Charting a Course for the Next 50 Years of Landscape Architecture

Jared Green was on hand at the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF)'s New Landscape Declaration: Summit on Landscape Architecture and the Future held recently in in Philadelphia,

Over 700 landscape architects attended the event, which served as a 5th anniversary of the original declaration. Green summarizes the key themes emerging from the event's focus on the future of the profession:

Over the next 50 years, landscape architects must coordinate their actions globally to fight climate change, help communities adapt to a changing world, bring artful and sustainable parks and open spaces to every community rich or poor, preserve cultural landscape heritage, and sustain all forms of life on Earth. 

Green then goes into detail on a long-list of action items that emerged from the event, including:

• Landscape architects must improve upon urbanization-as-usual
• Landscape architects must dramatically increase in number
• Landscape architects must get even more political

Missing from the proceedings, according to Green in a moment of criticism, were "critical discussions on how to better collaborate with scientists, ecologists, developers, architects, urban planners, and engineers on forging a common vision that can increase their collective impact in the halls of power…"