Native grasses peek up from planted areas in the interior courtyard at Wy’East Plaza, an affordable housing complex in east Portland. Nearby are community gardens, twin barbecue grills and a concrete pingpong table.

Residents filter in and out, chatting and walking their dogs.

The 12,425-square-foot courtyard landscape, designed by Shapiro Didway, represents a fraction of the $28.5 million cost of the 175-unit project, which was completed earlier this year for REACH CDC. Yet it serves to illustrate how landscape architecture is increasingly valued by designers and developers as a necessary amenity.

More than $800 million of voter-approved affordable housing projects are in some stage of development or construction in the Portland-metro area. As those projects advance, teams are paying more attention to landscape architecture.

The current generation of affordable housing comes amid greater recognition that access to nature and safe outdoor spaces can aid mental health, designers said.

“It really gives you the chance to restore,” said Nate Otani, a Shapiro Didway principal.

On-site outdoor spaces are especially important for affordable housing developments because many residents don’t have cars, said Jennifer Simmons, portfolio manager for REACH CDC. Hence, accessing amenities such as public parks can be difficult. Landscaped space for residents “enables them to be able to use those outdoor activities,” Simmons said.

Now, projects funded by Metro‘s $652.8 million bond approved in 2018 are also becoming reality. The Housing Bureau is expected to soon announce the first wave of Portland projects funded by the Metro bond. Other municipalities, including Beaverton and Tigard, are already advancing bond-funded affordable housing developments.

In Cornelius, Shapiro Didway is designing the landscape for Plaza Los Amigos, a 113-unit project from REACH CDC that is expected to be completed in 2023. Metro bond revenue will cover about a third of the $39.2 million cost. Shapiro Didway’s design for the project includes a futsal court that can also function as a multiuse space.

Landscape is also central to the design for an affordable housing project under construction at 3000 S.E. Powell Blvd. The 206-unit building is the first ground-up construction project funded by Portland’s $258.4 million bond that voters approved in 2016.

Landscape plans include a contemplative garden at the front of the building to serve as a buffer to traffic noise on Powell, a sizable gathering area in a south courtyard, a basketball court aimed at teens and a garden for kids and adults.

“It’s crucial for the success of these buildings to have successful outdoor spaces and to connect with their landscape in a healing way,” Holst Architecture principal Dave Otte said. Holst is working with landscape architect Ground Workshop on the Powell development.

Outdoor access aligns with two other rising trends: biophilic design and trauma-informed design – a consideration of vulnerable populations.

“A connection to nature is extremely important for folks who have experienced trauma,” Otte said.

The Portland Design Commission has also paid more attention to landscape in recent years. Two members in particular – Brian McCarter, a landscape architect and principal at ZGF, and Zari Santner, a former parks director – have expanded the commission’s attention beyond buildings to their outdoor surroundings.

For Wy’East Plaza, at 12370 S.E. Ash St., the project team used a target value delivery process that brought Walsh Construction, Ankrom Moisan Architects and Shapiro Didway together early on.

“It was really successful,” Shapiro Didway landscape architect Aaron West said.

The process reduced change orders, saving money. The project team then plowed the leftover money into outdoor amenities including the barbecue grills, a synthetic turf area and a rainwater capture system. The landscape and irrigation cost $165,000, before structures and amenities were purchased.

“We had so much extra money, we kind of took a look at the whole courtyard,” West said.

Residents can tend to their own garden plots. Planters are made of wood salvaged from a previous project. Durable materials are used throughout.

“We’re trying to push sustainability, resiliency, community, equity,” Otani said.

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Portland landscape architecture firm PLACE recently was named the Architecture MasterPrize landscape and urban design Firm of the Year for 2019.

The honor, in the medium (10-49 employees) category, was for PLACE’s total body of work. The firm was founded in 2010.

An international jury of architects, designers, curators and academics selected honorees from among more than 1,000 entries representing 65 countries. Recognition from a broad group of peers meant a lot, PLACE principal Mauricio Villarreal said.

“For us it’s kind of a way of understanding that the values we practice here in Portland, Oregon, translate worldwide,” he said. “Having people that understand the value of involving the community in the design process, which is something Portland is notorious for, and the community worldwide is not as involved with, that translates those opportunities into great landscape pieces. It’s just really exciting to see that is visible to people all over the world.”

