A closer marriage between planning and landscape architecture would mean strong connections between the processes of policy making and place making.
"Landscape architects need to become urban planners and work 'upstream' in the policy and regulatory process to ensure public space leads urban placemaking efforts."
Ian Dillon writes the above statement to report a message presented by a group of landscape architects at the ASLA 2019 Conference, recently held in Washington, D.C.
According to one of the panelists, Michael Grove, the current disconnect between the two fields has resulted from a historic decoupling of place making and policy making—now landscape architects excel at the former and planners at the latter. "Landscape architects can lead and participate in urban policy-making through 'upstream urbanism,' while prioritizing public spaces as the dominant placemaking strategy in cities," writes Dillon to explain Grove's point.
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