Presentations from the 2022 LAF Innovation + Leadership Symposium
On June 2, 2022, the 2021-22 cohort from the year-long LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership presented their projects at a symposium in Washington, DC. 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.
You can view the full recording of the symposium or watch all six presentations below. PLEASE NOTE: The 2022 symposium recordings can no longer be viewed to earn LA CES continuing education credits.
Fellow Presentations
This cohort of LAF Fellows considers their work to be part of a collective with a singular message:
Transformational leadership by landscape architects could heal our post-traumatic world; but it will require kinship, redirection, communion, empowerment, multiplicities, and evolution.
Design in Kinship: Toward Relational Work Between Designers and Community Organizations
Debra Guenther, FASLA, Partner, Mithun, Seattle, Washington
Shaped by the wisdom of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) community leaders, Deb’s work builds momentum toward systemic ways to mainstream relational work in communities that have experienced disinvestment. Climate change, the pandemic, and the social justice movement create economic pathways for collectives of community organizations to be full partners in shaping the built environment. By working together to build relationships before, during, and after typical project timeframes, designers and community organizations can achieve transformational design.
Additional Information and Resources:
Mithun R+D: Design in Kinship
Cyclical Arrest: Exploring Landscape's Impact on Recidivism
Olivia Bussey, Landscape Designer, Curtis + Rogers Design Studio, Miami, Florida
Carceral landscapes and architecture have played their intended roles in a punitive and dehumanizing system functioning as designed. At a time that feels like a pivotal moment for reforms in social justice and human rights, the call for re-envisioning carceral environments has been a growing and ever-changing movement. While the timeline is still unclear, Olivia’s work helps to illuminate one way landscape can have a stake in transforming criminal justice.
Introducing Tierra Media Project: Making Space for Latine/x/a/o Voices in Search of New Definitions of Engagement with the Land
Linda Chamorro, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, Florida International University
Nine designers with roots in Latin America reflect on their relationship with each other and the land, informed by their collective identities and experience. Reckoning with centuries of trauma, displacement, and erasure, they envision a platform for healing, community, representation, and joy. This presentation is an invitation to rekindle stories of resilience, inspiration, and connection to imagine new futures for the field of landscape architecture.
Additional Information and Resources:
Tierra Media Project website
Roadsides and the Nature of Power in Landscape Architecture
Ellen Oettinger White, PhD Candidate, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Landscape architects once led teams of road designers to create highway landscapes across the nation. Though the power of these positions has diminished, highway agencies still employ hundreds of landscape architects nationwide. Ellen explored how landscape architects can still leverage these roles — and millions of acres of public roadsides — to address issues facing the profession and the greater global climate crisis.
Additional Information and Resources:
LAF Fellowship Spotlight: Roadsides and Power Theory in Landscape Architecture
New Stories for Diverse Designers: Evolving Narratives Within Landscape Architecture
Claire Napawan, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of California, Davis
Too often the stories told about landscape architecture focus exclusively on Western origins of the profession, excluding underrepresented and diverse communities that have been and continue to be impacted by its practice. Claire’s work to re-examine and expand these narratives reveals a more inclusive story of the profession, one that acknowledges an increasingly diverse audience.
Advancing the Science of Landscape Architecture: What Do We Know? How Do We Know It?
James LaGro Jr., PhD, PLA, Professor of Planning and Landscape Architecture, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Professions that shape the built environment are designing solutions to future sustainability challenges. With the goal of fostering innovation, this project examines potential synergies between practice-based research and evidence-based practice. The findings provide support for university-industry partnerships, intradisciplinary scholarship, and targeted reforms in professional education.
FULL Symposium
The 2022 LAF Innovation + Leadership Symposium can be viewed in its entirety. (Runtime 2:18:23)
Symposium Program
Welcome + Opening Remarks
Presentations: Debra Guenther, Olivia Bussey, Linda Chamorro
Moderated Audience Q&A
Presentations: Ellen Oettinger White, Claire Napawan, James LaGro Jr.
Moderated Audience Q&A
Closing Remarks