In addition to being named Firm of the Year, PLACE earned a Public Award for its work on the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in downtown Portland; an Outdoor Award for its work on the Swarovski Kristallwelten World Museum in Wattens, Austria; and an Educational Award for its work on the University of Oregon’s Hatfield-Dowlin Complex in Eugene.

Those three projects effectively represent the firm’s overall portfolio, Villarreal said.

“Our work in Austria is a very good example of collaboration with artists and architects, and the landscape really brings it all together,” he said. “The award for University of Oregon Hatfield-Dowlin Center – that was an award for educational design and it’s very much the work that happens when you work with universities. And Edith Green, it’s an award about sustainability and it’s the work that you do with civic work. It really starts touching the different elements of working with the public and working on campuses and working with private institutions.”

PLACE received honorable mention for its work on the Hassalo on Eighth project in Lloyd.

“That’s a really interesting project in the sense of landscape architecture and private investment and the public sector can come together,” Villarreal said. “It was really three parking lots with a tower, and now it’s a building that has created a community.”

Hassalo on Eighth also received a 2019 ASLA Honor Award for residential design, Villarreal added.

2019 Architecture MasterPrize winners were honored Oct. 14 at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain.

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After spending the past 12 years running a landscape architecture firm, Steve Shapiro has retired. His initial plans? Running and gardening.

“It feels a little strange,” said Shapiro, who in August stepped down from his leadership position with Shapiro Didway – the firm he co-founded with partner Blair Didway in 2007. “My immediate goal – I like doing marathons – is that I want to finish doing one in every state. I’ve done 112 so far, but I have about 30 states to go. And after living in my house for 32 years I’d like to finish my own personal garden.”

Shapiro made such an impact during his professional career that he left some business associates wanting more.

“I’m very sad that he’s retiring, and it’s going to leave a big void in terms of our work and the relationship we’ve had with him,” TVA Architects founding partner Robert Thompson said. “He’s got an amazing body of work behind him. He’s one of a very few. There are Peter Walker, Laurie Olin, Rich Haag, and I would put Steve right in the same category as those great landscape architects.”

Shapiro, a protégé of late landscape architect Robert Murase, said he always had a love of nature and gardening. He attended the University of Florida and eventually began working with an environmental planning firm. There, he studied Lake Okeechobee and the decline of the Florida Everglades.

In the early 1980s Shapiro moved across the country to take a job as an urban planner with Clark County in Southwest Washington. While this was more to his liking, he also realized in time that he wanted to shift his career more toward design. That’s how he ended up working with Murase Associates for 13 years. It was the single most important move of his career.

“A whole new world was opened up because (Murase) did some projects around here, and he did huge projects around the world,” Shapiro said. “They were large scale and really interesting. There were high-end residences, a new town in Japan, an 80-acre equestrian center in Florida; it was interesting and I don’t know why he kept me.”

While gradually learning the ins and outs of design, Shapiro also used his writing skills to help market the firm’s work.

“My main job was doing proposals,” he said. “Gradually I started going with him places and learned what design was all about. And that also helped me when I started a business, because I didn’t run this by myself; I had Blair as a partner.”

While with Murase Associates, Shapiro met Thompson and others who later became reliable collaborators on projects around the region. Shapiro worked with TVA Architects on nearly two dozen buildings totaling over 1.5 million square feet at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. They also collaborated on the Japanese American Historical Plaza in downtown Portland; the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington; Esther Short Park in Vancouver, Washington; and many more.

“Personally, I think Steve’s about the most talented landscape architect in Portland, and he understands the architecture of landscape in a different way than most landscape architects that we’ve worked with,” Thompson said. “He’s extremely understanding of the relationship between the form of the buildings and how that translates into the form of the landscape and how they reinforce each other.

“He’s very modest and he’s an extremely gentle, nice guy,” Thompson added. “And he’s a great collaborator, which might be one of the best compliments you can give a designer. He listens, loves to engage in collaborative ideas, and I think the byproduct of our work, the success of our work, is a byproduct of that collaboration.”

Scott | Edwards Architecture principal Rick Berry has worked with Shapiro for nearly 20 years and singled out the landscape architect’s ability to sell clients on a particular design.

“He is just a charismatic person and just could bring life to any project,” Berry said. “What’s really exciting about Steve is how he can take a client and lead them on a journey and people would just jump on board. The way he spoke, he really could tell a story about the design and you could see people literally follow along.”

Despite the accolades earned from large commercial projects, Shapiro said his greatest professional satisfaction likely comes from the intricate gardens he has designed for private residential clients.

