On behalf of the Executive Committee of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects, we are pleased to announce this year’s Design Award Winners. These winners were announced in a live, online event Monday, June 29. Click to view the PDF slideshow presented that evening. Please click through the slideshow to see the ASLA Student Honor & Merit Award winners, as well as those from our chapter who will receive national ASLA medals and honors this year. Image at top: “Right to Remain” – Willis Wharf, Virginia by Tina Yun Ting Tsai (Harvard University Graduate School of Design), winner of the S ..read more

These are extraordinary days for our region, and for our nation.  Thousands of people are sick and lives have been lost due to impacts of COVID-19 that are disproportionately, unequitably, and unfairly harming environmental justice communities and communities of color. In the midst of this pandemic, Ahmaud Arbury was murdered while jogging on a public road. Christian Cooper was accosted while bird watching in Central Park. George Floyd was killed by police on a city street. These present events are part of a much longer history of racism and injustice in this country that continues t ..read more

We are pleased to share these voices of our members along with other design and civic leaders in commentary about our current moment, and the legacy and promise of landscape architecture. During the COVID-19 pandemic, parks should be celebrated, protected, and ultimately leveraged to support public health by Julia Africa, Cheri Ruane, FASLA, Gary Hilderbrand, FASLA, and Chris Reed, FASLA published in The Boston Globe. May 6, 2020. “Now, more than ever, our parks must be understood as essential public infrastructure. Not unlike essential workers, their contributions during a pandemic should be ..read more

As the coronavirus and social distancing force landscape architects to work remotely, here are resources to help. We will continue to add to this list as new items are available. Have something that should be here? Please email the chapteroffice@bslanow.org. Thanks! … Working Remotely Virtual Program: ARCHITECTURE FIRMS AND REMOTE WORK From the BSA. Original date: March 17, 2020. Link to video recording of discussion (including slides). Link to slides only. Virtual Program: THE AT HOME WORKPLACE From Design Museum Boston. Friday, March 20, 8:30am – 10am. Click ..read more

Hello Massachusetts and Maine ASLA members and our larger landscape architecture community, We are in this together, and BSLA is in this with you. We want to make sure you’re aware of these resources (click each title for link to full info): … INDUSTRY NEWS: BOSTON CONSTRUCTION SITES TO BE CLOSED March 16, 2020 Press Release re: Construction Closures in the City of BOSTON … VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS TUESDAY from the BSA: March 17, 6-8pm: Architecture Firms and Remote Work https://zoom.us/j/808335585 Enter Meeting ID: 808 335 585 Social distancing and self-quaranti ..read more

Toole Design’s TIES proposal is the BSLA Design Challenge winner for the Summer 2019 Installation at the Gove Street site on the East Boston Greenway. The East Boston Greenway is a two-mile path that connects Boston’s inner harbor to Constitution Beach. It runs north from Jeffries Point and the Gove Street area across the base of Eagle Hill to Star of the Sea and Orient Heights, connecting people to parks and the waterfront and someday, beyond. The low-lying greenway, built on top of a former rail line, is also a primary floodway. As described in Climate Ready East Boston, it will br ..read more

How a commonsense gardening solution became a cause celeb. by Ricardo Austrich, ASLA Back in 1998 when we fled gentrifying Cambridge for the leafy, then blue-collar backwater of Roslindale, my husband and I were faced with an aesthetic and financial dilemma common to most landscape architects. As new home owners, we purchased a charming deferred maintenance hulk of a two family house in a tight knit urban neighborhood surrounded by a chain link fence whose replacement costs would have been a burdensome addition to a growing laundry list of renovations. Inspired by a charming “fedge” (a ..read more

(diagram above from A 21st Century Research District for ASU by Sasaki) The Awards Committee of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 BSLA Design Awards Program. From nearly 100 entries, 26 projects  were selected to recognize excellence in the diverse practices of landscape architecture.  Awarded projects reflect careful stewardship, wise planning, and artful design of the cultural and natural environment.  The program was open to work by landscape architectural practitioners and professional landscape architecture students based in Mas ..read more