April is National Landscape Architecture Month—but what does that mean to you? Landscape architects design healthy, sustainable communities that promote improved land use and active living, as well as provide connections between people and nature. You probably interact with the work of a landscape architect on a daily basis without realizing it! Think of the multiple functions your city or town’s streetscapes provide: multi-modal transportation corridors, meeting places, aesthetic enhancements, and even stormwater management improvements.
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is using this month to educate the public on the impacts landscape architects make on the health and well-being of our communities and the environment.
Landscape Architects in Motion
Urban renewal projects turn vacant or underused spaces into safe, thriving environments for community development, gardens, and parks. They’re nearly always impacted by a landscape architect who looks for relationships between the location’s ecology, the people who use it, and the economics of development. The playground you visit with your kids may be surrounded by a network of trails—carefully designed and developed by a landscape architect.
Landscape architects also impact governmental decisions at local and federal levels, lobbying for funding towards historic landscapes and smart growth. These decisions even impact highway design, such as Maryland’s Intercounty Connector—of which, we designed the landscape on Contract C and are working on the design for contracts D and E— with the use of native plants, stormwater management, and reforestation. The work of a landscape architect also provides mental respite for drivers by giving them something beautiful to look at while on the road.
There’s More!
Whether the scale of the project is large or small, landscape architects influence the relationship between land and the people who use it. Visit the National Landscape Architecture Month website for more information on how landscape architecture’s green design can encourage healthy living, as well as a list of local events.
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