Landscape Architect Articles

LASN News April, 199304-01-93 | News

Bohardt Looks to Reorganize ASLA

David Bohardt, ASLA Executive VP, has proposed a plan to reorganize the national ASLA staff in order to provide more visibility and staff support to public affairs activities. This would entail creating new senior management positions to oversee legislative functions, advocacy, environmental, and public relations. Karen Niles will assume resource functions and Jim Truelove will oversee all publications, communications and marketing activities of the society, which includes the association magazine, Landscape Architecture. According to the Utah Trustee?EUR??,,????'???s Report from the Winter 1992 Newsletter by David Racker, these three will hold positions of Deputy Executive Vice President. It is not clear, however, how this will affect the ASLA budget or the position of the Executive VP.

ASLA to Raise Dues For National Program

National ASLA intends to increase dues by $25.00 in 1994. Justification offered for the increase is to support National programs that will benefit state chapters. For those not able to absorb the cost in one shot, a quarterly payment program is being implemented. When the three-stage increase was voted on initially, only the chapter trustees from Utah, Florida, Texas and Colorado opposed a dues increase, although more may follow when this amendment to the bylaws is voted on this month.

One of the reasons cited by Jeff Engelmann, chapter president of the Arizona ASLA, in the March 1993 Mesquite Journal (Vol. 5 No. 1), for the increase are the efforts of the ASLA to position themselves as a leader on the environment. They are attempting to accomplish this by aligning with the Nature Conservancy and other environmental groups and by attending the RIO conference. National is also in the process of developing a set of continuing education guidelines that can be implemented at the state level.

Whether the ASLA really needs more dues is unclear. For instance, LAM and LAND, ASLA house magazines, are subsidized by membership dues and receive $460,000 a year. LASN made several attempts, through various channels, to ascertain what the budget is and how dues are allocated. Unfortunately, we were informed that David Bohardt was the only person that can answer those questions and could not be reached, even after several phone calls and messages.

Lightfair International

Lightfair International, the trade show for all lighting specifiers and contractors, will be held in the Moscone Center in San Francisco from May 10-12,1993. The Exhibit Hall will display the best of all lighting elements, including design, technology, science and illusion. Attendees will be able to see and touch the actual products and observe how they impact their surroundings. The engineers and designers of the various products will be available for discussions, and there will be opportunities for demonstrations.

The Conference Program, designed to address relevant issues in the industry today, will be divided into different tracks. Attendees have the option of targeting just one track or selecting from each, depending upon individual interest. The various seminar tracks are: Human Factors in Lighting, Energy, Technology, Exterior Lighting Design, Lighting for the Workplace, Lighting Hardware and Residential Lighting. The program is designed to provide challenging and innovative thoughts and ideas to those in the industry with speakers who challenge traditional approaches. For more information on registration, call 1-800-841-4429.

Nursery Growers Target Landscape Architects

In response to a recent survey conducted in Georgia of 168 landscape architectural firms, which found that landscape architects specified more than 42% of all plant material supplied by the nursery industry in that state, growers are advised to improve cooperation with landscape architects to expand their market. The best ways to do this, according to the results of the survey, would be to keep landscape architects abreast of plant availability (varieties, quantity, quality, etc. and recommend proper use of plants for best performance in the landscape.

While landscape architects have generally not been a target market for nursery growers, the study illuminates for the industry for the first time that landscape architects are directly involved in specifying plants and selecting producers. Approximately 61% of all respondents in the Georgia study indicated they determine/recommend the nursery where landscape contractors obtain plants with large firms being the most active in the selection process of a production nursery. This demonstrates that landscape architects; are an important customer source for growers and niche that needs to be filled.

ADA Pocket Guide Now Available

Pocket Guide To The ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities by Evan Terry Associates, P.C. is now available from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This handy guide presents the technical building requirements for accessible elements and spaces, including additional considerations needed for places such as libraries, restaurants and business establishments. The guide also contains over sixty illustrations from the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines given in U.S. customary units (inches) and in SI units (millimeters). SI is the abbreviation used for the metric system, and stands for Specificational System of Units. For more information on how to obtain the Pocket Guide, contact John Wiley & Sons at 1-800-225-5945.

Going Metric

The rest of the world has gone metric, and now it is time for Americans to move forward and make the transition. In 1988, federal law established the metric system as the preferred system of measurement in the United States and required its use in all federal procurements to the extent feasible by September 30, 1992. Last July, President Bush signed Executive Order 12770, which requires all federal agencies to develop specific timetables for conversion to the metric system.

The time has come for everyone to accept the change, including landscape architects. The actual differences in the systems just needs to be kept in perspective. After all, a meter is a little more than a yard and a liter is a lot like a quart. There is a growing body of metric design and construction information available to facilitate change for those in the industry. For more information contact the Construction Metrication Council at the National Institute of Building Sciences at 202-289-7800.