William G. Swain is Chairman of the Board of GWSM, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and has been associated with that firm and predecessor organizations since 1948. He holds a bachelor’s of architecture degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and is a licensed Landscape Architect in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio.

Swain served as national president of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1973-1974, is a fellow of that organization, and received an ASLA Medal in 1980. He also chaired the International Council on Environmental Design (ICEDJ and served as chairman of the Pennsylvania State Art Commission for several years.

Any serious student of landscape architecture, and certainly most ASLA members know Bill Swain, if not personally, then by reputation. He has devoted much of his time to the profession and the ASLA and he continues to offer his expertise to students and professionals.

Swain has served in almost every capacity on the national level of ASLA, including the presidency in 1973-74. Among other duties, he is the current chairman of the council of fellows.

An annual speaker at Texas A&M University’s Landscape Architecture Workshop each year, Swain also frequently spends two weeks in the summer working with students. He is known for his outstanding relationship with students. Maybe the reason he relates so well to them that he believes that “these young people are our future and we must work with them to build our future.”

When questioned about the ways in which landscape architecture has changed in the past several decades, Swain admitted that he could best comment on this subject by reflecting at on his own practice.

“We have been reasonably successful over the last several decades because we have done a divergent list of things?EUR??,,????'??+I think that is our strength. We are a pure landscape architectural firm, not a multi-disciplinary firm, which has its benefits too.”

?EUR??,,????'??In our practice, we have honed our abilities to manage the design project. We assemble the teams of other professionals, but we have the central control over the design product. We are the managers, but may indeed be doing a relatively small portion of the actual work.

?EUR??,,????'??Because of our educational backgrounds and professional expertise, we as Landscape Architects, have a grip on the overall objectives of the design and we know just how it is to be implemented. Actually, on some projects, we get a smaller part of the fee than the consultants, but we are sure the end product is what it should be.”

?EUR??,,????'??The days of ?EUR??,,????'??high-tech?EUR??,,????'??? are here, and with the very technical advances there has to be a ?EUR??,,????'??high touch?EUR??,,????'??? reaction.?EUR??,,????'??

Swain cited educational institutions particularly as appreciating this management concept “because it gives them almost a turnkey kind of at design team.”

Swain admitted that multi-disciplinary firms “have no attraction for me. I have enough fun and challenge marketing landscape architecture as understand it. It is different when the original partners of a firm are a civil engineer and a Landscape Architect. There are many fine firms throughout the country that fit into that category, but the concept has to begin with the forming of the company, not as an afterthought, when it looks as though the economy demands it. Hiring consultants has its own advantages for a number of reasons, one that comes to mind immediately is leaner times.

A good example of using consultants is found in Swain’s work with the Pittsburgh Zoo renovation. GWSM was commissioned as the Landscape Architects and consultants on this job. We had the prime design contract on the first group of exhibits because they were outside and well within our scope of expertise. We assembled a team of architects and engineers and went to work. The following phase called for a structure and an architect?EUR??,,????'??+the same architect we used on our team?EUR??,,????'??+was retained. He, in turn, hired us to manage the contract because we knew about all the paper work and how to deal with the client and the various agencies that had to be satisfied in the process.”

Looking Ahead

Swain said he believes the future of the landscape architectural profession is looking very bright although the profession faces many challenges. According to Swain, “the days of ‘high-tech’ are here, and with the very technical advances there has to a ‘high touch’ reaction. Landscape Architects are ‘high-touch’ folks.”

“In older cities such as Pittsburgh, high-tech facilities are replacing the old steel mills and railroad staging areas. A consortium consisting of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon Universities are presently putting together a high-tech (including biochemistry and robotics) center to be built at the site of one of the old steel mills along the river. These high-tech facilities are sensitive to the environment and calling Landscape Architects to design the site plans.”

In the field of urban renewal and revitalization, Swain is also most active. Currently, he is working with the AIA on a conference in the Pittsburgh area in March 1988. The symposium will discuss the problems of current architecture and will show examples of solutions, using the Pittsburgh area as an example. Titled “Remaking Cities,” the group is bringing in many distinguished people from throughout the world, including Prince Charles of Great Britian. Prince Charles is very outspoken about architectural concepts and is interested in a correlation between the “heavily industrialized cities” of America and Great Britian. If Bill Swain has his way, a number of Landscape Architects will also be in attendance.

“There is going to be a fantastic future for the profession if they meet the challenge of the changing times and understand the needs of these reasonably new opportunities. The challenge will be to decide what is now needed and how important all these things are,” Swain concluded. “There are endless opportunities out there and the Landscape Architect is the professional who knows how to meet the design challenge.”