Honors & Awards

ASLA Elevates 35 Members to the Council of Fellows

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has elevated 35 members as ASLA Fellows for their exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large. Election to the ASLA Council of Fellows is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members and is based on their works, leadership/management, knowledge, and service.

ASLA Fellows will be elevated during a special investiture ceremony at the 2021 Conference on Landscape Architecture. Learn more about the 2021 Class of Fellows, as well as all previous ASLA Fellows.

David Barth, ASLA
Barth Associates, Gainesville, FL

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Florida Chapter

For more than forty years, David Barth’s career in landscape architecture has blended extensive practice experience, scholarly research, and lectures and publications to earn him a place as a nationally recognized expert in parks and recreation system planning. His planning methodology for parks and recreation systems emphasizes a broader public realm-based approach to communitywide sustainability and resiliency, and he has led or collaborated on nearly 100 parks and recreation system master plans. David originated the concept of “High-Performance Public Space (HPPS)”—any publicly accessible space that generates economic, environmental, and social sustainability benefits for the local community. HPPS is breaking down boundaries between the disciplines and helping identify factors that lead to innovative planning and design of public spaces. David continually shares his new knowledge generated from both practice and research through publications, lectures, and teaching, perhaps best exemplified in his recent book Parks and Recreation System Planning: A New Approach for Creating Sustainable, Resilient Communities, recognized by ASLA as one of the Best Books of 2020. In 2015, after more than 35 years in practice, he earned his PhD in design, construction, and planning in order to further integrate his research-based knowledge into his practice and the profession.

Juan Antonio Bueno, ASLA
Florida International University, Miami

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Florida Chapter

Juan Bueno has consistently demonstrated excellence and conviction in his academic and administrative leadership roles to advance landscape architecture education. His impact at Florida International University is wide ranging and long term. As coordinator and director of the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture, he revised the entire program core curriculum (which has endured through decades) in preparation for professional accreditation. Juan also guided its initial accreditation—the first of any professional program at FIU—in record time and without any reservations. He was instrumental in the creation of the School of Architecture, which integrated programs in architecture, interior architecture, and landscape architecture, and served as dean where he focused on its interdisciplinary curriculum and established professional, pre-professional, and post-professional degree programs in those disciplines. During the financial crisis of 2008, his financial reorganization saved the School of Architecture and the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture from threatened closure. He also assembled the most diverse faculty at the university. Over more than three decades, his program has won over 100 regional and national awards from ASLA, the American Institute of Architects, and the American Planning Association. His service to the university, the students, and the profession is unparalleled and extensive.

Catherine Clark, ASLA
Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group, Indianapolis

Nomination in Service by the Indiana Chapter

For more than 18 years, Catherine Clark has served the profession, at both the state and national levels, with creativity, consistency, and passion. During her twelve years in various leadership roles at Indiana ASLA (notably its only two-term chapter president), Catherine worked tirelessly to navigate an economic crisis, dwindling participation, and functional shortcomings. Her leadership to retool the chapter left it the strongest it has been in decades, with a savvy communication strategy, excellent fiscal policies, increased student involvement, a more influential lobbying presence at the state legislature, and a steady stream of new volunteers, excited to move the profession forward. Her social media and communications know-how turned Indiana ASLA into a model for other chapters. She also created a Scholarship Committee, the first formal effort to support students at the state’s two landscape architecture programs. Catherine served ASLA at the national level in various capacities. As chair of the Chapter Presidents Council (CPC), she provided guidance and a template for success to chapters needing real-world-tested solutions to a broad array of issues—from organizational structure and strategic planning to finances and scholarships. In her practice, she strives to find and celebrate the area’s assets, including those people, places, and organizations that make the community unique.

Claude Cormier, ASLA
Claude Cormier et Associés, Montreal

Nomination in Works by the Council of Fellows Executive Committee

Claude Cormier’s work challenges ordinary perceptions of the world, opening eyes to new possibilities and generating an appetite for the extraordinary, productive landscapes that are inspired and fresh. Working in tandem with teams of other urban design professionals, Claude has demonstrated an innovative, imaginative capacity for problem solving. He approaches each obstacle as a challenge, each new constraint as a stimulus for fresh creativity. For him, landscapes are vibrant, three-dimensional spaces deeply rooted in history and culture and duty-bound to the surrounding community. Among the firm’s award-winning projects (more than 100 awards total) are: Sugar Beach, Toronto, the second urban beach built into the amber necklace of Toronto’s lakefront beachscape; 18 Shades of Gay, Montreal, a one-kilometer long chromatic ribbon made of 180,000 recycled plastic balls suspended above the Gay Village of Montreal; and Square Dorchester, Montreal, a restoration of the original union jack layout of the Victorian public square, enhancing connectivity and removing incompatible uses to revive the grandeur of this classic oasis. Cormier’s work is reputed for its visceral playfulness, spark of surprise, and shameless embrace of joy and delight. At the same time, it is grounded and endures for its technical rigor, environmental sensibility, and social sensitivity.

