While we are all excited for what the new year has in store, we would like to thank all the Professional Practice Network (PPN) leaders and members who, over the course of 2023 shared their experiences and expertise as:

• Authors for The Field blog
• Hosts, presenters, and engaged audience members for Online Learning webinars
• Hosts, presenters, and engaged audience members at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in Minneapolis

We hope that all who contributed to this shared body of knowledge have forged new connections and felt inspired by your peers in landscape architecture.

Want to be more engaged with your PPN this year?

If the 2023 highlights below spark your interest, and you want to help make future virtual events, conference gatherings, and blog posts happen, then PPN leadership is a great way to stay connected with your PPN all throughout the new year. PPN activities are much more feasible (and fun!) to organize when there are a few PPN volunteers lending a helping hand to make things happen.

Appointments are for one year, and all ASLA members are welcome to volunteer. Most leadership teams meet once a month via Zoom during regular working hours. Come nerd out with like-minded professionals about your practice area niche!

Volunteer as a PPN leader >

Below, we showcase the top five Field posts and the year’s PPN webinars. For the full recap, please see the complete PPNs’ 2023 in Review on the ASLA website.

Year in Review: The Field

Lanark Way bioretention, Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Environmental Protection retrofit. Aromatic aster blooming. / Reproduced with permission from Montgomery County, MD Department of Environmental Protection

Contributions to The Field, ASLA’s PPN blog, are by members and for members, and we encourage all ASLA members with an idea or an experience to share to write for The Field. Fresh content appears weekly, and 88 posts were published in 2023 from 59 authors.

Here are The Field’s five most-read posts published in 2023:

1. Performance-Based Plant Selection: Developing a Bioretention Plant Selection Tool
by Jeremy Person, PLA, ASLA, with co-authors Ann English, PLA, ASLA, Ted Shriro, Andy Szatko, John Watson, and Jim Cooper, ASLA
Ecology & Restoration PPN

2. Viewshed Analysis for Visual Impact Assessment
by Liia Koiv-Haus, ASLA, AICP
Landscape—Land Use Planning PPN

3. Restoring a Neglected Urban Creek
by Susan Kenzle, ASLA
Ecology & Restoration PPN

4. Lessons from the University of California Plant Trials
by Jodie Cook, ASLA, SITES AP
Planting Design PPN

5. Preserving Urban Tree Canopies
by Veronica Westendorff, RLA, ASLA
Sustainable Design & Development PPN

Explore the full top 10 from The Field >

Year in Review: Online Learning

Courtesy of Benjamin George, ASLA, PhD

ASLA offers live and on-demand Online Learning webinars, many of which are hosted by the PPNs on a topic of special relevance to their members. There were 16 PPN webinars and virtual events in 2023, with 1,699 live event registrants and 860 live event participants. 785 PDH were earned through the seven PPN webinars that offered LA CES-approved professional development.

Here are the 2023 PPN-hosted webinars with recordings available:

Collaborative Conservation in Energy and Transportation and the Race to Save the Monarch – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Hosted by the Transportation PPN
Presented by Caroline Hernandez

Winning Outdoor Kitchen Design – Building Sophisticated Spaces That Work – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)
Hosted by the Design-Build and Residential Landscape Architecture PPNs
Presented by Russ Faulk

Empowerment in the Playground: Planning for Inclusive Interaction and Barrier Elimination for Children with Down Syndrome – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Hosted by the Children’s Outdoor Environments PPN
Presented by Jolean London

Biophilic Design for Healthy Childhood Development – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Hosted by the Children’s Outdoor Environments PPN
Presented by Robin Moore, Dipl Arch, MCP, Hon. ASLA, and Nilda Cosco, PhD, ASLA

Flexibility for Solutions-Driven Creative Offices – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)
Hosted by the Women in Landscape Architecture PPN
Presented by Beth Claseman, Diane Jones Allen, FASLA, Om Khurjekar, ASLA, and Wanqin Su, ASLA

Utilizing AI-Generated Image Assets in Visualization and Branding
Hosted by the Digital Technology PPN
Presented by Benjamin George, ASLA, PhD, and Phillip Fernberg, ASLA

Compost Standards and the Basics of Specification – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Hosted by the Ecology & Restoration PPN
Presented by Ron Alexander, Affiliate ASLA, Charles D. Duprey, Corporate ASLA, and Matt Ball, CCOM™

Geodesign—Integrating Technology into Trail Planning and Community Engagement – 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Hosted by the Transportation PPN
Presented by Allysha Lorber, ASLA, AICP

See the full list of 2023’s virtual PPN events >

ASLA’s Professional Practice team wishes you a happy new year, and looks forward to continuing our work together—here’s to a successful and productive 2024!