Presentations from the 2018 LAF Innovation + Leadership Symposium
On May 17, 2018, the first cohort from the year-long LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership presented their projects at our sold-out symposium. This unique fellowship program provides a $25,000 award that supports working professionals as they develop and test new ideas to bring about impactful change to the environment and humanity and increase the visibility and leadership role of landscape architecture.
Critical Places: Design Interventions to Address Water and Other Issues in Rural India
Alpa Nawre, Assistant Professor, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Alpa’s work in India aims to prototype a process to address critical issues such as water scarcity and waste management through design strategies and small-scale, physical interventions to create a stronger, more cohesive and forward-looking community.
Resource: Alpa's Critical Places NGO
Making Space: Optimistic Strategies for Urban Homelessness
Brice Maryman, Senior Landscape Architect, MIG l SvR, Seattle, WA
What is the role of public space in confronting the growing challenge of homelessness? Through the HomeLandLab project, Brice Maryman explored the ways that the connective tissue of our cities—our public spaces—can be shaped, programmed and managed to improve the lives of those experiencing homelessness.
Resource: Brice's HomeLandLab project
For the Love of Teenagers: Advocating for Safe, Restorative High School Environments
Claire Latané, Senior Associate, Mia Lehrer + Associates, Los Angeles, CA
Claire advocates for high school environments that support students’ mental health and well-being. Using Los Angeles as a case study, she works with students, educators and administrators, designers, non-profits, city agencies, and the community to develop policy and design that reflect a sense of love and safety rather than security and fear.
Resource: Claire's website and writings
Cultivating Future Landscape Architects: Career Discovery in K-12 Education
Nicole Plunkett, Landscape Architect, Cotleur & Hearing, Jupiter, FL
Who will shape the future of landscape architecture? Nicole explored how the continued development of her nonprofit, Future Landscape Architects of America (FLAA), can help to grow and diversify the profession in the coming years.
Resource: Nicole's Future Landscape Architects of America non-profit
Shifting Perceptions: Reconceiving Public Space in the American South
Harriett Jameson Brooks, Landscape Designer, Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Alexandria, VA
2014 LAF National Olmsted Scholars Finalist (Graduate)
A Native Tennessean, Harriett explored the opportunities of public space in the South to catalyze social resiliency and reconciliation. She is interested in the power of place to shape our personal narratives and its ability to expand and reshape those narratives through sites of conscience.
The (Large) Space Between: Reimagining Highway Corridors as Performative Landscapes
Scott Douglas, Director of the Hahn Horticulture Garden, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
2016 LAF Olmsted Scholar
Scott investigated alternative uses for the maintenance-intensive highway corridors. His work includes a review The Ray, an 18-mile section of Interstate 85 in southwest Georgia that serves as a testing ground for new ideas and technologies to transform transportation infrastructure.
