LAs Out in Force for Nationwide PR Campaign

Landscape Architects from the Illinois ASLA chapter met with the public to promote the profession on Aug. 17, the beginning of the ASLA’s public awareness campaign.

August 17, 2011 was the kickoff of a two-year public relations campaign by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) to promote landscape architecture.

On that day, landscape architects from around the country were urged to gather in public spaces to display examples of their work and answer questions about the profession.

According to the ASLA, there were approximately 175 events held nationwide, garnering 60 local newspaper stories about the event and 17 television spots.

The Illinois ASLA Chapter, for instance, held events in three separate locations: Millennium Park in Chicago, the Dandelion Fountain along the Riverwalk in Naperville and the Lincoln Memorial Garden in Springfield. During the lunch hour, more than 60 Illinois landscape architects gathered in each of the three locations to spread the word about the profession. Volunteers held a variety of signs, engaged with park visitors and answered questions about each of the parks, as well as landscape architecture in general.

Eleven volunteers from the Ohio ASLA chapter met in Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton to participate in the August 17 events. Volunteers distributed fliers, water bottles, engaged the public in lively discussion and proudly posted "Designed by a Landscape Architect" signs in prominent locations around Ohio.

The Virginia ASLA had events in three locations around the state, Richmond, Norfolk and Charlottesville. According to Jimmy Shepherd of the chapter’s public relations committee, the Richmond event had 15 participates, including one Virginia Tech student. The landscape architects engaged the public about landscape architecture by displaying boards with landscape architecture projects around Richmond and distributing flyers.

In the September LASN issue, we reported on the Minnesota Chapter’s rather unique contribution to the campaign by launching seven floating islands on Spring Lake to create a wetlands effect and help restore a severely impaired body of water as a bird and wildlife sanctuary in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis www.landscapearchitect.com/research/article/15408.

One goal of the event was to establish a unified logo (ASLA offers individual chapters logos in a variety of colors and formats) and message for chapters to use to get the word out about landscape architecture.