This past summer, in the midst of a global pandemic where wearing a mask became a part of daily routines, Landscape Architects and other design professionals were given blank white masks to design for a silent auction called Masks for Unity, hosted by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF).

Benefits from the auction would go to educational and advocacy initiatives for TCLF whose mission is to "connect people to places." For each mask created, one would be donated to essential workers and to the community of Charlottesville, North Carolina, through MASK UP, a mask drive launched by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women of the Charlottesville Metropolitan Area to help supply masks to the Black community.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation is a non-profit organization that states they educate and engage the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards.

President and CEO of the foundation, Charles A. Birnbaum, said, "We hope that these masks - whether through humor or solemnity - provide a common, unifying bond during this challenging period of great turmoil." Quoting Landscape Architect Ken Smith of Ken Smith Workshop, Birnbaum said, "Socially distant doesn't mean anti-social."

Participating Professionals
Tiffany Beamer, OLIN
Mia Lehrer, Studio-MLA, and Michael Lehrer and Edan Kadribegovic, Lehrer Architects LA
Kofi Boone, North Carolina State College of Design Phoebe Lickwar, FORGE Landscape Architecture
Pamela Burton, Pamela Burton & Company, and Richard Hertz
Joeb Moore, Joeb Moore & Partners

 
Robert "Bob" Chipman, Robert Chipman Landscape Architect
Oehme van Sweden
Shane Coen, Coen+Partners
Laurie Olin, OLIN
Stuart "Stu" Dawson, Sasaki
Ken Radtkey, Blackbird Architects, Inc.
Michelle Jeffery Delk, Sn???,hetta
James "Jim" Richards, Jim Richards' Sketchbook
Angela Dye, A Dye Design
Mark Rios and Nate Cormier, RIOS
Gina Ford, Agency Landscape + Planning Martha Schwartz, Martha Schwartz Partners
Frederick Fisher, Frederick Fisher and Partners
Ken Smith, Ken Smith Workshop
M. Paul Friedberg, MPF&P, and Dorit Shahar
Lauren and Stephen Stimpson, STIMSON
Adriaan Geuze, West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, and the West 8 Design Studio
Christine Ten Eyck, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects
Lisa Gimmy, Lisa Gimmy Landscape Architecture
Victor F. "Trey" Trahan III, Trahan Architects
Debra "Deb" Guenther and Dakota Keene, Mithun
Susan Van Atta, FASLA, VAI/Van Atta Associates, Inc.
Ron Henderson, IIT College of Architecture
Michael Vergason, Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Ltd.
Gary Hilderbrand, Reed-Hilderbrand
Edwina von Gal, Edwina von Gal + Co
Walter Hood, Hood Design Studio Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, Weiss/Manfredi
William "Bill" Johnson, University of Michigan (ret.)
Marcel Wilson, Bionic
Mark Johnson, Civitas
Sara Zewde, Studio Zewde

As seen in LASN magazine, December 2020.