BASE Landscape Architecture, San Francisco, California

 
Patricia Algara has been a force for positive change in landscape architecture practice, recognized nationally and internationally for her leadership and management of a firm dedicated to coalition building and community-driven design. Her mission-driven firm works with earth-based and spiritual practices that incorporate ritual and ceremony into their approach, projects, and studio practice. Algara's commitment to training emerging professionals for practice - especially young professionals of color - has been recognized through various awards and honors she has received, the committees she has served, and the accomplishments of her students. She organized the first gathering of Latin American Landscape Architects during the 2022 ASLA Conference, which has turned into an annual tradition with growing participation. Her deep study and love of bees led her to form With Honey in the Heart, a nonprofit that creates healthy habitats for, and educates people about, pollinators. Algara has created many demonstration gardens, most notably the "Pollinator Boulevard" in the Mission District of San Francisco in 2015, where she worked with the city to transform an underused median into a thriving pollinator habitat. She is a passionate advocate for quality and equity in the public realm. All of Algara's efforts strive to empower People of Color to be part of the design of healthy, accessible, and sustainable landscapes in which nature is the main client.

Northern California Chapter
Category: Leadership/Management

As seen in LASN magazine, September 2023.