ASLA Salt Lake 2004 Roundup

The American Society of Landscape Architects' (ASLA) Meeting and EXPO drew close to 4,000 visitors and more than 400 exhibitors to Utah's capitol this Oct. 29 through Nov. 2. Like all years, it was a place to expand one's professional knowledge and to meet old friends and make new ones.

Society president Susan Jacobson offered an upbeat assessment at the Salt Lake City gathering's opening general session. In October, she told attendees, the ASLA reached an all-time-high total of 14,700 members. The economic outlook is strong, with landscape architects in demand more of late than ever. In 2003, the most recent year with complete data, McGraw-Hill Construction data reported more than 21,000 commercial landscape architecture projects worth more than $129 billion.

Also at Salt Lake, a total of 32 landscape architects were recognized with new Fellow status, joining the total of 814 Fellows elected since 1899.

Other professionals were honored with special awards. These included Peter Walker, FASLA (for lifetime achievement), M. Paul Friedberg, FASLA (for exceptional accomplishments in design) and Marvin Adleman, FASLA (for sustained and significant contributions to landscape architecture education). Also honored were landscape architects James S. Bedwell (for contributions to landscape architecture education), Virginia Anderson (for leadership in management and conservancy of natural resources) and Joseph P. Riley, Jr., the mayor of Charleston, S.C., who received the ASLA's Olmsted Medal (for environmental leadership, vision and stewardship.

Additionally, The Urban Land Institute received the Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence and the firm of Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC, received the Landscape Architecture Firm Award.

Next year's meeting and EXPO is in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. We hope to see you all there!

New ASLA Fellow Calvin Abe joins Robert Cardoza of the NUVIS design firm of Costa Mesa, Calif., at this year's fellows banquet. Abe (pronounced AH-be) heads Calvin R. Abe Associates, Inc. of Culver City, Calif.

Fellows Janice Cervelli Schach, Dean of the College of Architecture, Arts & Humanities at Clemson University stands with Frederick R. Steiner (center), Dean of the College of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and Forster Ndubisi, ASLA, of Texas A & M University (right foreground) at this year's Fellows dinner.

William Roberts of Wallace Roberts & Todd pauses with Peter Walker of Peter Walker & Partners outside the exhibit hall at this year's EXPO.

University of Texas at Austin Dean of Architecture Frederick R. Steiner models an ?EUR??,,????'??I Love NY?EUR??,,????'?? hat presented to him at this year's awards dinner in Salt Lake City. ?EUR??,,????'??I don't know if they'll let me back into Texas wearing this,?EUR??,,????'?? he quipped.

All 32 of this year's Fellows inductees managed to squeeze into this photo taken at Sunday's Council of Fellows reception dinner at Salt Lake City's Grand America Hotel.