Landscape Architect Articles

St. Louis ASLA Chapter12-04-17 | Feature

St. Louis ASLA Chapter

by Russ Volmert, President

Scott Emmelkamp, Trustee (left), and Russ Volmert, President (right) presented Noel Fehr with the Robert Goetz Award for a Distinguished Career in Landscape Architecture at the St. Louis ASLA's Annual Design Awards celebration in February. The Robert Goetz Award, for landscape architects with more than 25 years of experience, acknowledges a chapter member's professional career and contributions to the profession of landscape architecture.

The St. Louis ASLA Chapter had a busy 2017 with new events, new initiatives and new members adding to an already active chapter. We held our Annual Design Awards celebration in February, after chapter leaders revised the award process to be more encompassing of the practice of local landscape architects. The revised process resulted in more award submittals and a wider variety of project types. The highlights of the evening were the professional accomplishment awards going to Michelle Ohle, who received the Emerging Young Professional Award and Noel Fehr, who received the Robert Goetz Award for a Distinguished Career in Landscape Architecture.

Later in the spring, chapter members travelled to the state capital to advocate with state legislators for keeping practice licensure. The efforts were successful since legislation in the House, mandating an end to licensure of landscape architects, was defeated in committee, never making it to a vote by the full legislature. Members also attended an April meeting of the Missouri Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors and Professional Landscape Architects (APEPLSLA), representing our profession at the meeting.

Barbara Deutsch from the Landscape Architecture Foundation paid a visit to the St. Louis Chapter to give a presentation on The New Landscape Declaration, a new vision for landscape architecture in the 21st century.

Mid-May found Chapter Trustee Scott Emmelkamp and Chapter President-Elect Cory Murner at the Mid Year Trustee/Chapter Presidents Council meetings in Washington, D.C., where they represented the chapter. The spring brought many sponsor events, including the chapter's involvement in celebrating World Landscape Architecture Month with a photo contest for members.

In summer, the first film of the Gateway Cinema Series was presented. The new film series, started by Cory Murner, seeks to present and engage chapter members on important topics pertaining to the profession. A second film showing occurred in late October, with each film being a CEU opportunity for members. The summer also saw chapter members involved in chapter sponsor events, the annual ASLA/ASCE Golf Tournament, and a presentation by Barbara Deustch of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) on The New Landscape Declaration.

The chapter had an extremely busy fall with the many events as part of St. Louis Design Week in early October. The first event was sponsoring a talk on the history of St. Louis Parks by local author NiNi Harris at the Stupp Center in beautiful Tower Grove Park. Mid-week found chapter members at our always-popular SWAP Meets (Social With Allied Professionals) at Urban Chestnut Brewery in The Grove neighborhood, noshing on great German bier and food. We also had a combined meeting with the local AIA chapter later in the week at the Danforth Plant Science Center, where members toured the native prairie landscape and listened to a presentation by Dr. Scott Woodbury of the Shaw Nature Reserve. The next day, many members participated in a Sketch Crawl in Forest Park, sketching their way through the beautiful park and culminating with a pub house celebration in nearby Dogtown, the historic Irish neighborhood in St. Louis.

In late October, many members made their way to Los Angeles for the ASLA Annual Meeting. Members attended meetings, educational sessions, the exhibit hall, went on tours, and enjoyed the many events celebrating the profession of landscape architecture.

As seen in LASN magazine, December 2017.