“From working with Bob Murase I really learned about what and how a garden can make you feel,” Shapiro said. “It’s the spiritual side, and dealing with living entities that do have a force that’s not measurable; you walk into a beautiful garden and it just creates an aura of calmness. It’s why I call my own personal garden my happy place.”

Berry noted that Shapiro also had a knack for creating beautiful transitions between the built environment and the natural world.

“The way he could explain the landscape and bring it to a personal level, it was super cool,” Berry said. “He got right down to the nitty-gritty and he had a vision that people were excited about. That’s why we kept working together, and each time it was something different. There was perfect harmony between the landscape and the architecture, and that’s a really important thing.”

Eventually, Shapiro decided he needed to forge his own path in the industry. So he broke away from Murase Associates joined forces with Didway. Business for Shapiro Didway looked promising at first, but then the Great Recession took hold.

“We suffered the ups and downs of the economy, and the recession was pretty brutal,” Shapiro said. “In October of ’08 all our work disappeared. Within a two-week period we lost six months’ worth of work, and there wasn’t much to take its place.”

The firm endured, however, and eventually rebounded and grew.

“We had one job to carry us for a while,” Shapiro said. “And then as the economy improved we started hiring staff – and we still have most of that staff.”

The experience created a tight-knit, united firm, he added.

“It’s a team-oriented firm,” he said. “I’ve just worked with our core group of people over the years. Blair and I did; it wasn’t just me.”

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Anderson Krygier, a local firm specializing in landscape architecture and experimental graphic design, announced it will now be known as Knot. The name change marks an effort to rebrand the company, which was founded 28 years ago by Elizabeth Anderson and John Krygier.

Ownership of the firm transferred from Anderson to Managing Principal Marilee Hanks in 2015, and the new name acknowledges that passing of the torch, a company press release stated. The name was chosen to symbolize how the qualities of nature and the built environment are entangled, pulling together the pragmatic and the aesthetic.

“The essence of our firm is to provide world-class design delivered by a close-knit team,” Hanks stated in a press release. “Changing our name to Knot expresses the process of collaboration from which design ideas emerge.”

With the new name comes a new brand, replete with a different logo and color scheme.

Knot has worked on a number of prominent projects both locally and abroad, including ones for the Oregon Historical Society, the Portland Japanese Garden and the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique.

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Two projects in the Portland-metro area – the proposed Willamette Falls Riverwalk and the completed Yard – received honor awards recently from the American Society of Landscape Architects as part of the .

The Willamette Falls Riverwalk in Oregon City was one of four projects to receive an honor award in the analysis and planning category. The Interstate 25 Conservation Corridor Master Plan in Douglas County, Colorado, received the category’s award of excellence.

The Riverwalk, designed by Snohetta, is the anticipated first phase of a plan to remake Oregon City’s frontage of Willamette Falls. The waterfall, blocked for decades by a paper mill, is considered a potential tourist attraction.

“Here we see the combining of public access, habitat, historic and cultural interpretation, and economic development in a project that’s very tangible in terms of its potential to being implemented,” the awards jury wrote.

Snohetta is an international design firm with headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and U.S. operations based in New York City. The design firm’s client is Metro and a coalition of government agencies. The landscape architects are Mayer/Reed and Dialog Design.

Yard, a 21-story mixed-use building with a landscaped podium at the east end of the Burnside Bridge, was one of two projects to receive an honor award in the residential design category. 2.ink Studio was the landscape architect for Yard. The Balcones Residence in Austin, Texas, received the category’s award of excellence.

Yard “sets itself apart from a competitive marketplace, and the market has responded positively to it,” the awards jury wrote.

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As the building boom continues in Oregon, landscape architects are among those reaping the benefits.

The windfall isn’t without challenges though, especially for landscape architecture firms looking to bring top talent on board to help with the load of work coming through their doors.

For many landscape architecture firms, one of the richest project veins right now is the educational sector. Higher education projects held steady during the recession, as community colleges and universities expanded and upgraded facilities to meet a flow of newly enrolled students seeking career training after losing jobs.

In Eugene, for example, Lane Community College gained voters’ support to tackle academic and athletic projects as well as some general campus improvements. For Eugene-based Cameron McCarthy Landscape Architecture & Planning (CMLA), that work helped it keep busy during the recession while other firms were forced to lay off staff, CMLA principal landscape architect Matt Scheibe said.

