Honors & Awards

The ASLA Medal is the highest honor the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) may bestow upon a landscape architect whose lifetime achievements and contributions to the profession have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of the public and the environment.

In 1929, when women were expected to focus on domestic concerns, Jane Silverstein Ries, FASLA, enrolled at the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture and, upon graduating, became the first female landscape architect in the state of Colorado. She began her career in 1933 working for Denver landscape architect Irvin J. McCrary, but left six months later to start her own firm--a true pioneer. Throughout her career, which spanned some fifty-six years, Ms. Ries was the creative force behind civic improvement projects, including the Denver Botanical Gardens, and the Denver Art Museum. Long before it was in vogue, she brought livability and stewardship to the design of small private estates and urban gardens. Ms. Ries has been a mentor and role model for women in the profession of landscape architecture, as well as an early advocate of sustainable design, esthetic green spaces, and raising the standards of urban life.

Read the nomination letter from Matt Spidell, ASLA, Ron Bevans, ASLA, Janet Meisel-Burns, ASLA, Catharine Mitchell, ASLA, Lynn Moore, FASLA, and Tom Hawkey, ASLA, and supporting letters from Lynn A. Moore, FASLA, The Hon. Frederico Peña, The Hon. Patricia Schroeder, Ellen Anderman, and Phillip E. Flores, FASLA.