Ralph J. D’Amato, Jr., ASLA
Department of Veteran Affairs National Cemeteries (retired), Rockville, MD

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Potomac Chapter

For almost sixty years, Ralph D’Amato has focused on cemetery master planning, detailed grave layout, landscape architecture, and engineering for the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemeteries and for private and religious cemeteries throughout the country. His career was unparalleled as a management and design influencer and innovator in the national and private-sector advancement of cemetery planning, design, and construction. In 1973 Ralph changed the equation significantly by convincing VA leadership to have landscape architects as the prime contractors on large cemetery design projects and to be included in and have a strong say in every cemetery design team where smaller site work was involved. Ralph also persuaded the VA leadership to take up several major technological improvements which were more economical in their land use; to permit the organization of memorial sites and concentration of remembrance and related facilities; to adopt the use of vaults for placement of caskets; and to pioneer the use of treated wastewater effluent for irrigation (in 1998), at the time a very unusual practice. He continues to advance landscape architecture by leading interdisciplinary project teams, while generously mentoring emerging professionals on cemetery planning and design, as he has done throughout his long and distinguished career.

Lauren Griffith, ASLA
Lauren Griffith Associates, Houston

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Texas Chapter

A perceptive and intuitive designer, Lauren Griffith has helped create many meaningful, enduring public spaces over the last four decades, conceiving innovative program and design features and building on lessons learned from collaborating with talented professionals. Her work has played a significant role in the revitalization of downtown Houston, contributing to its metamorphosis from a weekly commerce center, desolate after hours and on weekends, to an active destination with vibrant, award-winning open spaces. Lauren’s transformational touch can be seen at Sesquicentennial Park, Discovery Green, Market Square Park, and the Barbara Bush Literacy Plaza, among others, many of them quickly becoming beloved landmarks. As chair of the ASLA Houston-Gulf Coast Section in 1983, Lauren was instrumental in organizing pro bono efforts among local landscape architects to launch the SPARK School Park program, an innovative park equity program that combines public and private funds to develop parks on school grounds that are open to the public when school is not in session. Lauren has worked on 36 SPARK Parks in racially diverse neighborhoods throughout Houston, many of them in underserved communities. Her body of work exemplifies the leading role that landscape architecture can play in creating equitable, livable, economically viable, and appealing communities.

Jonathon Geels, ASLA
Troyer Group, South Bend, IN

Nomination in Service by the Indiana Chapter

Jonathon Geels’s leadership and volunteer work have served as a catalyst for landscape architects everywhere, creating opportunities to engage, grow, and adapt to emergent paradigms. His government affairs advocacy and his work with other chapters (particularly in leadership training and licensure advocacy) have expanded the reach of landscape architecture policy initiatives by empowering dozens of other leaders. His work has also contributed to significant statutory wins, such as the Great American Outdoors Act. Jonathon has performed exceptional neighborhood, local, state, and national service—each endeavor complementing his approach to professional practice, which prioritizes people and their experiences, and providing new paths to connect to landscape architecture, especially for under-represented groups. Over the last decade and a half, he has volunteered service to nearly 50 organizations, contributing to dozens of projects and initiatives that represent thousands of hours of pro bono work. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jonathon founded Field Day Camp, a virtual landscape architecture and empathetic design camp to combat the negative effects of social distancing on school-aged children and introduce them to an unfamiliar profession, while also supporting parents working from home. It received national attention and earned a 2020 Merit Award from INASLA in Communications, one of multiple awards Jonathon has received from ASLA, the Garden Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and others.

Shauna Gillies-Smith, ASLA
Ground, Inc., Somerville, MA

Nomination in Works by the Boston Chapter

Over the past 25 years, Shauna Gillies-Smith’s notable body of work balances innovative design, elegant detailing, and clever problem solving to create evocative and welcoming urban spaces. Working across project types and almost exclusively in the public realm, Shauna’s landscapes are grounded in an ethos of social responsibility and her ability to apply expressive form and materiality in ways that are original and inspiring, yet pragmatic and timeless. As a teacher for over two decades, a frequent speaker at national conferences, and in leadership roles such as chairing the Urban Design Committee of the Boston Society of Architects, Shauna has demonstrated a multi-faceted approach to promoting landscape architecture. Since Ground was launched in 2007, the firm has won design awards every year since 2009. Among its award-winning projects are: Tree House Residence Hall, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston—a gathering area embracing bold artistic expression that fosters intimacy; Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex (CLIC), Tufts University, Medford, MA—outdoor breakout spaces showcasing resilient strategies in an artful and functional way; and MassArt Design & Media Center (DMC)/MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), Boston—a pixelated entry garden and a painterly planting strategy of yellow and purple flowering ribbons. Through her unique command of design and cross- disciplinary advocacy, Shauna has become a recognized national voice in landscape architecture with a distinctive body of dynamic and elegantly detailed public landscapes.

Jay Hicks, ASLA
Dig Studio, Inc., Phoenix

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Arizona Chapter

For over 36 years, through community leadership, volunteerism, and consultant roles, Jay Hicks has led and managed regionwide environmental and recreational planning and design efforts that have resulted in sweeping changes and positive benefits to the physical infrastructure and recreational assets of the greater Phoenix area and the State of Arizona. Among Jay’s accomplishments are state policies that enabled recreational use of over 200 miles of water canal banks, creation of recreational corridor district legislation for the transformation and revitalization of over 42 miles of mined riverways, and development of recreational and growth framework plans for rapidly growing cities and counties throughout Arizona. Jay leads local business initiatives to promote community revitalization, currently serving on the Board of the Phoenix Community Alliance where he established and chaired the McDowell Road Corridor Revitalization Committee. In 2009, as a member of the Founding Board, Jay helped establish the Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) as an executive graduate program within the School of Design at Arizona State University. Jay has consistently dedicated time to educating and mentoring students, fundraising and privately funding scholarships, working with graduate students, and leading Eagle Scout candidates in community service projects, all the while managing and expanding his firm, Dig Studio, Inc. His generosity has positively contributed to the lives of many.