But K-12 projects dried up during the economic slowdown. Some school districts found it difficult to drum up voters’ support for school construction bonds during that time. Other districts simply chose not to pursue money for projects, preferring to wait until after the economy had improved.

“There was a chunk of time where there was not much (K-12) funding activity,” Scheibe said.

The situation has turned around in recent years, with schools and community colleges in Oregon now updating existing facilities and building new ones with a total of more than $5 billion approved by voters.

Many of those projects reflect some new trends that are requiring landscape architects to approach projects in new ways and use out-of-the-box thinking. While flexible spaces in buildings have become popular, school officials also are looking for ways to use outdoor spaces to support curriculums, Scheibe said. Another popular feature: community gardens on school grounds that serve as classrooms while also providing food for student meals.

Being able to tap into the range of projects available, though, means making sure a firm has enough talented designers and landscape architects. For Scheibe’s firm, having offices in Eugene and Portland offers the benefit of being able to draw students from programs at the University of Oregon and Portland State University. But the firm still has to keep up what has become a competitive hiring environment, according to Scheibe.

“We’re finding good help, but it’s taking more effort,” he said. “We’ve had to work harder, advertise a little more. And we’ve had to be a little faster in the process of interviewing and making a hiring decision. We’ve had to be a little more streamlined (in our process).”

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Designing landscapes to serve a diverse population is a complicated process, but one that can benefit entire communities. But some observers say that process in the Portland-metro area needs to be better at including minority populations.

Randy Gragg, director of the John Yeon Center for Architecture at the University of Oregon, said the city and Multnomah County need to be more inclusive.

“We have not done a very good job and could improve our game a lot,” he said.

The solution may be for government officials to do more of what community groups have done – go into neighborhoods to reach people instead of relying solely on input gathered at public meetings.

Changing demographics and input collection

Portland is becoming more and more diverse. From 2000 to 2010, its nonwhite population grew from 25 percent to 28 percent, according to , which cited data from Portland State University’s Population Research Center.

Portland’s population in 2015 was about 9 percent Hispanic or Latino, 7 percent Asian, 6 percent African-American and 1 percent Native American, with lesser numbers for Pacific Islanders and others, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Recent immigrants to Portland include families from: Ukraine, Romania, China, Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Bhutan and the former U.S.S.R, to name but a few, said demographer Charles Rynerson, a research associate at the PSU center.

Connecting with people in so many different cultures can be difficult. Metro’s normal public input collection process for a park, for example, is to form a stakeholder advisory committee and then hold four public meetings. But that isn’t enough to reach underserved populations, said Olena Turula, a landscape architect and project manager for Metro.

However, Metro is beginning a study to determine the best ways to reach minority populations. The effort is expected to require 18 months.

“We’re just a little ways into it,” Turula said, “but it’s about taking time to build relationships with people.”

The city of Portland, meanwhile, also is seeking new ways to reach people in ethnic neighborhoods, such as connecting with community leaders and local groups. But the city’s outreach process still relies heavily on evening open houses – and not everyone can attend meetings at night, according to Laurie Matthews, president of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Oregon chapter. Plus, people in some cultures distrust authority and aren’t comfortable in those settings, she added.

“This is one of the most pressing issues facing landscape architects today,” she said. “I have high hopes that Portland will make some significant changes and be a leader in terms of public process and design in terms of equity and diversity.”

Portland Parks & Recreation is trying to be more inclusive in its efforts, bureau director Mike Abbate said. A recent symposium by ASLA Oregon impressed him.

“It just tells me people in the design professions are trying to figure out what it means to design a thing equitably for communities,” he said.

Abbate said the parks bureau is connecting to minority populations in several ways, often through churches and community centers, and through sports like soccer and basketball.

“We have to go out to those folks, have relationships with leaders and mentors and entice them to bring people in,” he said.

Diane Jones Allen, a landscape architect and principal at DesignJones LLC in New Orleans, spoke at the ASLA forum and said the old methods of holding open houses or initial design charettes do not work very well.

“A charette means you come in and stick pins on a map but at the end (what is built) is nothing like what you really wanted,” she said. “It’s better to get to know the community members first and then keep them in the entire design process. It’s a longer process but you have to have a commitment.”

Walker Macy works on a lot of public projects, said Chelsea McCann, a landscape architect at the firm. Over time, it has discovered that to collect public input, there are better ways than holding meetings, she said. For instance, by first engaging community leaders and groups Walker Macy is able to reach more people.

