ah'bé Landscape Architects Was Selected For An Honor Award

The installation was held between April 23 - May 15, 2007, at the Museum of Design, Art + Architecture in Culver City. Clusters of paper colums as abstract trees formed a "forest" in the gallery that visitors could walk among to catch glimpses of shredded construction drawings, newspapers, and product catalogs.

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announced winners of the 2008 national Professional Awards in Washington, D.C. Culver City-based ah’bé landscape architects was selected for an Honor Award in Communications for the short film So What?

So What? Chronicles the planning and implementation of an art installation composed of 2/3 ton of paper waste generated by the firm over a 12-week period. Hailed by the professional awards jury as “an incredible message that speaks beautifully to designers and the public about an important issue, the film was produced by firm president Calvin Abe, FASLA, and created and directed in-house by Evan Mather, an award-winning filmmaker and landscape architect.

“The basic premise of the film, and indeed of the installation itself, is that the term ‘sustainability’ has been overused to the point of becoming meaningless, and that it is time to reflect on the true meaning of the word,” says Abe. “The firm created towers of shredded paper that were exhibited at a local gallery space in the form of a reconstructed forest to create a provocative statement on the nature of sustainability. By manifesting the concept of sustainability in a uniquely entertaining fashion, the film seeks to educate viewers and spur them to action.”

Shreddings 2: So What was actually the second in a trilogy of installations highlighting the quantity of wastepaper generated by the 20-person firm. ah’bé’s third and final installation composed of shreddings is set to run at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in downtown Los Angeles between October 11 and November 2, 2008, where it will be on public view in the Noguchi-designed plaza there.

According to Abe, the impact of the installations has been surprising: while many viewers were amazed or amused, most expressed a profound sadness at witnessing the quantity of paper generated by a small company in such a short period of time. “These installations are not only temporary “gardens,” but awakenings.”

The national Honor Award will be presented at the ASLA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia on October. To view the film, which is currently on the film festival circuit, please go to www.ahbe.com and click on News. Then go to headline: “Three Films by Evan Mather.”

About ah’bé landscape architects:

An award-winning landscape architecture and urban design firm established in 1987, ah’bé landscape architects is respected for creating innovative solutions that are artful, environmentally responsible, socially relevant and technologically innovative.

The 20-person firm approaches projects from a contextual perspective, investigating site, program and project intent with rigor, intuition and rationality. Their mission is to create innovative and engaging landscapes that transform the viewers’ perceptions of nature.

About Evan Mather:

Evan Mather is an award-winning independent filmmaker whose films have played at film festivals from Sundance, SXSW and Toronto to Rotterdam, Seoul and Teheran; screened on CNN and the Sundance Channel; and been featured in restrospectives at MIT and the Seattle Art Museum. Educated at Louisiana State University, where he received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, he is a Senior Project Manager at ah’bé landscape architects.

About ASLA:

Founded in 1899, ASLA is the national professional association for landscape architects, representing more than 17,600 members nationwide. Landscape architecture is a comprehensive discipline of land analysis, planning, design, management, preservation, and rehabilitation. ASLA promotes the landscape architecture profession and advances the practice through advocacy, education, communication, and fellowship. Members of the Society use their “ASLA” suffix after their names to denote membership and their commitment to the highest ethical standards of the profession.

Source: Daniel French