August 2004

• Since the August 5 announcement that the Safe Spaces symposium abstracts were available online for free viewing and downloading, the abstracts have been downloaded over 21,500 times. Response to the release of the abstracts has been overwhelmingly positive from both members and from professions/organizations including those related to security and law enforcement.

• Places of Power, one of the Landscape Architecture Foundation symposia on the drivers of landscape change, will be held in Chicago on September 10-11. Local hosts and sponsors of the symposium are the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the ASLA Illinois Chapter. For more information, visit http://lafoundation.org/EInvitation/Index.htm.

• The first national administration of the three computerized multiple-choice sections of the Landscape Architectural Registration Examination (C/LARE) was completed August 13. Candidates were asked to provide feedback regarding the testing experience. CLARB will be using that data, as well as correspondence received from individual exam candidates, for a thorough review of the testing process.

• The 2004 Landmark Award and the 2004 Community Service Award were announced in the August 16, issue of LAND Online. The releases are posted online at http://www.asla.org/nonmembers/publicrelations/pressreleases/press04/pressrelease081604b.htm and http://www.asla.org/nonmembers/publicrelations/pressreleases/press04/pressrelease081604a.htm. To date, the release pages have generated 1,477 visits and been picked up by PLANetizen.com and ArchNewsNow.com.

• Past President Rodney Swink, FASLA, delivered a lecture on August 23 at the National Building Museum (NBM) entitled Downtown Revitalization and Historic Preservation: Creating More Livable Cities for the 21st Century. This is the third in the series of lectures featuring ASLA speakers this year at the NBM. Richard Haag, FASLA, and Past President Hopper were both featured lecturers earlier this year.

• Grounds for Improvement, the new Do It Yourself network series featuring Dean Hill, ASLA, focuses on landscape architecture. There will be recognition of Dean’s ASLA membership in all credits and of ASLA in the credits of each episode. The show premiers October 2. Several of the shows were staged in the Philadelphia area. They were taped in June.

• An email was sent to all firms that have an enhanced profile in Firm Finder to encourage them to use the new enhanced profile features, including the ability to add three project photos to their profiles and to have their profiles listed in more than one metro area. 

• The Cornerstone Festival of Gardens features the work of many ASLA members, including Pamela Burton, ASLA, Ken Smith, ASLA, Walter Hood, ASLA, Martha Schwartz, ASLA, and Mario Schjetnan, FASLA. Articles highlighting the festival recently appeared in Newsweek and the New York Times. LAND Online was the first to bring the full story to ASLA members with a feature article (http://www.asla.org/land/hougie.html) on June 28. LAND’s article on the festival was carried in ArchNewsNows.

• The online Landscape Architecture magazine index (http://www.asla.org/lamag/magazineindex.html) now spans January 1996 through May 2004. The index is updated regularly.

• Registration continues for the 2004 annual meeting. Two tours have already sold out for Friday, October 29: Downtown Gardens and Historic City Creek, and Residential Gardens. Halloween has been flagged as a date to avoid in the future.

• The online registration allows registrants to return to their registration record to purchase additional tickets or a guest registration at http://www.asla.org/meetings/am2004/email/form_tickets.htm. Access online registrations at http://online.asla.org/source/Meetings/cMeetingProcessSearch.cfm?section=events&page=eventlist or print the form http://www.asla.org/meetings/am2004/registration/pdf/ASLA_Reg_Form_2.pdf if you wish to fax or mail it to ASLA. The early bird registration deadline is September 20.