2020 Annual WASLA Conference
Seattle Airport Marriott, March 27, 2020Lessons Learned From The Top: Leading Landscape Architecture in the Public RealmDescription:As landscape architects, many of us focus on improving the health, diversity, and quality of our public spaces. To facilitate an ecology focused design approach, we collaborate and connect with a broad set of stakeholders, including associated disciplines, agency staff, politicians, artists, business leaders, and directly with individual community members. To create real change in the public realm, landscape architects must position themselves not just to serve on a project, but to lead them. Some fellow landscape architects have done just this, answering a call to leadership by purposefully transitioning to positions at public agencies, effectively being the leader on many of the projects we ultimately participate on. Speaker Bios:Chris Overdorf, PLA ASLA, SCJ Alliance - Principal Landscape Architect Chris is an award-winning and nationally-certified landscape architect and planner with more than 25 years of experience, encompassing a diverse range of project types, scales, and clients. His work covers a broad range of land use projects that have helped his clients solve complex issues with thoughtful place-based collaborative planning and design solutions. His project experience includes both civic and municipal facilities, interpretive design, transportation corridors, environmental art, park & recreation facilities, green infrastructure design, visual impact assessments, and geospatial analysis for a wide range of clients. Chris draws inspiration from the deep history of landscapes and people’s connection to their community’s heritage. Jennifer Knauer, Landscape Architect + Planner Planning Manager, King County DNR, Roads Division David Erickson began his career working for private landscape architecture firms in the Seattle area and over the next 38 years has worked in the field of Parks and Recreation. He has served as the Director of the City of Wenatchee Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department for the last 13 years. In this role, he oversees park and open space acquisition, design, and development; the public art program; community forestry program; grant writing; comprehensive and strategic planning; park, streetscape, stormwater facility, pool, community center, cemetery operations, and maintenance; recreation programs; department IT, HR and budgeting; and general administration. He is also an active community volunteer and also serves on the State Land and Water Conservation Funding Board and is in his second term on the Cashmere City Council. Over the course of his career Brad has provided policy and advocacy leadership as well as direct scenic conservation services to communities and organizations across the country. He currently is a Regional Landscape Architect for the USFS serving as the technical expert on matters related to scenic byways and corridor management planning, visual assessment methods and strategies for visual mitigation, context sensitive transportation planning, scenic easements and other open space preservation tools, and guidelines for the design of the built environment. Prior to joining USFS, he was the Director of Scenic Conservation for non-profit Scenic America and served as the Chief Landscape Architect for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) where he was program and policy lead for Scenic Byways and Visual Resources Management. Throughout his career, Brad has tirelessly created partnerships with major federal land management agencies and the Center for Sustainable Destinations arm of the National Geographic Society to create a clearinghouse of information on landscape aesthetic issues. Learning Objectives
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