Landscape Architects: Make Your Voices Heard

We work in a small, but timely profession. Our potential to impact the neighborhoods, communities, and cities where we work is huge. Though landscape architecture professionals make up just a small fraction of the design field, ours is the work that is the first to be seen. Ours is the work that brings function and beauty to parks, plazas, campuses, institutions, and transportation corridors. Ours is a profession that blends the power of design with ecological principals and environmental justice. And because we are few and far between, we have to advocate for what we know.

The responsibility is on us to make our voices heard, not for our own betterment, but for the sake of our communities.

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How Responsive Urban Design Should Take a “Landscape First” Approach

The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF) Leading with Landscape symposium offered a deep examination of the landscape of Toronto, which was described as a complex ecological system. The presence of Toronto mayor John Tory at the conference showed the importance local policymakers place on the landscape architecture community in shaping the future of this city, the fourth largest in North America. Mayor Tory spoke of balancing growth with social and environmental responsibilities, and the integral role landscape architects play in creating a sustainable city.

Landscape architects explored aspects of Toronto’s history before delving into specific contemporary projects. Here, landscape architects explain the forces that have shaped the landscape of Toronto, the cultural and ecological context.

Leading with Landscape was a success in bringing together a community around the common mission of improving Toronto through landscape. And, more broadly, it brought landscape architecture to the forefront of the conversation in city building.

 

Urban Planning and Quality of Life - As Viewed By The Pope

In an interesting article published by The Washington Post we learn the Pope's views on Urban Planning and how it affects Quality of Life.

“The Pope, it turns out, is an urban planner. In a few paragraphs embedded in the middle of his epic environmental encyclical published this week, he managed to tie together affordable housing, mass transit, parking, inequality, architecture, public space and segregation (perhaps no surprising feat given his startling facility in this same document connecting fossil fuels, solar panels, animal rights and recycling).”

New life for an old space... By adding a soccer field, surrounded by a walking/running track, this empty field becomes more useful and inviting. An adjacent children's garden and butterfly garden delight the senses of all ages with their

New life for an old space...

By adding a soccer field, surrounded by a walking/running track, this empty field becomes more useful and inviting. An adjacent children's garden and butterfly garden delight the senses of all ages with their vibrant colors and aroma. Throw in a playground, picnic area and restroom and visitors are able to enjoy the outdoors all day.

That's what we call "Transforming Horizons"!