Letter from the Trustee
NOW
/ BSLA
Letter from the Trustee
JEANNE LUKENDA , ASLA
As landscape architects , we explore and challenge the relationship between natural form and built form . We capture and intersect individual experience and collective experience . We confront profound issues and believe in extraordinary possibilities . This issue of Fieldbook celebrates these humancentered crossroads and our understanding and representation of them : familiar and unexpected , compelling narratives , and works of art .
Our profession has long considered the ways landscape + art unites and disrupts , from The Art of Landscape Architecture by Samuel Parsons Jr . ( 1915 ) ( an early exploration of landscape architecture as an expression of cultural values ), to 2014 ASLA Annual Meeting ‘ s Claiming Territories : Signifying Art and Design in the Landscape where Mikyoung Kim discussed intersections of landscape and art , and art in contemporary design practice . Now , next-generation forms of creativity continue the tradition of landscape architecture as an instrument of service , fusing issues of social justice with excellence in the design of public spaces .
For example , the transformation of our national headquarters in Washington , DC , into the ASLA Center for Landscape
Architecture is our collective opportunity to synthesize , acknowledge , and celebrate both the art and the science of landscape architecture .
From the Green Roof to the Chinatown Green Street Demonstration Project , this new center must be a world class model and education tool . It must make a transformative impact on all dimensions of landscape architecture and landscape architects . It must express our principles and values . It is our work of art .
If “ everything exists within the landscape ” then landscape architects must learn to design everything .
Boston Society of Landscape Architects Fieldbook
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