2023 Class of Fellows, Robert F. Poore, ASLA Council of Fellows
Native Habitats, Flora, MS
Robert Poore has devoted 36 years to careful observation and recording of Mississippi's natural habitats to create imaginative and wonderfully functional and delightful sustainable designs. As one of the most significant interpreters of ecological design, he incorporates cultural, economic, and historical traditions into his work. He has helped establish a modern regional vocabulary and appreciation of southern heritage and his passion for art is also expressed in his designs for the natural environment. His designs work in harmony with nature's processes and patterns, taking in ecological, cultural, and economical phenomena in a single system. With a lifelong passion for native habitats and wetland issues, Robert was the primary author of the original wetland policy of ASLA. Perhaps one of his most celebrated projects was his collaboration on the award-winning Crosby Arboretum, Picayune, MS, the premier native plant conservatory in the Southeast, winner of ASLA honor award in 1991 and best public garden in America award in 2016. Other significant works include his collaboration with Ed Blake on the design for the Hattiesburg Convention Center, which won an ASLA Centennial Medallion Award in 1999, and Catfish Row Art Park, Vicksburg, MS, a 1.2 acre park that takes its inspiration from the steamboats that once plied the Mississippi, abstracting smokestacks as totems, and providing a gathering place. Robert has devoted himself to the Mississippi Urban Forest Council over the last thirty years and received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