Christina E. Hite, ASLA
Dix.Hite + Partners, Longwood, FL

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Florida Chapter

A practicing landscape architect with over 30 years of experience in site planning and landscape architecture, Christina Hite is devoted to inclusion and diversity. Her highly effective leadership has advanced the impact of landscape architecture in a unique way. After the terrorist attack on Pulse Nightclub in Central Florida, Chris got involved in developing the vision and design for a memorial and museum on the site of the attack. Her firm, Dix.Hite, donated all professional services to the Interim Memorial, nearly 1,000 hours, and Chris stepped up to be Co-Chair of the Design and Construction Committee for the onePULSE Foundation. Dix.Hite recently joined the OUTSIDE sustainable landscape collaborative, with a goal to shift the state’s landscape paradigm toward a future that incorporates research, policy, culture, and industry to position landscapes as a vital solution to the health and viability of Florida’s natural resources. Chris and her firm were introducing native palettes and plants and championing low-impact development strategies long before it was commonplace. Her thought leadership has propelled the development of a thriving women-led firm and clients of global significance, and she has used her platform to inspire the next generation of landscape architects and engage the highest levels of the profession and academia.

Scott L. Howard, ASLA
Howard-Fairbairn Site Design, Inc., Oklahoma City

Nomination in Service by the Oklahoma Chapter

Scott Howard is a committed and trusted landscape architect, an advocate for students, a community builder, and a dedicated champion of the advancement of the profession. His extraordinary record of serving his state ASLA chapter for more than thirty years includes serving as member-at-large, president-elect, president, co-chairman for 2010 Central States Conference, project facilitator for the Bicentennial Park charrette, sponsorship chairman, and national trustee. In addition to volunteering at Oklahoma State University in many capacities—speaker, juror, mentor—he has provided summer internships to over twenty students during his 35 years of practice. His dedication to improving his community has taken many forms. He served as a board member for OKC Beautiful, as vice-chairman of the Oklahoma City Arts Commission, and chair of the Oklahoma Riverfront Design Committee. In addition to his firm earning multiple design awards for projects, he himself has been the recipient of several service awards—from Oklahoma State University, the state ASLA chapter, and the Mayor of Oklahoma City. Scott’s impact on his hometown has been far-reaching, but Project 180 remains among the most influential. This 180-acre redevelopment of street improvements in downtown Oklahoma City has been at the core of the sweeping downtown revitalization.

Brenda J. Iraola, ASLA
Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Riverdale, MD

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Maryland Chapter

Brenda Iraola is an empathetic leader who inspires people to improve equity of outdoor public spaces and create innovative county policies that influence regional and national standards. She is a dynamic public advocate as evidenced in her work of three decades with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), where she manages the Capital Improvement Program work for landscape architecture projects within the regional district park system, overseeing a $200 million annual budget and $68 million in State Program Open Space funding. Rooted in her outdoor passion, Brenda leads through innovation, changing project status quo, and delivering unique award-winning parks that exceed expectations and contribute to smart growth. Throughout her career, she received 40 awards at regional and national levels from peers and public officials for her leadership initiatives implementing regional transit policy planning, national historic park educational site design, and improving social equity for underserved communities. Brenda is responsible for many “first of its kind” projects: Forest Conservation Taskforce, ADA Taskforce, Transit Oriented Development Planning, Imagination Playgrounds (156 playgrounds transformed to encourage physical activity as well as active imagination), Oz Literacy-based Playground (bringing storytelling to life through education, literacy, art, and musical play), Transforming Neighborhood Initiative, Dowden’s Ordinary Historic Park, and Maryland Dinosaur Park.

Elizabeth J. Kennedy, ASLA
Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect, PLLC, New York City

Nomination in Leadership by the New York Chapter

Elizabeth Kennedy is an inspirational leader who elevates the profession of landscape architecture by challenging mainstream assumptions and uplifting underrepresented voices. Elizabeth founded and serves as working principal for the longest-operating Black woman-owned landscape architecture firm in the United States, a testament of time and thoughtful dedication in every nuanced detail of her work. She is a creator of quietly evocative landscapes that through form raise the spirit of place and set the stage for future interactions that are inviting and accessible to all. Her interactive and collaborative approach is lasting in her design achievements and her mentorship of the next generation. Among Elizabeth’s award-winning projects are: the Weeksville Heritage Center and Restoration of the Hunterfly Road Houses Landscape, Brooklyn; the African Burial Ground National Monument, Lower Manhattan; Harlem Stage at the Gatehouse Theatre, New York; and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Building 3 Roof Farm, Brooklyn. Elizabeth’s story has inspired a younger generation of BIPOC and women creative professionals, drawing admiration for the way she has leveraged minority- and woman-owned business opportunities to advocate for social change and lend her voice to the allied professions. Her commitment to training and preparing young professionals for practice—particularly young professionals of color—is unmatched.

