News

ASLA Celebrates Native American Heritage Month

ASLA 2018 Professional General Design Honor Award. Iqaluit Municipal Cemetery. LEES+Associates >

• National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
• National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

Experience the Resurrection of Mount Umunhum

Mount Umunhum, the third largest peak in the Bay Area, has long been sacred to the Amah Mutsun tribe. Its peak is central to their origin story. And for many years, the tribe would form a ceremonial circle there and stomp their feet as hard as they could so that creator would hear. In the 1950s, the US Air Force purchased the top of the mountain, terraced it, and built an early warning radar station that included some 80 structures, such as a swimming pool and bowling alley. From the late 1950s up until 1980, when the base closed, the station was off-limits to the tribe and all other visitors. Then in 1986, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen) purchased the land with the goal of restoring the landscape as a spiritual home for the Amah Mutsun. Read the full story in The Dirt.

ASLA 2018 Professional Analysis and Planning Honor Award. Iowa Blood Run Cultural Landscape Master Plan. Quinn Evans Architects >

ASLA 2018 Professional Analysis and Planning Honor Award. Iowa Blood Run Cultural Landscape Master Plan. Quinn Evans Architects
 
ASLA 2018 Professional General Design Honor Award. Iqaluit Municipal Cemetery. LEES+Associates

 2018 LaGasse Medal: Non-Landscape Professional: David Archambault, Hon. ASLA

ASLA Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I)

ASLA is proud of its rich collection of resources on Native American Heritage in Landscape Architecture. If you are interested in the resources below that do not include a link, please contact ASLA’s Librarian to discuss access to ASLA resources.

Native American Heritage in Landscape Architecture News Stories in The Dirt and The Field

• David Driapsa, “HALS Documentation: An Unexpected Discovery,” The Field, September 28, 2017.
• Jared Green, “In the Pacific Northwest, Native American Communities Plan for Climate Change,” The Dirt, May 6, 2013.
• Petra Marar, “Harvard’s ‘Black in Design’ Conference: Addressing Social Injustice with Design,” The Dirt, October 21, 2015.
• Grace Mitchell, “Connecting Climate Change to Places We Love,” The Dirt, September 18, 2018.
• Brenda Williams, “Collaboration with Indigenous Communities to Inform Design for Significant Landscapes,” The Field, September 20, 2018.

• Brian Barth, “In the Hunt: A New Park in Nunavut, Canada, Is Made to Protect Indigenous HuntingGround,” Landscape Architecture Magazine 109, no. 1 (January 2019): 62-83.
• Katharine Logan, “Burial at 64° North: On Baffin Island an Arctic Cemetery Honors Indigenous Traditions,” Landscape Architecture Magazine 108, no. 2 (February 2018): 22-24.
• Zach Mortice, “Mapping DAPL,” Landscape Architecture Magazine, June 9, 2017.
•  ———, “Selections from the 2018 Student Awards:Myth, Memory, and Landscape in the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation,” Landscape Architecture Magazine, September 25, 2018.
• Timothy A. Schuler, “Ears to the Ground: Three Hundred Years Ago, Blood Run Was a Hub ofthe Great Plains. The Landscape Architect Brenda Williams Is Helping GuideTribal Efforts to Protect What’s Left, mostly by Listening,” Landscape Architecture Magazine 107, no. 8 (August 2017): 98-119.

Below are just a few more ways ASLA demonstrates its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion within our profession, membership, and leadership; striving to mirror the communities we serve; welcoming and serving all people and communities; and treating them fairly and equitably.

ASLA Diversity in Action

• Diversity and Inclusion have been added to ASLA values and culture.

• Diversity statement: Mirroring the Nation: Landscape Architecture and the Future of the Profession. For the profession of landscape architecture to remain relevant and responsive, it must better represent the communities and people it serves. Greater diversity brings new perspectives and thought leadership, strengthens professional/community connections, and supports social equity.

• Diversity Summit - Since 2013 ASLA has convened an annual diversity summit to strengthen its focus on the recruitment of minorities into academic programs and mentorship of minority students and practitioners.

• #iPledgeASLADiversity - During the 2018 Diversity Summit, attendees developed the iPledgeASLADiversity social media campaign as an opportunity to:
  • Share commitments to action made by Summit attendees,
  • Support ASLA’s strategic objective to Shape the Future of Landscape Architecture and Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Profession,
  • Show ASLA members, firm leaders and others strategies to support or design diversity and inclusion efforts in their organizations, and
  • Highlight ASLA resources.
   Each week, the series features efforts made by Summit attendees on Twitter and Instagram. ASLA encourages its members and chapters to take the pledge, commit to diversity and inclusion, and share using #iPledgeASLADiversity.