“It’s a lot more legwork, but diversity of feedback is much improved,” she said.

Diving into communities to serve all populations

The success stories of spaces designed for diverse populations are mostly community-driven. Lee Dayfield, the driving force behind development of in Gresham, said she knew how important it was to consider the surrounding Rockwood neighborhood, which has a large Hispanic population.

Months of community outreach, led by planning and design firm MIG Inc., started with a declaration of cooperation by community members and 17 partners, including Human Solutions, the city of Gresham and the Audubon Society, to devise a plan.

One of the group’s preferences was for covered picnic tables, though Gresham city councilors were hesitant to approve that aspect because they were worried the tables would attract “ne’er-do-wells,” Dayfield said. She finally told the councilors that they would never know if the plan would work unless they at least tried, she said.

“You can’t not build things out of fear,” she said.

The park, which is owned by city, has covered picnic tables, walking trails, a nature play area, many educational programs and a 50-plot community garden. It brings different cultures together, Dayfield said.

“We have people from all over the world (visit the park),” she said, “and the most amazing thing is that some of them have seeds from their own country, from Taiwan and Africa, and with Russians and Asians and Hispanics.”

Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis praised the volunteer and collaborative effort to create the park.

“Not only is Nadaka a great example of community involvement in design, it is a perfect example of the community really leading the way throughout the project,” he said.

MIG Inc. also led much of the public outreach for the in North Portland. Landscape designer Madeline Carroll worked with the Community Cycling Center to gather input from even the youngest members to inform design, said Christina Frank, a landscape architectural designer with MIG.

“The kids were involved, even after the park was built,” Frank said. “She engaged the kids with thinking rules of engagement, making it safe for everyone.”

Another collaborative design in the works is the one for Cully Park, said Tony DeFalco, eco-district coordinator for community group Verde.

DeFalco said he has renewed hope that the landscape architecture community can help create a Portland that has more inclusive outdoor spaces – whether public, private or nonprofit – that reflect neighborhoods’ heritage and history.

Donita Sue Fry of the Native American Youth and Family Center knows about valuing her heritage. For years, she’s been involved in planning for Cully Park, on a site that formerly held a Native American culture. That inclusion might not have happened without community input like hers, she said.

“Native American history is American history and when we are not acknowledged in public spaces and trails we are perpetuating institutional racism,” she said.

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The new Tilikum Crossing over the Willamette River is a dramatic visual addition to Portland, but it’s the work of landscape architects that will dominate the sights along the new light-rail Orange Line when it opens in the fall.

Landscape architects took the lead in the design along the line, said Bob Hastings, agency architect for TriMet, and provided vital direction for the massive undertaking.

The landscape architects got a chance to see their finished work last week when Hastings and about 40 others, including landscape architects who had contributed to the massive project and members of the American Society of Landscape Architects, took a private tour of the Orange Line. The group started on the west side of Tilikum Crossing near Oregon Health and Science University’s Collaborative Life Sciences Building, crossed the new bridge and traveled all the way to the Southeast Park Avenue light-rail station in the Oak Grove neighborhood in Clackamas County.

Hastings said it was the first time the landscape architects had seen the entirety of their work.

“It’s like a kid with a new bike, like a fifth-grade field trip,” he said. “When we pulled into the station, everyone applauded.”

ZGF Architects LLP was urban designer for the west segment of the Orange Line from Tilikum Crossing to Portland State University, but landscape architect Carol Mayer-Reed of Mayer/Reed Landscape Architecture was urban designer for the longer east segment, said TriMet landscape architect Sean Batty.

“It’s an integral piece of the fabric of the city. A city is not static but is creative and evolves over time, and landscape architects account for that mindset.” said Batty, who was one of the first landscape architects hired by TriMet to work on the Orange Line back in 2000.

Batty said the field of landscape architecture has become increasingly appreciated in recent years thanks to professionals like Mayer-Reed and projects like the Orange Line.

“There’s a sense in the public that landscape architecture is about planting,” Batty said. “But when you think about the profession historically, really a more accurate representation of what the profession does typically, it’s really creating a form for the city.”

James McGrath, a landscape architect with CH2M, has been working on the Orange Line for more than five years. He said landscape architects are beginning to get recognition for their contributions to other disciplines.

“The profession is coming into its own in this decade,” he said. “We are the only profession uniquely positioned to lead all of these disciplines, the one place where people are trained to understand all of it, not just tracks and elevations. How it all comes together for people is indicative of having landscape architects in leading positions.”