SuLin Kotowicz, ASLA
VIRIDIS Design Group, Grand Rapids, MI

Nomination in Service by the Michigan Chapter

SuLin Kotowicz’s dedication to the profession of landscape architecture and ASLA expresses the core values of service, while weaving advocacy, mentorship, and volunteerism throughout her personal and professional life in a joyful and inclusive manner. She is a tireless advocate for women in the profession and is committed to supporting students while elevating and empowering women of color into leadership positions. Nationally, she has served on the ASLA finance and investments committees and the executive committee, and as a juror and a speaker. Drawing on her acumen for finance, she also instructed hundreds of landscape architecture business owners on tools for managing finances. Recognizing her many varied contributions, ASLA chose SuLin to be a candidate for the 2021 President-Elect. At the state level, she advocated successfully for a Practice Act and later helped stop an effort to deregulate landscape architecture. Her effective advocacy earned her the Michigan Chapter 2008 Emerging Professional of the Year award and the 2016 Distinguished Member of the Year. In practice, SuLin has been a staunch advocate for mobility and alternative transportation, and she designed and constructed Grand Rapids’s first universally accessible playground. She has been an integral part of the city’s 21st century mobility strategy and development of streetspace guidelines. SuLin’s exceptional vision and momentum for the profession and ASLA continue to inspire and empower the next generation of landscape architects.

Ron Koudys, ASLA
Ron Koudys Landscape Architects Inc., London, Ontario
Fanshawe College (retired), London, Ontario

Nomination in Service by the Council of Fellows Executive Committee

Over a career spanning 43 years, Ron Koudys has promoted landscape architecture through teaching, industry engagement, lectures, publications, volunteer work, and mentoring. He believes that effective teachers must be actively engaged in the advancement of the profession and the health of the community. That belief has resulted in a unique blend of a nationally recognized academic and a highly decorated practitioner. In addition to his full-time teaching and his pro bono work enhancing the quality of the program, Ron involved his students in a variety of projects for groups that would not normally be able to procure landscape designers. At Habitat for Humanity, for example, Ron and his team of students designed and installed 14 of the first Habitat Homes in London. His work on behalf of Fanshawe College earned him the President’s Award in 2008. Ron has given selflessly of his time and talent to a wide range of initiatives—from Grand Theatre to Landscape Canada to the Sustainable Development Council of Canada, to name a few. At home, he was the founding director of ReForest London and the founder of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects, London Chapter. Ron’s exceptional contributions were deservedly recognized by the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects in 2018 with his election to the College of Fellows.

Eric Kramer, ASLA
Reed Hilderbrand, Cambridge, MA

Nomination in Works by the Boston Chapter

Eric Kramer’s projects prove that meaningful work happens when ideas, words, and expressive details align. Through two decades of building consequential landscapes across the United States, he has established a design process that blends clear communication and active engagement with diverse voices. As a partner and studio co-head at Reed Hilderbrand, Eric is also a leader and mentor, inspiring teams to apply the same passion, inquisitiveness, and ethical stances that he does. His ideas-driven approach is well suited to ensuring coherence across large teams and increasingly complex projects. Among his significant and award-wining projects are: Central Wharf Plaza, Boston; The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA; Duke Student Life Precinct, Durham, NC; The Alamo, San Antonio; and Pier 4, Boston. Eric served as editor for Reed Hilderbrand’s 2012 monograph, Visible Invisible: Landscape Works of Reed Hilderbrand, which received ASLA’s Award of Excellence for Communication. He is a former member of the ASLA Annual Meeting Educational Advisory Committee and the LAM Editorial Advisory Committee and a frequent speaker at national conferences. His influence on places of cultural importance, as well as next generations of landscape architects, is grounded in an unbending commitment to social equity and a rare ability to respond to clients’ wishes while also successfully advocating for innovative design solutions.

Jamie Maslyn Larson, ASLA
Lionheart Places, Arizona

Nomination in Works by the New York Chapter

Jamie Maslyn Larson has devoted her career to demonstrating the transformative power of landscape architecture in shaping cities. With over two decades of influential design roles on complex landscape architectural and master planning projects of various scales around the world, Jamie’s work is globally recognized, is widely published, and has garnered multiple national and state design awards. Her commitment to creating the most innovative, groundbreaking design ideas that tackle today’s critical challenging issues is apparent in her portfolio of work, ranging from designing small urban parks to vision plans that will shape entire cities for decades. Among her most acclaimed efforts are: BQP Brooklyn, NY—a pro-bono project to repurpose outmoded Brooklyn-Queens Expressway into a public park; Governors Island Park and Public Space Project, New York City—thoughtful and innovative designs create a 21st Century precedent for a destination park; Soundscape Park, Miami Beach—a 2.5-acre urban oasis in the cultural and civic heart of Miami Beach adjacent to the New World Center; and Longwood Gardens Master Plan and Main Fountain Garden Revitalization Project, Kennett Square, PA—an adroit balance of history and modernizations. Jamie not only envisions groundbreaking, innovative designs, but has the leadership and political skills to get them built.

