Welcome to ASLA PHL 2018!

OLIN welcomes the American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meeting and EXPO to Philadelphia! We're thrilled to be supporting the annual meeting right here in our backyard. Join us at any of the following field sessions, education sessions, and special events, stop by the local chapter booth, and stay tuned to our social media channels for live updates throughout the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!

Field Sessions

Reinventing the River: Central and North Delaware Waterfronts
Friday 10/19, 7:30am - 4:00pm
Lucinda Sanders, FASLA, Partner and Michael Miller, Associate
Industrial uses and infrastructure have long separated Philadelphia's residents from the Delaware riverfront. On a walk of this emerging landscape, we'll visit pop-ups and permanent landscapes with their designers, talk strategy with the agencies overseeing riverfront development, and see sites poised to unlock the river's future.

Academia in Arcadia: Design, Sustainable Stewardship, and Pedagogy on Swarthmore's Campus
Friday 10/19, 7:45am - 4:35pm
Richard Newton, ASLA, LEED AP, Partner
As Swarthmore's Scott Arboretum prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary as an arboretum and home to one of the most prestigious liberal arts colleges, this field session explores the intersection of campus planning, sustainable stewardship, design, pedagogy, and community outreach in the art and science of a public garden.

Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway-100 Years
Friday 10/19, 8:00am - 4:15pm
Susan Weiler, FASLA, Partner
Part of the City Beautiful movement, this mile-long civic vision of architecture and landscape, in its centennial year, has evolved into an incomparable cultural campus of exceptional museums, gardens, and parks amid a vibrant growing city. Learn how it continues to be influenced by contemporary landscape architects and civic leadership.

University of Pennsylvania Campus-A Cultural and Environmental Legacy
Friday 10/19, 8:15am - 12:30pm
Laurie Olin, FASLA, Partner
This field session showcases Penn's 300-acre campus, with more than 180 buildings and 100 acres of landscaped lawns, gardens, and athletic fields designed by notable landscape architects and designers over time. It highlights the iconic spaces, recent projects, and new directions in landscape design and ecological management currently under way at Penn.

Stewardship Philly Style: Design and Maintenance of William Penn's City Squares
Friday 10/19, 8:15am - 1:30pm
Greg Burrell, ASLA, Associate
William Penn would likely be pleased with today's five public squares of his 1683 plan for Philadelphia, which continue as critical social and economic hubs. On this walking tour, attendees will hear from designers and stewards while experiencing the city's most iconic and enduring public spaces.

Snap into It: Photographing Urban Parks and Gardens in Philadelphia
Friday 10/19, 11:45am - 5:00pm
Laurie Olin, FASLA, Partner
Designers and photography enthusiasts work with professionals in the field to enhance the way they capture images of landscapes. This walking field session follows projects along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and includes hands-on instruction for photographing the urban realm. Images from session participants will be displayed in ASLA Central.

Education Sessions

Play from the Ground Up: Playground Safety Surfacing in an Urban Context
Friday 10/19, 8:30am - 10:00am
Karl Krause, Senior Landscape Architect
Great playgrounds start with surfacing that engages the senses and supports accessible and active play. Through precedents, current research, and best practices from municipal agencies, a panel consisting of a playground designer, inspector, and owner will explore how surfacing contributes to exciting, durable, and ultimately safe urban playgrounds.

Public Art in the Age of Social Media
Saturday, 10/20, 2:30pm - 4:00pm
Susan Weiler, FASLA, Partner
Public art integrated into urban landscapes can be aesthetically stimulating artifacts, powerful as reflections of a community. Public landscapes can inspire public art that celebrates our civic spaces. Social media can inform and engage the public; digital analytics help understand our audiences. This session explores public art and its future.

Finding Design: Case Studies in the Creative Process
Sunday 10/21, 11:00am - 12:30pm
Laurie Olin, FASLA, Partner
Reaching beyond constraints of their sites, landscape architects often create works that are memorable in concept and realization. This session explores ways in which the creative spirit fuels the design process in the work of three landscape architects known for their inspired designs.

New Landscapes of Pluralism: Contemporary Influence of Islamic Gardens and Culture
Sunday 10/21, 2:30pm - 4:00pm
Laurie Olin, FASLA, Partner and Abdallah Tabet, ASLA, Associate
While Islamic culture contains a rich tradition of garden design, it remains largely outside the practice of Western landscape architecture. The case studies presented will showcase this complex and diverse tradition and contemporary examples, while highlighting the Aga Khan Trust for Culture’s belief that public parks enrich and enlighten communities.

Sensing the City: Resolution, Tech, and Application of Site-specific Data
Monday 10/22, 8:00am - 9:30am
Rebecca Popowsky, LEED AP, SITES AP, Research Associate
Data is transforming how we think about, use, and ultimately design our urban landscapes. In this panel, hear from practitioners actively designing with data. Learn how to use both analog and digital tools and methods to measure and track environmental and social phenomena in the urban environment.