Landscape architects were truly in a leadership position for the entire Orange Line project, Hastings said, because the 7.3-mile route and the 10 stations along it were about more than just the construction.

“We felt that so much of the landscaping wasn’t just about plants and shrubs, but about how design happens in a street environment,” Hastings said. “How do we stitch all the component parts and pieces into a unified whole, and how do we celebrate the distinctive character of each station and neighborhood?”

To accomplish the latter, more than a dozen public meetings were held in the different neighborhoods, according to Hastings.

“We did wonderful things because neighborhood communities and activists created a vision and held our feet to the fire,” he said.

He also gives a lot of credit to Mayer-Reed, who headed up many meetings in many different neighborhoods to find out what people wanted for their particular stations.

“She is a very accomplished landscape architect and people are very comfortable with her,” Hastings said. “It was a whole wall of listening and paying attention and presenting ideas that would not be patronizing, but instead elevating.”

For example, Hastings said, residents of Milwaukie were hesitant at first about light rail coming to their town, which has the nickname “Dogwood City of the West.” However, Mayer-Reed drew them in and eventually came up with a way to add dogwood symbols to custom railings at the station in the neighborhood.

Mayer-Reed felt that level of attention to detail was necessary for the light rail station in Milwaukie, the next to the last on the line, because people there care about the integrity of their city.

“Milwaukie has a wonderful small town feel with a great business district and a main street that is active and interesting,” she said. “So when you’re working on something as new and muscular as a light-rail station, it’s a delicate operation.”

At the Southeast Park Avenue stop in Clackamas, the last stop on the line, the opposite was true.

“Park Avenue (transit station) is in an unincorporated part of the county and there wasn’t something to match to,” Mayer-Reed said. As a result, a strong emphasis was placed on art to make the station more appealing.

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Portland Parks & Recreation has hired a Portland landscape architect and former city employee to oversee planned maintenance projects funded through a $68 million bond measure approved by voters last fall.

Mary Anne Cassin, who most recently was a principal with the Portland-based landscape architecture firm PLACE, will serve as the bond program manager. She will manage a team of city staffers tasked with coordinating the spending of the bond money on major maintenance at playgrounds, pools, trails and Pioneer Courthouse Square.

City officials plan to hire in the coming months four project managers, a public involvement specialist and an administrative assistant to help implement bond-funded projects. Once the city sells the bonds in late June or early July, preliminary planning and design can begin on repairs and upgrades to park and recreation facilities throughout Portland.

The bond program manager position isn’t the first Cassin has held with the city. She worked for 22 years as a landscape architect for Portland Parks & Recreation, from 1984 to 2005. After leaving the city, she worked briefly for the Vancouver Parks & Recreation Department and then spent seven years as parks planning and development manager at Metro before joining PLACE.

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The Oregon chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects this month will host a public symposium on urban design at Portland State University.

The Livable Cities symposium will take place April 18 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at PSU‘s School of Architecture in Shattuck Hall, 1825 S.W. Broadway. Speakers and workshops will examine the future of urban life, including how to sustainably develop cities in response to rising populations and the challenges posed by climate change. Speakers will also discuss a recent surge of development in Portland that is transforming neighborhoods.

David Rubin, founding principal of Philadelphia-based landscape architecture and urban design firm LAND COLLECTIVE, will give the symposium’s keynote lecture at 3:30 p.m.

Registration for the symposium is open until April 15. Event and registration details are available at ASLA Oregon’s .

The early bird cost for the symposium is $145 for ASLA members and members of allied groups, $100 for associate members, $60 for student members, $170 for nonmember professionals and $115 for nonmember students. After Friday, the cost will increase to $170 for members, $125 for associate members, $65 for student members, $195 for nonmember professionals and $120 for nonmember students.

A symposium kickoff social will be hosted by ASLA Oregon‘s Emerging Professionals Committee on April 17 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Room 235 of Shattuck Hall. No registration is required for this free event. It will include drinks, appetizers and a chance to meet the symposium speakers.

ASLA Oregon is hosting the symposium in April during ASLA’s World Landscape Architecture Month, said Rebecca Wahlstrom, a spokeswoman for the chapter. ASLA has extended the monthlong celebration of landscape architecture to honor design professionals in other countries. In Oregon, this may involve a cultural exchange for landscape architecture students, Wahlstrom said.

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