Steven E. Lefton, ASLA
Kimley-Horn, Reston, VA

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Potomac Chapter

For more than 26 years, Steven Lefton has broadened the role of landscape architects in design and leadership for the betterment of communities across the country. In his 23 years at Kimley-Horn, he progressed from a staff landscape architect to president and CEO of the eighth largest pure design firm in the United States, the only landscape architect in the country to lead a nationally prominent, nationally scaled, multidisciplinary design firm. Steve also began a Lasting Impact for Tomorrow (LIFT) program at Kimley-Horn to focus on recruiting, developing, and retaining women through targeted efforts such as family-friendly benefits. LIFT has garnered accolades for Kimley-Horn as being a great place to work for women by WTS, Fortune, and CREW. Steve has demonstrated his dedication to the profession by creating and funding an internship scholarship, funding lectures and student travel, and developing and co-chairing fundraising campaigns to help prepare students for successful careers in practice. His volunteerism and philanthropic commitment to the Florida and Potomac Chapters of ASLA has resulted in his twice receiving the Service Award from the Florida Chapter. In 2011, he served as the Potomac Chapter President where he was instrumental in staving off an effort by the Commonwealth of Virginia to challenge licensure for landscape architects.

Ron Lutsko, ASLA
Lutsko Associates Landscape, San Francisco

Nomination in Works by the Northern California Chapter

Ron Lutsko is a trailblazer in the West Coast landscape architecture community, where his passion for sustainable horticulture and the agrarian landscapes of California is evident in the many ecologically minded and beautifully detailed outdoor spaces he has designed since he began his practice 40 years ago. Ron’s work is a powerful inspiration to others through its unique synthesis of elegant aesthetics, exquisite craft, and painterly use of native and drought tolerant plant materials. An abiding respect for ecological systems, sustainability, and the agency of conceptual art supports his firm’s integrative design philosophy as evidenced in their residential, commercial, civic, and institutional landscape designs around the world. Among the firm’s award-winning projects are: Kua Bay Residence, Kua Bay, HI—a residence on Hawaii’s dry, volcanic Kona shore with indoor-outdoor living spaces that trace a landscape from mountain to ocean; UC Davis Arboretum GATEway Garden, Davis, CA—a public garden that combines natural beauty and contemporary design and provides an immersive experience of the lost landscapes of the Central Valley; and Law Winery, Paso Robles, CA—the landscape successfully marries contemporary architecture to its natural locale on a hilltop above the Salinas Valley. Ron’s forward-thinking interests in agriculture, land restoration, public spaces, and private gardens have influenced a generation of California landscape architects.

Baxter E. Miller, ASLA
BMLA, Inc., Corona, CA

Nomination in Service by the Southern California Chapter

Over his forty plus years in the profession—thirty-three years leading his own successful firm—Baxter Miller has been an invaluable advocate for landscape architecture. He has served on the board of sixteen organizations, stepping up as chair or president on ten of those. His energetic volunteerism, leadership, and extensive pro bono work in a wide scope of professional and community related organizations have provided a profoundly beneficial and lasting impact to the profession and the communities he serves. Baxter is extensively involved in ASLA at the national, state, and local levels, having served on the ASLA National Membership team, ASLA National Nominating Committee, the California Council of ASLA, and as President of the Southern California Chapter multiple times. He is an advocate for a better environmental approach to recreation and open space through his leadership on commissions, foundations, and district boards. He serves on the Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation Board and the Riverside National Cemetery Monuments and Memorials Committee, where his work resulted in the establishment of a Monuments and Memorials Commission in 2009 for the design and development of additional memorials and monuments to pay tribute to veterans. Baxter’s engagement extends to the landscape architecture advisory bodies at California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and in Pomona.

Dennis R. Nola, ASLA
University of Maryland, College Park

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the ASLA Executive Committee

An unbroken thread of leadership, service, and mentoring, while advancing the profession of landscape architecture, runs through Dennis Nola’s career. His generous volunteerism at every level has become a model for how to leverage leadership, professional services, academic learning, and professional expertise for the maximum benefit of underserved communities, working on projects throughout the United States and abroad. Dennis has been recognized for his leadership, service, and extensive knowledge through the awards and honors he has received, the numerous boards he has served on, and through the accomplishments of his students. His pro bono work with the Central Kenilworth Avenue Revitalization Community Development Corporation, in particular, has made a great impact in that ethnically balanced working class community outside of Washington, DC. With his service-minded curricula, he motivates students’ passions regarding the pressing issues of the day as well as providing the robust theoretical and historical backgrounds of the field. At ASLA, he served as a member and then chair of the policy committee, as vice president of membership, and on the executive committee. At the Maryland Chapter he served as member at large, president-elect, president, and trustee. In every capacity, he is always forward-thinking and influential, and with his calm voice and reasoned thinking, can provide positive direction to the most challenging issues.

Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, ASLA
City College of New York, New York City

Nomination in Knowledge by the New York Chapter

Catherine Seavitt Nordenson is widely recognized for her advocacy for expanding the influence and scope of the profession through education, research, and scholarship. Her research on design adaptation to sea level rise in urban coastal environments, as well as novel landscape restoration practices, has made a significant impact on the design fields. Structures of Coastal Resilience and Waterproofing New York are examples of her focus on hydrological networks and her development of a cohort of diverse scholars, crossing boundaries between landscape, engineering, architecture, and urban design. Catherine’s focus in both her teaching and practice is on the transdisciplinary integration of public space, policy, and the design of infrastructure. Her many books, essays, and journal publications present her brilliant explorations of political power, environmental activism, and public health, particularly as these intersect with the design of equitable public space. Catherine’s research and publications on coastal resilience have had significant influence on municipal, state, and federal policy makers. As professor and director of the graduate program in landscape architecture at CCNY, she serves as the founding faculty editor of the annual landscape architecture journal PLOT, a nationally awarded journal now in its tenth year of publication. She emphasizes the critical role that landscape architects play in connecting environmental, social, and multispecies justice to equitable public space and celebrates the program’s visionary and activist graduate students.

