Jim Wescoat, FASLA
Category: Knowledge
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Jim Wescoat, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received his nomination, in Knowledge, from the Council of Fellows Executive Committee. Wescoat is a geographer, hydrologist, historian, educator and landscape architect who bridges the worlds of scholarship and practice. Colleagues call him an interdisciplinary team all to himself. Wescoat's contribution to the profession not only includes significant contributions to our body of knowledge but also leadership in addressing pressing environmental problems around the world, particularly those related to water. He is at the top of two fields: the history and conservation of Islamic gardens and large-scale water management and policy. Water has been the unifying theme in his work, especially the study of water-conserving design across widely varying scales, regions and cultures throughout the world. He contends that water is to a landscape as energy is to buildings and only by carefully scrutinizing how water is distributed throughout society can we understand whether our environmental plans are sustainable. Wescoat has had and will have, a profound effect on the profession, compelling landscape architects everywhere to think more deeply about structures in geographic and environmental terms and to incorporate insights into how societies draw on local water supplies into their designs.