Reasonable Uncertainty: A City, a Park, and a Garden Confront Climate Change
Monday 10/22, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Richard Roark, ASLA, SITES AP, Partner
A changing climate is creating ripple effects everywhere. Learn from the perspectives of three unique institutional leaders: the City of Hoboken; NYRP, a nonprofit building a Bronx beachhead; and the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. This session will focus on the challenges of climate adaptation across a range of landscapes.

Watershed Futures: Intersections of Design and Policy
Monday 10/22, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Jessica Henson, ASLA, Associate
Landscape architects and civic leaders are undertaking visionary projects that redefine cities’ relationships with their watersheds, but policy often fails to keep pace with the progress made through urban design. This session explores how landscape architects and their allies can influence water-related policy and effect change at a larger scale.

Awards

Grace Farms, New Canaan, CT
ASLA PA-DE Chapter Honor Award, General Design
On view at the local chapter booth

Wetness Behind the SC/EEN: Re-wetting the Oran
ASLA Student Honor Award, General Design
ASLA Central at the EXPO, Saturday 10/21, 11:25am, and Sunday 10/22, 1:55pm
Professional and Student Award Ceremony, Monday 10/22, 12:00pm
Featuring Cyrus Sohrab Khan, Student ASLA, Landscape Designer

Special Events

Please be Seated: Laurie Olin, FASLA, and Susan Stamberg, In Conversation
General Session, Saturday 10/20, 8:00am - 9:00am
Laurie Olin, FASLA
Join world renowned broadcast journalist Susan Stamberg and one of landscape architecture’s visionary designers and educators, Laurie Olin, FASLA, in conversation. Throughout his 40 year, award-winning career Olin has designed some of nation’s most iconic spaces including Bryant Park, Columbus Circle, and, the Washington Monument grounds all while educating generations of students and writing on the history and theory of landscape architecture.

ASLA Council of Fellows Investiture Dinner
Sunday 10/21, 7:00pm
Skip Graffam, FASLA
ASLA has elevated 31 members, including OLIN Partner and Director of Research Skip Graffam, as Fellows for their exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large. Election to the ASLA Council of Fellows is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members and is based on their works, leadership and management, knowledge and service.

Three OLIN Projects Receive ASLA PA-DE Chapter Awards

The Pennsylvania-Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects has recognized three of OLIN’s projects in its 2018 design awards program: Grace Farms in New Cannan, Connecticut, Dilworth Park in Philadelphia, and the Bud and Susie Rogers Garden at the Akron Art Museum.

The landscape design for Grace Farms, a pastoral retreat in New Canaan, Connecticut, has earned an Honor Award from ASLA PA-DE. Nestled within 80 acres of rolling topography, woodlands, meadows, and wetlands, Grace Farms effortlessly blends architecture with nature, crafting a space deeply valued by its community. The design underscores the value of ecological stewardship and land preservation and strengthens the connection between people and nature that enhances habitat vitality and the human experience.

Dilworth Park in the heart of Philadelphia also earned an honor award from the chapter. For decades, Dilworth Park was a maze of raised and sunken terraces, hidden stairways, and dark corners. By restoring the plaza to street level, the design team has provided universal access to a revitalized park with transit gateways, a dynamic scrim fountain, a café, new vegetation, and a lawn, all above a continuously active subway nexus, creating a contemporary public space worthy of its prominent location at the foot of Philadelphia’s City Hall. The project team recently celebrated the opening of the first phase of Pulse, a dynamic art piece of colored light and fog by Janet Echelman, which traces the movement of transit lines that converge beneath the park.

The Akron Art Museum’s Bud and Susie Rogers Garden has received a merit award. The garden was created as a gift to the people of Akron, replacing what was once a cracked asphalt surface parking lot with a flexible, accessible, and beautiful garden, a green jewel which elegantly merges the rich ecological vocabulary of Northeastern Ohio with the city’s proudly industrious heritage. It is a place of connection and civic pride, providing an experience unique to the region, where people mingle, relax, create, and celebrate.

To learn more about the chapter and the other 2018 award winners, visit the PA-DE Chapter website here.

Tiffany Beamer Named One of Building Design + Construction's 40 Under 40

We are proud to announce that Partner Tiffany Beamer has been named one of Building Design + Construction Magazine's 40 Under 40 class of 2018. She was selected from more than 230 applicants to the annual competition of architecture, engineering, and construction industry professionals from around the world who are under 40 years of age and have demonstrated great success in and service to their professions.

Tiffany describes her practice as "as an act of service," and asserts: "Design is successful when spaces are both functional and understandable but also provide something intangible and emotional. My dedication to people, to beauty, and to landscape has empowered me to manifest meaningful success in my education, my career, my professional affiliations, and my life outside of landscape design.”

The 40 Under 40 list is featured in the September 2018 issue of Building Design + Construction and will be honored at the magazine’s annual AEC Emerging Leaders Meetup at the Greenbuild Conference in Chicago.

For more information about the competition and to see this year’s list of winners, visit the 40 Under 40 webpage.