John Norris, ASLA
Norris Design, Denver

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Colorado Chapter

As president and CEO, John Norris has led Norris Design for 36 years to become one of the largest and most influential award-winning firms in the country. While managing a growing firm, he has found time to give back to his community, alma mater, and profession, investing countless hours volunteering, mentoring, and teaching tomorrow’s leaders. John’s ongoing involvement with his alma mater, Kansas State University, including fourteen years on the Dean’s Advisory Council, has had a long-lasting impact on the education of generations of landscape architects. His leadership of the ACE Mentor Program of Colorado has introduced more than 1,000 high school students to the design and construction professions, promoting landscape architecture as a leading profession. John influenced landscape architecture in the West by pioneering and implementing strategies that aligned with the region’s climate. He recognized the critical need to address water conservation and protection of native landscapes in rapidly growing areas well before they became best practices in the region. Seeing a need in the marketplace, John led the design and development of software (“GeoLens”) that could track and manage land-based assets in an easy-to-use map-based GIS format. John’s natural curiosity, extraordinary energy and enthusiasm, and his body of work have changed the perception of what a landscape architect can accomplish.

Sean Rotar, ASLA
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Nomination in Service by the Indiana Chapter

Serving others is the motivating force behind almost everything Sean Rotar does. His dedication on behalf of the profession over the past twenty years has resulted in four service awards from ASLA state chapters as well as one from Ball State University. In his nine years serving on four national ASLA committees—three of those years as chair of two committees—and the Chapter Presidents Council, he has improved organizational structures, enhanced volunteerism, increased the inclusion and involvement of student members, and promoted understanding of the importance of STEM designation for landscape architecture. Locally, in Lafayette, Indiana, over the past six years, he has freely offered his expertise and hands-on assistance to improving neighborhoods and to helping local boy and girl scouts and school children develop a greater appreciation for nature and landscape architecture. At both local and state levels, Sean has been a leader and advocate for historic preservation, whether as trustee of Frank Lloyd Wright's Samara or by educating others about the importance of historic landscapes through the Indiana Landmarks Foundation. During Sean’s thirteen years as a faculty member at Ball State University and Purdue University—serving as chair of the landscape architecture program at Purdue since 2017—he has developed an expansive repertoire from which hundreds of landscape architecture students have benefited. His five-time recognition as Outstanding Teacher at Purdue and his 2018 Excellence in Teaching Award from CELA attest to his wise, dynamic mentorship of students, many of whom cite Sean's service as inspiration for their own.

Thomas Schurch, ASLA
Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Nomination in Knowledge by the South Carolina Chapter

Thomas Schurch has demonstrated exceptional knowledge-based leadership and significant cross-disciplinary discourse between practice and theory for more than forty years. Long devoted to advancing landscape architecture and urban design, he has made significant contributions through teaching, research, writing, and community-based learning techniques that have benefited both students and communities. After some years in practice, he joined academia. At the University of Oklahoma, as the director of the division of landscape architecture, he was responsible for the program achieving its first full accreditation and for the creation of the Center for Community Based Projects to organize community workshops and advance community service learning. He continues his engagement with underserved communities and presents community-based design studios at Clemson University, where he was appointed chair of the department of planning and landscape architecture. At Clemson, he led the curriculum development effort for the new cross-disciplinary post-professional degree, Master of Resilient Urban Design. An ASLA member of long standing, he served as co-chair of the ASLA Urban Design PPN. He has contributed to that effort through continued engagement, creation of online learning resources, and importantly, the implementation of a new Urban Design Category for the ASLA Awards program. His many writings on subjects such as urban design, sustainability, and climate change have been lauded by his peers and the public.

Allan W. Shearer, ASLA
University of Texas, Austin

Nomination in Knowledge by the Texas Chapter

Through research, extensive publications, education, and community leadership, Allan Shearer has strengthened the profession’s understanding of the intertwined complexity of multiple factors: climate change, natural resources depletion and degradation, urbanization, technological and economic disruption, and security. Allan’s research centers on how individuals, communities, and societies create scenarios of the future and how they inform present-day decisions. His work on security and understanding uncertainties that may lead to national, environmental, or human security problems has been cited and embraced by the NATO Urbanization Project. As an educator, he broadens the discipline of landscape architecture by developing teaching methods that enable students to structure complex problems through innovative design thinking using “abduction to argument.” Shearer was recognized by the Design Futures Council as one of the "30 Most Influential Educators," received a citation for Excellence in Research and Creative Works from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, and earned a Teaching Excellence award from the University of Texas, where he has taught since 2009. And, as Co-Director and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) and as Associate Dean for Research and Technology, he has helped elected officials, government staff, and stakeholders learn how the theories, methods, and practices of landscape architecture contribute to sustainable place-making.

