Landscape Architecture in St. Louis by: Robert E. Goetz, ASLA Landscape Architecture has made great strides in St. Louis in the last half century. It has grown from 2 to 33 firms! When I was discharged from the army after Okinawa and Korea in WWII, I returned to the University of Illinois to finish my education in Landscape Architecture. After graduating in 1947, I decided to try design/build with my family's landscape nursery business. My years there gave me valuable experience in the practical end of getting a job off paper and onto the ground, but it was too restricting in the scope of job availability, so I started my own landscape architecture firm in 1956. My wife and business partner, Pauli and I spent much of our time in the early years trying to educate people about landscape architecture by speaking to groups and writing articles. We organized the first St. Louis Section of the ASLA, and started it again after it lapsed. Stuart Mertz and I led the first efforts to register LAs in Missouri, and started the Missouri Association of Landscape Architects. We have deliberately followed a policy of serving a wide range of clients, such as cities, public parks, schools, institutions, commercial and residential. Landscape Architecture is a wonderful profession! In what other field can you enjoy being creative and leave a legacy that people and communities can enjoy for decades? Parks and playgrounds have been one of the most important categories of our work. We have designed 152 parks or playgrounds, ranging in size from the 702 acre Gordon F. Moore Community Park in Alton IL, to mini-parks. As the lead designers for a 450-acre portion of The Gordon F. Moore Park, we hired Architects and Engineering firms to serve as consultants. We met monthly with a design committee made up of leaders of every sport, civic, business and labor organization in town for a year, making 22 changes to the master plan. This process converted these leaders into dedicated owners of the Park, and they and their organizations literally built the Park. Dr. Gordon F. Moore was the driving force behind the park's completion. Ten local clubs and organizations raised over $300,000. In addition, labor unions donated their labor and persuaded their contractors and suppliers to donate equipment and some supplies to build five ball fields, two comfort station/concession stands and all the infrastructures for them. The Rotary Club built a fountain as part of a play area and the Kiwanis Club built a fort play area. Dr. Robert Elliott donated the funds for the Nan Elliott Rose Garden, which was dedicated to his wife and the Alton area Doctors donated funds for an Oriental Garden. Goetz designed parks range geographically from a mini-park in Homewood, IL, (near Chicago) to a playground in Nanjing, China, a gift from its sister City, St. Louis. It has been an exciting career and I am still enjoying it!