Landscape Architect Articles

ASLA Wisconsin Chapter01-26-21 | Feature

ASLA Wisconsin Chapter

2020 State Association Report
by Alex Thill, Chapter President Elect

Life Achievement Award: Brenda Williams; Throughout her 30-year career as a Landscape Architect, Brenda Williams has focused her passion and empathy for understanding human connections to landscapes, developing methods to support, strengthen, and adapt significant landscapes for the people to whom they are meaningful. Her work has a strong emphasis on landscapes in the public realm, where she champions appropriate access, recognition, preservation, adaptation, and interpretation of culturally significant sites. Recognized as a national leader in the conservation of cultural landscapes, she has developed award-winning design, planning, and stewardship solutions for significant cultural landscapes at National Parks, National Historic Landmarks, and sites of regional and local importance throughout the United States.

Chapter Visibility Award: UW Madison Student ASLA Chapter; During the 2019 World Landscape Architecture Month campaign, the Student Chapter took over the WI ASLA Instagram account and gave us all a glimpse into the life of a UW-Madison landscape architecture student. It was a very unique perspective many of us have long forgotten about. In addition, the student chapter swapped accounts with the Arizona State University Chapter and posted elements such as student interviews, plant identification, current projects, basically creating a glimpse of life in their respective programs.

2020 Scholarship Recipient: Tiara Wuethrich; The current pandemic has created many new and unique challenges for university students. With all the uncertainty surrounding the university system, the Wisconsin Chapter wanted to provide a positive moment and continue to provide a student with a scholarship for the ensuing academic year. This year, Tiara Wuethrich was the recipient of the WI ASLA Student Scholarship. Tiara's growth through the program was evident through her Anderson Farm County Park Design, and how she recognized her growth is what stood out the most.

Paige Bernhardt - Finalist Award: The 2020 Student ASLA Awards presentations were held on the evening of April 13, 2020. Altogether, five graduating seniors presented a collection of their course work throughout their academic career. The topics were to focus on their personal growth through the program and how it has shaped the designer they are today. The jury, which consisted of local professionals, awarded the following students with either an Honor Award, Merit Award, or Finalist Award. This year was particularly tough because all five of the students demonstrated immense growth and will all make well refined landscape architects in the future.

Jenny Zhang - Finalist Award: The 2020 Student ASLA Awards presentations were held on the evening of April 13, 2020. Altogether, five graduating seniors presented a collection of their course work throughout their academic career. The topics were to focus on their personal growth through the program and how it has shaped the designer they are today. The jury, which consisted of local professionals, awarded the following students with either an Honor Award, Merit Award, or Finalist Award. This year was particularly tough because all five of the students demonstrated immense growth and will all make well refined landscape architects in the future.

Leah Stoltz - Finalist Award: The 2020 Student ASLA Awards presentations were held on the evening of April 13, 2020. Altogether, five graduating seniors presented a collection of their course work throughout their academic career. The topics were to focus on their personal growth through the program and how it has shaped the designer they are today. The jury, which consisted of local professionals, awarded the following students with either an Honor Award, Merit Award, or Finalist Award. This year was particularly tough because all five of the students demonstrated immense growth and will all make well refined landscape architects in the future.

Rashad Tiam Watt - Honor Award: The 2020 Student ASLA Awards presentations were held on the evening of April 13, 2020. Altogether, five graduating seniors presented a collection of their course work throughout their academic career. The topics were to focus on their personal growth through the program and how it has shaped the designer they are today. The jury, which consisted of local professionals, awarded the following students with either an Honor Award, Merit Award, or Finalist Award. This year was particularly tough because all five of the students demonstrated immense growth and will all make well refined landscape architects in the future.

Willa DeBoom - Merit Award: The 2020 Student ASLA Awards presentations were held on the evening of April 13, 2020. Altogether, five graduating seniors presented a collection of their course work throughout their academic career. The topics were to focus on their personal growth through the program and how it has shaped the designer they are today. The jury, which consisted of local professionals, awarded the following students with either an Honor Award, Merit Award, or Finalist Award. This year was particularly tough because all five of the students demonstrated immense growth and will all make well refined landscape architects in the future.

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2020 Awards Ceremony
Held each year during our Spring Conference, the Awards Ceremony is a time for all of Wisconsin's Landscape Architects to shine a light on the amazing projects they have been a part of. Projects range from large developments, park and garden design, residential design, as well as analysis and planning work, and research.

This year we were happy to recognize five award winning projects worked on by the Landscape Architects of Wisconsin. The projects are listed below:
1. Award of Excellence - Dash Park - Onalaska, Wisconsin
- SmithGroup
2. Honor Award - Lake Vista Park - Oak Creek, Wisconsin

- SmithGroup
3. Merit Award - Columbia Playfield Renovation - Milwaukee, WI
- SmithGroup
4. Merit Award - Sentry Insurance-Office Building - Stevens Point, Wisconsin - Flad Architects
5. Merit Award - Wauwatosa Village Streetscape Redevelopment - Wauwatosa, WI - Saiki Design

We also had three recipients that were recognized for Recognition Awards.
Environmental Enhancement Award: Milwaukee Public Schools

In 2017, Milwaukee Public Schools partnered with several organizations to make its playgrounds, and the city, more resilient.

The Greener Healthier Schools Program was born. Aimed at reducing pavement and increasing stormwater management capacities, the program has successfully been implemented at four schools.

Each unique playground design includes an outdoor classroom space and each site was designed for environmental stewardship of our freshwater resources and curricular connections to math, science, language arts and exercise. It was integral to the design that the plant species used be native and were selected for their attractiveness to both children and pollinators and small mammals.

Incoming New Board Members
This year, three new members will be joining the WI ASLA Board. Mike Makris will be occupying one of the two Member-at-Large positions. Dana Schumacher will become the new Chapter Treasurer, and Alex Thill will be transitioning into the position of President-elect. WI ASLA is excited to have all three joining the Executive Board in their newly elected roles.

As seen in LASN magazine, December 2020.