World Landscape Architecture Month
/“...World Landscape Architecture Month is an international celebration of landscape architecture. WLAM aims to introduce the profession to the public by highlighting the work of landscape architects from around the world.”
— the American Society of Landscape Architects
April was World Landscape Architecture Month, did you celebrate it? We shared some sketches done by three people at GreenWorks, and we asked them to tell us more about why they chose this profession.
All month, landscape architects showcased how our work impacts the lives of people in our world. It’s an effort to increase public awareness of the vital service we all provide.
In addition to public awareness, members of ASLA use it as a time to encourage our elected leaders to act on issues we care about, like professional licensure and parks legislation; and it’s a time to showcase educational opportunities, career discovery outreach tools, and practice resources that are also available.
We chose to feature sketches because its where so much of our work starts. We did a series of animations that gave a little life to these personal expressions of professional skills. We did it by dividing each image into layers and then used Adobe After Effects to create a little “2.5D” perspective.
Andrew Holder
“I grew up in a very typical Pacific Northwest suburban setting among the malls and highways, but was fortunate to be exposed to the mossy forest, Cascade Mountains and Puget Sound beaches. Later in college in Oregon I developed the habit of escaping as often as possible to explore old-growth forests and climb volcanoes. I feel that these experiences in the natural world are a core part of me, and have shaped my perceptions of the world.
While developing a connection with nature, I started to realize that so many people are out of touch with nature and don’t seem to understand how dependent we all are on it. And the typical human habitat reflects that. I want to help weave nature back into the urban environment so that it becomes a daily experience, like finding a frog in a rain garden or tending to a community garden plot. I also want to create recreation opportunities away from town, to draw people into a more immersive experience and deeper appreciation.
The goal is to shift attitudes that would hopefully influence future decisions about how we engage with the land we live on. At the same time, every project is an opportunity to objectively improve the present – green roofs to reduce heat island effect, swales to clean storm runoff, and even a single tree planted is one blow against climate change.”
Nadja Quiroz
“I got into the profession because I was determined to find a way to fold nature back into our urban environments and people back into natural environments. I wanted to blur the gray/green line.
After studying ecological restoration, I became interested in exploring environmental solutions where people could engage the land, rather than be kept off of it. Landscape architecture represented the perfect approach; a practice that creates spaces where people can connect to the living environment, and vice versa. Green roofs, wildlife highway crossings, raingardens/stormwater planters, constructed wetlands, and living breakwaters are all examples where natural processes are harnessed and used to improve the quality of life for humans and non-humans alike. Design that leverages nature in these ways is what continues to inspire me and pushes me forward every day.”
Chris Weaver
“After my first round of college, I had a job in which I inventoried commercial development in the Portland metropolitan area. With camera in hand, I went down every street in search of data to catalog our built environment. While the novelty of exploration and discovery were great, ultimately I was left wanting more from these places. Patterns of poor design choices started to leap out at me and I sensed a lack of cohesion across the region. There was also a conspicuous lack of balance in the quality of outdoor spaces between different neighborhoods. By the end of that job I was eager to find a way to help improve the spaces around me.
Eventually I came to discover landscape architecture—a field that occupies the wide swath between urban planning and site design. I was attracted to it for that reason. It provides me the opportunity to divide my creative energies between different scales of placemaking. I get to design the minute details of a site and can contribute to master planning of large developments all in the same day. I consider myself lucky for finding this profession, and truly hope to make a discernable difference throughout my career.”
Here are some other sketches people at GreenWorks wanted to share:
