OLIN at ASLA 2024

ASLA 2024 is here!

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We're thrilled to be in Washington, DC for this year's Conference on Landscape Architecture. We're excited to be participating in an array of education sessions and to celebrate The Sojourner Truth State PArk Project, winner of an ASLA Honor Award for Analysis and Planning.

Check out our guide below—we look forward to seeing you there!

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2024
8:30AM– 2:00PM ET

SUN-FS-09: Navy Yard: Reclaiming the “Forgotten River” by Shifting Flows and Narratives

Rebecca S. Popowsky, ASLA, SITES AP

After decades of pollution and industrial activity, the Anacostia riverfront is experiencing a revival as an important urban waterfront. This tour explores four projects at different scales and with varied approaches to address sustainable water management and community riverfront access using a blend of engineered, innovative, and community-centered design.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2024
11:00AM– 12:15M ET

MON-A10: The Research-practice Ecotone: Models for Authentic Inquiry and Discovery

Rebecca S. Popowsky, ASLA, SITES AP

New paradigms in the convergence of research and practice are explored through the metaphor of the “ecotone.” This panel will discuss new integrated models for navigating the research-practice boundary zone to address the complex issues faced by landscape architects through case studies such as Tidal Philly and Ford’s Michigan Central.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2024
8:30AM– 9:45AM ET

SUN-A04: From Waste to Resource: Increasing Circularity in Engineered Soils Through Renewable Materials

Pia von Barby, ASLA, RLA

Manufactured soils rely on extracting virgin materials. This session delves into an EPA-funded multisector research study on the production and performance of glass-based soil. This research illustrates how the innovative use of renewable materials in public works and GSI projects can reduce their environmental footprints while creating local circular economies.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2024
10:15AM– 11:30AM ET

SUN-B0: Rewilding a Post-industrial Landscape: A Story About Diversity

Marni Burns, ASLA, RLA

Explore how regenerative processes of unique ecosystems, in a 520-acre quarried landscape with a mile of Hudson River shoreline, can be amplified as a model for bolstering biodiversity in the transformation of a large-scale post-industrial site to deliver inclusive community gathering spaces within a framework of interpretation and recovery.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2024
2:00PM– 3:15PM ET

SUN-C02: All Are Welcome: Integrating Equity in Civic Spacestations/TempDownloadStorage/2722446_-_SUN-C02.pdf?45568.5948611111

Greg Burrell, ASLA, RLA

As essential democratic public spaces and centers of civic engagement, civic landscapes must be welcoming spaces for all to use and enjoy. This session will assist designers in understanding how to integrate equity into the design of civic spaces by exploring strategies in Boston, Philadelphia, and Vancouver.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2024
3:45PM– 5:00PM ET

TUE-C07: From Afterthought to Forethought—Approaches to Construction Administration

Demetrios Staurinos, ASLA, RLA

Design without execution is merely a beautiful idea. For a landscape to be successful, it must be informed by both an artisanal and pragmatic approach with a focus on craft. In this session we will explore three approaches to construction administration for private residential, commercial, and public projects.

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2024
7:45AM– 1:00PM ET

WED-FS-05: The 11th Street Bridge Park: Building Trust and Strengthening Community Resilience

Hallie T. Boyce, ASLA, RLA and Judy Venonsky, ASLA, RLA

From the moment that the competition for 11th Street Bridge Park was awarded, the real work began. In a historic but neglected area of Washington DC, residents were initially skeptical of a new park. In an historic but neglected area of Washington D.C., residents were skeptical and even hostile to the idea of a new park billed as a dream to bridge communities divided by a tangle of highway infrastructure from the Anacostia River and from the Capitol District on the other side. This is a case study in how “change happens at the speed of trust”. This field session shows how to remove barriers to community participation and embed community into building a park from the ground up.

OLIN's Commitment to Climate

26 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE CEOS: WE WILL BE A ZERO-EMISSIONS PROFESSION BY 2040, WORLD MUST ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE

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“We as a species can no longer stand on the sidelines. It is the responsibility of every human to commit to some form of CLIMATE ACTION. As designers of our environment, OLIN is actively working toward a more resilient planet and enthusiastically endorses ALSA’s Climate Action Plan.”

Lucinda R. Sanders, Ed.D., FASLA
CEO and President of OLIN

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OLIN’s Lucinda Sanders joined a group of 26 CEOs representing the world’s largest and most influential landscape architecture firms released a public letter committing their firms to achieve the goals laid out in the American Society of Landscape Architects Climate Action Plan, most notably a commitment to make landscape architecture a zero-emissions profession by 2040. The firms signing onto the letter have designed many of the most-visited parks, public plazas, stadium grounds, waterfronts, and transportation corridors across the United States and around the world, representing tens of billions of dollars of public and private infrastructure.

The letter reads in part: “Because we work so closely with land and water, landscape architects are natural leaders in designing climate-resilient communities—from stormwater management to green infrastructure to sustainable transportation to biodiversity conservation. Every day, we design nature-based solutions to help build communities that are more resilient to extreme weather, more equitable for everyone, and more supportive of human health and wellness.”

The letter expresses key business commitments: “We publicly and expressly endorse, support, and commit to the goals articulated in the American Society of Landscape Architects Climate Action Plan, which sets specific and extraordinarily ambitious goals for the profession of landscape architecture to become a zero-emission profession by 2040, including in our business operations, designed landscapes, and the materials and products used in our work.”

The businesses represented on the letter collectively do more than $350 million in revenues annually and lead or contribute to projects with more than $1 billion in construction value annually. Their work influences millions of acres in more than 50 countries every year.

“Leaders of more than two dozen top-tier firms that influence billions of dollars in infrastructure spending and millions of acres of land have just pledged to make their profession zero emissions by 2040—this is a really big deal,” said American Society of Landscape Architects CEO Torey Carter-Conneen. “These are people who have the skills and imagination to make it happen: They're already designing resilient waterfronts, parks that soak up stormwater, and urban forests that take greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere and cool our cities. Landscape architects know how to get it done. Every sector of the economy has to tackle climate resilience, and landscape architects will do their part.”

The CEOs called on governments, clients, and peers in the closing section of the letter, writing in part: “We call on our colleagues in allied disciplines to partner with us in designing and implementing solutions. We call on leaders in government at every level to prioritize resilience, emissions reductions, and human wellbeing in their policymaking. We call on our clients to be bold and curious as we design the future together.”

The full letter is available here.

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OLIN is a design studio comprised of an enthusiastic team of landscape architects, planners, urban designers, and collaborators, based in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Our work is predicated on developing innovative and tailored approaches to social engagement, environmental and social responsibility and justice, and financial and operational sustainability in the context of awe-inspiring and beautiful designs built with finesse and craft. Our award-winning projects cross boundaries of scale, typology, and site condition, yet are all driven by our central vision: To Create Places That Enhance Life. Furthering our deep belief in enhancing biodiversity and utilizing nature-based solutions, OLIN has made a commitment to address carbon reduction and climate action through our operations, practice, and advocacy. This ethos is embodied in OLIN’s leadership and advocacy in the field, advancing new tools for carbon calculation, developing and sourcing more sustainable materials, and translating learning directly into our practice.

We understand the need to constantly deepen our understanding of the complexities of our work, which we do through OLIN Labs. As a conduit between academia and practice, OLIN Labs recognizes the value of open dialogue and knowledge sharing among individuals with different expertise and methods but with common purpose.

Starting in 2023, OLIN Labs hosted programming aligned with global Climate Week, consisting of internal discussions with allied professionals advancing climate justice, biodiversity, the carbon economy, and sustainable materials. These conversations highlight synergies between fellow practitioners, academics, and researchers who are united in creating better solutions for planning and design that prioritize planetary survival; we aspire to accomplish this by reducing energy consumption, restoring and enhancing natural systems, building community resilience, conserving resources, fostering widespread economic prosperity, and improving quality of life outcomes, with the goal of inciting action and a collective future vision.

Connecting ideas to action, OLIN Labs declared 2024 to be the Year of Climate Action. Labs is incubating multiple initiatives that are advancing discrete climate themes, from communication, to metrics, to sustainable specifications.

ASLA Honor Award for Analysis and Planning

OLIN’s work on Sojourner Truth State Park for Scenic Hudson Wins ASLA Honor Award for Analysis and Planning

Sojourner Truth State Park in Ulster County, New York has received an Honor Award in Analysis and Planning from the 2024 cycle of American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Awards.

OLIN has had the excellent fortune of working with Scenic Hudson through a process of engagement and design, leading to the awarded Framework Plan as well as waterfront improvements at the State Park. 

The 520-acre park is on the Hudson, the site of a former extractive landscape that will transform to be a place for social and ecological revitalization—a model of resilience. It is aptly named for the 19th Century American abolitionist born into slavery in Ulster County and freeing herself to advocate for freedom, women's rights, and justice for the formerly enslaved. 

Read more here: https://www.asla.org/2024awards/9251.html

Many thanks go to the Project Team!

Richard S. Roark, RLA, ASLA, LEED / SITES AP, Lead Partner
Marni Burns, RLA, ASLA, Partner
Nate Wooten, RLA, ASLA, RA, AIA, Lead Designer
Heather Blaikie, ASLA, Landscape Architect, Scenic Hudson
Sarah Pate, Designer
Kate Lawler, Visual Communications and Signage Design
eDesign Dynamics, Habitat Assessment, Stormwater, and Ecological Design
Hudsonia, Habitat Assessment
PennPraxis, Heritage Consultant
Matthew Baird Architects, Architect
Barretto Bay Strategies, Community Engagement and Economic Consultant
McLaren Engineering Group, Structural and Marine Engineering, and Permitting
Rave Consultants, Cost Consultant