita-at-large

Manhattan-at-large

The LINKS event a few weeks ago at Children’s Mercy Park was a big success. The turnout, tour, information, and food were all great. Please consider attending future LINKS events.

Speaking of events, there will an upcoming PGASLA happy hour hosted by Landscape Forms. PGASLA members are invited for a fun afternoon at the Nelson Atkins Art Course on Thursday, May 12^th from 3-5pm. Groups of 4-6 people will be assigned tee-times beginning at 3pm, allowing for approximately 45 minutes to play the course. Snack items (2) and drink items (2) are included for each attendee.  Click here to register.

As always, please remember, PGASLA is always grateful for help and input! We welcome anyone who has an interest in investing some of their time to make this organization great and to ensure that we are providing quality content and value to our members. If you want to attend any of our upcoming (virtual) Excomm meetings, please let me know.

Until next time,

Brett Payton, PLA, ASLA

PGASLA President

Join PGASLA for a Happy Hour Event hosted by Landscape Forms, Stacy Ernst

PGASLA members are invited for a fun afternoon at the Nelson Atkins Art Course on Thursday, May 12th from 3-5pm. Groups of 4-6 people will be assigned tee-times beginning at 3pm, allowing for approximately 45 minutes to play the course. Snack items (2) and drink items (2) are included for each attendee.

Where: Nelson Atkins South Lawn | 4525 Oak Street, KCMO

When: Thursday, May 12th from 3-5pm

Cost: Free, only for PGASLA members

Submitted by David Contag, Chapter Trustee

April 2022

Finally, great Spring weather is here! Hope you are all doing well and it was great to see many of you at our PG-ASLA Annual Awards Gala! Just FYI, some of my favorite plants are in bloom right now, like the Cornus florida, Fothergilla, Viburnum, and Redbud! This week our Chapter president and President-Elect and Trustees are getting together virtually for the Spring ASLA Governance Meetings. More information to come soon. See National ASLA highlights below:

Highlights

• On March 2, ASLA President, Eugenia Martin, FASLA, kicked-off Women’s History Month with a video introduction of the WxLA and ASLA series, WxLA Wednesday Walks, in which fierce women leaders in landscape architecture conduct Instagram Live tours of landscapes they have designed across the country. Inspired by civic action, equality movements around the world, and the personal experience of its founders, WxLA emerged in 2018 as a vocal advocacy initiative for gender justice in landscape architecture. 

• ASLA Vice President of Education Ebru Ozer, ASLA, CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, and Director of Accreditation and Education Kristopher Pritchard represented the Society at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Conference, March 16-19, which included providing an ASLA update at the CELA Program Administrator’s Meeting on March 16. The update focused on ASLA’s new mission, vision, and strategic plan; ASLA’s new partnership with Land8 and LABash; as well as the new Women of Color Licensure program. VP Ozer also participated in CELA’s board meeting while at the conference. 

• The Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB) held its 2022 Winter Board Meeting on March 14-15 in Santa Ana Pueblo, NM (in conjunction with the CELA Conference). The board made accreditation decisions for the nine landscape architecture programs who hosted accreditation visits last fall. The board continues to work on accreditation and operations improvements through committee work. CEO Carter-Conneen joined for portions of the meeting. LAAB Chair Lynn Ewanow and CELA Representative to LAAB Roxi Thoren, ASLA, provided LAAB updates at the CELA Program Administrator’s Meeting, March 16. 

• The Future City Awards Celebration is scheduled for Wednesday, March 23, 1pm EDT. CEO Carter-Conneen recorded a video announcing the winner, which is embargoed for release until next week. For the first time in its 25-year history, Future City has included “designers” in its promotions with engineers and scientists. Watch here.

• ASLA issued a statement on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

• ASLA has launched the Women of Color Licensure Advancement Program to support women of color in their pursuit of landscape architecture licensure and increase racial and gender diversity within the profession. In its inaugural year, the program will provide 10 women of color with a two-year, personalized experience that includes up to $3,500 to cover the cost of sections of the Landscape Architectural Registration Exam (LARE), along with exam preparation courses, resources, and mentorship from a licensed landscape architect. Learn more on how to apply to become part of the ASLA Women of Color Licensure Advancement Program. The deadline for applications is April 1, 2022. See the press release on the Women of Color Licensure Advancement Program, which was covered by The Architect’s Newspaper.

• Landscape Architects Advocating For Change: Recently, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a report to Congress, Moving to a Complete Streets Design Model: A Report to Congress on Opportunities and Challenge, detailing the agency’s commitment to advance widespread implementation of the Complete Streets design model to help improve safety and accessibility for all users. The report identifies five overarching opportunity areas that will inform FHWA as it moves ahead with its efforts to increase the proportion of federally funded transportation projects that are routinely planned, designed, built and operated as Complete Streets. ASLA worked with FHWA to include landscape architects Rob Loftis, ASLA, Peg Staeheli, FASLA, David Lustberg, ASLA, David Crawley, ASLA and Ryan Bouma in discussions with the department to identify policy and design barriers to implementing Complete Streets projects. ASLA’s contributions are recognized in the report.

• The Center for Landscape Architecture officially received WELL Gold certification last week. The WELL Building Standard® is a performance-based standard focused on human health and wellness and is based in design and construction best practices and evidence-based health and wellness interventions. The renovation of the Center targeted both WELL and LEED certification. The Center received the LEED certification in 2019. A press release will be issued later this month.