Charles R. Smith, Jr., ASLA
Preston Development Company, Cary, NC

Nomination in Service by the North Carolina Chapter

Charles “Chuck” Smith is a creative, thoughtful, and principled leader who has dedicated his career to supporting and promoting the profession at the national, state, and local levels. With more than a decade of senior leadership at the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB), where he is currently President, he and other leaders worked to change the public’s perception of the profession as well as advancing its standing nationally among the other licensed professions. His four decades of service and leadership in the state ASLA chapter have helped make it an example for other chapters nationwide. Chuck’s strategic efforts were instrumental in the state upgrading the licensing law from a title act to a practice act. He represented the profession for 12 years on the North Carolina Board of Landscape Architects as an appointee by three different governors, where he held multiple offices and co-authored the Bylaws, the Code of Professional Conduct for landscape architects licensed in the state, and Board rule revisions. Chuck’s work designing greenways, parks, and other public spaces as well as his exemplary stewardship overseeing the development of more than 15,000 acres of large master-planned communities reflect his value-driven leadership, all while devoting time and energy to local issues and projects in his community.

Glenn LaRue Smith, ASLA
PUSH studio, LLC, Washington, DC

Nomination in Knowledge by the Potomac Chapter

For four decades, Glenn LaRue Smith has advanced design knowledge and social equity work in the public, private, and academic realms and in projects in underserved urban communities. His deep commitment to environmental and social justice has been a consistent hallmark of his career and sustained his work in communities of color and the mentorship of a generation of Black landscape architects. In 2012, Glenn established the Black Landscape Architect’s Network (BlackLAN) to help the small community of Black landscape architecture students and professionals network around common issues. Since 2018 BlackLAN has been collaborating with ASLA and other allied professional groups and is now incorporated as a nonprofit service organization. This work earned him the 2020 ASLA Outstanding Service Award. Glenn has also been a significant leader as director and chair of graduate landscape architecture programs at the only two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) housing MLA programs: Florida A & M University (program now closed) and Morgan State University. Glenn has also developed a design process that reveals the uniqueness of each site and social context and embodies the concepts of spontaneity and symbolism. He has long explored conceptual thinking through the lens of art, crafting a unique process of design thinking and teaching, centering around the idea of landscapes as art settings that elevate the human experience.

Daniel A. Tal, ASLA
DHM Design, Denver

Nomination in Knowledge by the Colorado Chapter

Daniel Tal has transformed the practice of landscape architecture by successfully developing, disseminating, and teaching 3D modeling methods, strategic drone use, and software development. He introduced a work approach that integrates SketchUp 3D site modeling into day-to-day practice. His method considers and addresses budgetary constraints, staff training, and working with existing software to streamline the modeling process. Daniel also encouraged and demonstrated the effectiveness of Lumion and similar rendering programs for the profession. He has shared his specialized knowledge through books, videos, tutorials, presentations, and software for more than 15 years. Daniel has served on ASLA education committees, developed 3D studios at firms, and most significantly, sold over 20,000 copies of highly reviewed books on digital methods for landscape architects. His first book, Google SketchUp for Site Design, now in its second edition, has been widely adopted by landscape architecture programs and professional firms. Daniel has completed 3D models and designs for master plans, pocket parks, ecological restoration, transit-oriented developments, National Park Service areas, departments of transportation, private client projects, and memorials in the Middle East, Asia, and throughout North America. Daniel’s work provides innovative ways to use technology to design and be better stewards of the land, while keeping pace with the speed of technological advancement.

Peter Frank Viteretto, ASLA
Heritage Landscapes LLC, Norwalk, CT

Nomination in Knowledge by the Connecticut Chapter

Peter Viteretto is a passionate and effective advocate for legacy public landscapes and is at the forefront of revitalizing our modernist landscape heritage. For over thirty years, he has run the Connecticut office of Heritage Landscapes and led the design and implementation efforts for all its built works, many of national significance. This ASLA 2019 Firm of the Year has accrued over ninety state and national awards. Peter’s extensive knowledge of landscape design history, his collaborative leadership, and his contagious enthusiasm have also been critical to that success. His scholarship, design sensitivity, and dedication to quality, functionality and economic vitality have won the respect of clients and peers. Among those award-winning projects are the Mellon Square restoration, Pittsburgh; Bath House, Day Camp and Community Green, Ewing, NJ, where he used Louis Kahn’s unrealized design for a central green; Jackson Park, Great Lakes and Fisheries Natural Areas Project and Framework Plan, Chicago, an Olmsted landscape and site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition; and U.S. Capitol Grounds, Cultural Landscape Reports, Washington, DC, balancing the cultural importance of the Olmsted landscapes with contemporary security and programming. In Peter’s long career he has demonstrated a mastery of melding the historical, social, environmental, aesthetic, and sustainable aspects of landscape architecture. His work exemplifies a quiet devotion toward uplifting public spaces, engaging diverse communities, and revitalizing our nation’s most treasured landscapes.

Andrew M. Witkin, ASLA
Witkin Hults + Partners, Hollywood, FL

Nomination in Service by the Florida Chapter

Andrew Witkin has worked tirelessly for over 30 years with a singular goal—to continually advance the profession of landscape architecture, primarily through working with universities and allied professional groups. He is the only landscape architect to be inducted into the Builders Association of South Florida (BASF) Hall of Fame for his leadership on educating hundreds within the building industry on the role and skill set of landscape architects. Andrew was one of the first professionals to raise and address the concern of sea level rise and the environmental impacts in South Florida and advocate for design solutions. For twelve years, Andrew served on the Biscayne Bay Shoreline Development Review Committee whose mission is to preserve the area’s natural, recreational, and aesthetic values. At Penn State he serves on the Philanthropic Council and designed and coordinated “Preparing for Professional Practice,” a program for Penn State students to experience landscape architecture practices in Pennsylvania. His commitment to his community includes pro bono services to assist abandoned children and homeless men and women through HIS House, the Lotus House, The Chapman Partnership, and Broward Outreach; to numerous houses of worship; and as a founding board member of the Woland Foundation, dedicated to helping the next generation of women in the arts.

