2022 ASLA Conference

Midtown Park

On November 11-14th, leaders and emerging professionals gathered in San Francisco for this year’s National ASLA Conference. We love this time of year, leading critical conversations, catching up with colleagues, collaborators, and celebrating this year’s accomplishments.

Honor Award | Urban Design

Midtown Park
Houston, Texas

Midtown Park fulfills a decade long dream to rejuvenate Midtown Houston. As the pinnacle to a 10-year revitalization plan, this vibrant, urban park improves access to green space and amenities for visitors while creating a balance of active and passive recreational opportunities within the park’s signature spaces. The first SITES silver project in Houston, the park is a model of sustainability and resilience.
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Honor Award | Residential Design

Quarry House
Park City, Utah

Emerging from Utah’s Wasatch Back, Quarry House provides a peaceful retreat for a family of outdoor enthusiasts, its poetic forms derived from the natural forces that inform its existence. Using site sensitive design and native planting, the garden celebrates the natural history, materiality, and flora of the region.
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Honor Award | Analysis + Planning

Connecting People and Landscape: Integrating Cultural Landscapes, Climate Resiliency, and Growth Management in the Low Country
Beaufort County, South Carolina

Beaufort County’s Green Print Plan and Comprehensive Plan for the 21st-Century Coastal Southeast is a model for coastal communities across southeast America that addresses equity, resilience, growth, sea level rise, affordable housing, transportation, and rural protection.
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Reimagine Nature and Inclusion for Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah

Reimagine Nature is the city’s first public lands master plan in 30 years, charting a course for the city’s expansive landscape including 83 parks and public spaces, 70-miles of trails, 1,700-acres of natural lands, 108 holes of golf, and 86,500 urban trees. The most successful public engagement effort in the city’s history, the plan reached 12,000 community members at the height of COVID-19.
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Conference Speakers

This weekend, Design Workshop leaders will speak on various topics that push conversations forward and embody the conference theme of “Designing a Better Future.” Don’t miss these exciting and thought-provoking sessions.

Friday, November 11th

The Forest and Surrounding Watershed

8:15am - 2:15pm

Tyson Murray, PLA

Walk among old-growth coast redwoods, cooling their roots in the fresh water of Redwood Creek and lifting their crowns to reach the sun and fog. This federally protected primeval forest is both refuge and laboratory, revealing our relationship with the living landscape. What will you discover in Muir Woods?

Big Data Drives Bigger Impact: Data and Tools for Equity in Design

1:30pm - 3:00pm

Emily McCoy, PLA

Big data is a largely unharnessed power that has the potential to build more equitable and sustainable communities in a meaningful way. Uncover how to utilize big data, whether as a novice or researcher, and what to expect in the future within design.

Saturday, November 12th

Beyond Land Acknowledgement: Building Capacity for Contextual Design on Native Land

12:30pm - 1:00pm

Aaron Woolverton

We’re designing on native land; can we begin with a land acknowledgment? What does an advocacy framework look like for partnering with native communities through the practice of landscape architecture?

Building a Culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Stories from the South

3:45pm - 5:00pm

Gaylan Williams, PLA, LEED® AP

Faced with the complex challenges of addressing systemic discrimination, climate change, wealth disparities, and more, designers must view their studios, design approaches, and engagements through the lenses of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hear from three leaders in southern practice about their experience and ongoing initiatives for placing DEI at the forefront.

Sunday, November 13th

Act Like an Owner - the Value of an ESOP Firm Structure

9:00am - 10:00am

Robb Berg, PLA

What’s in it for you? This session explores various cultural and economic benefits of being part of an employee-owned firm. Attendees will examine some reasons why making the ESOP transition is an attractive succession strategy for many firms, and what this transition means for the employees of these firms.

To Out-bagby, Bagby! – Developing the Next Generation of High-Performance Green Streets

9:00am - 10:00am

Alex Ramirez, PLA & Gaylan Williams, PLA, LEED® AP

Bagby Street, a national precedent for sustainable streetscape design, yields countless benefits that continue to foster growth and development for Midtown Houston. A decade later, the Midtown Redevelopment Authority and design team partner to transform Bagby’s sister street, Brazos, taking urban-design-oriented landscape performance benefits to a new level.