Jeff Woods, ASLA
Parks and Recreation Department (retired), Aspen, CO

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Colorado Chapter

Throughout his 40-year career, Jeff Woods’s exemplary leadership and management and his commitment to native landscapes, as well as his astute design sense, have been responsible for the growth of city and regional open space systems in Colorado and beyond. Very early in his career, he was involved in designing one of the nation’s first tallgrass prairie parks where native ecosystems were restored and used to clean stormwater. At the Design Service Center of the National Park Service (NPS) in Denver, Jeff headed interdisciplinary design teams on large-scale projects, including the Zion Transportation System in which he pioneered first-ever partnerships among national, state, and local agencies and a gateway town. As Director of Projects for the City of Denver Parks, Jeff led a team to implement a large number of projects, successfully garnering public and political support for major efforts such as the restoration of the South Platte River and the design of Commons Park. When he joined the City of Aspen as Manager of Parks and Recreation, Jeff transformed the department, developing robust in-house design and construction capabilities, and taking collaboration and public engagement to unprecedented levels, realizing projects such as the John Denver Sanctuary, Aspen Community Campus, and major open space acquisitions. Jeff’s formative leadership, clarity of purpose, and visionary talents have enriched the landscapes and communities of every organization with which he has engaged.

Barbara Wyatt, ASLA
National Park Service, Frederick, MD

Nomination in Leadership/Management by the Wisconsin Chapter

In Barbara Wyatt’s long career in federal, state, and local governments, in her consulting practice, and in volunteer efforts for professional groups, her goal has been to integrate cultural landscapes into the nation’s historic preservation consciousness, laws, and programs. At the National Park Service, Barbara serves as the landscape specialist for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and the National Historic Landmarks Program (NHL). In 2013, she organized the National Register Landscape Initiative, which convened some 50 preservationists from tribal, federal, and state historic preservation offices to discuss cultural landscape achievements and future visions. The 17 webinars over three years resulted in two publications: Acknowledging Landscapes and Maritime Cultural Landscapes. She Is part of the Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network (PPN) Leadership Team, is a judge for the HALS Challenge (Historic American Landscapes Survey/ASLA competition), and is involved in the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC). Barbara is an active speaker, organizer, and researcher. Her 40+ years of contributions to landscape history and preservation earned her the Wisconsin Chapter Lifetime Achievement award and the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded Barbara the Pocantico Center National Trust Residency in 2017. Barbara’s advocacy and mentorship has positioned landscape architects in the national dialogue as important landscape historians, stewards, interpreters, and technical experts in the nation’s historic preservation initiatives.

Roderick Wyllie, ASLA
Surfacedesign Inc, San Francisco

Nomination in Works by the Northern California Chapter

Roderick Wyllie’s horticultural knowledge and passion for craft and material authenticity have led to a portfolio of unique projects that includes public parks, campuses, wineries, and residential gardens. He considers planting a primary lens from which to design, rather than a secondary tool to support larger concepts and he creates spaces that are multifaceted expressions of site complexities, user-needs, and larger ecological systems, while also curating moments of beauty. As a founding partner at Surfacedesign, Roderick is a mentor and resource for all employees, sharing current discourse and praxis of the profession and creating an environment that sparks curiosity and dialogue. He brings this model to his teaching as well, leading studios at multiple institutions. Among his most celebrated projects are: Lands End Lookout, San Francisco—seeds were harvested from the site’s micro-watershed and propagated to create a lush and resilient plant palette requiring no irrigation; Faust Winery, St. Helena, CA—a painterly landscape that is a journey from light to dark; and Museum of Steel, Monterrey, Mexico—subtle grading that peels up from the ground creating a dramatic patterned green roof that is both sculptural and sweeping. Roderick draws on his background in music and art history to root projects in narratives that embed layers of meaning and discovery into his celebrated portfolio of works.

Dou Zhang, ASLA
Sasaki, Shanghai

Nomination in Works by the Boston Chapter

Dou Zhang is a visionary and versatile designer. A pioneer of sustainable landscape architecture in China, she has led the design for projects that are winning international design awards, proactively embracing LEED and SITES, and engaging new audiences as these landscapes deftly weave longer cultural and ecological histories. Dou spent her early years building large public parks in the United States before transitioning her focus to public and private planning and design projects in China. She established the Sasaki Shanghai Office in 2012, which focuses on design integrity with creativity, sustainability, and construction quality, leading the evolution of landscape practice in the country. Among its many significant and award-winning works are: Xuhui Runway Park, Shanghai—linear spaces of diverse scales, materials, typography, and programs for vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, and water; Jiading Central Park, Shanghai—a 173-acre park, with four major unique paths (Dynamic, Tranquil, Water, and Tree) that interweave and interact with a variety of park elements as choreography of movement; and Luohu Streetscape and Guang-Shen Railway Corridor Revitalization, Shenzhen, China—by combining urban design, landscape architecture, and architecture, Dou transformed the existing railway into a major public open space corridor. In addition to Dou’s many speaking engagements and robust publication activity, she teaches the landscape graduate design studio at Tongji University.