Landscape Architect & Specifier News

MAR 2018

LASN is a photographically oriented, professional journal featuring topics of concern and state-of-the-art projects designed or influenced by registered Landscape Architects.

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For Shawn Kelly, MLA, PLA, FASLA, president-elect of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the importance and impact of landscape architecture have never been more paramount than now. "It is a simple truth that our planet is overstressed," Kelly noted. "Landscape architects really do make a difference. Green landscapes help people to cope." Making a difference on a large scale is what Kelly plans to continue to do once he begins his term as ASLA president this October. (The new officers will be sworn in during the 2018 ASLA meeting in Philadelphia.) He hopes to tackle many issues, including but not limited to building membership in the ASLA, ensuring equity in the profession and encouraging students to become advocates in the industry so that they can have future influence at state and national levels. "I want to celebrate the profession, too," Kelly said. "We should create more avenues and more synergy— with more people in our profession, there is more energy." Kelly's long-spanning career in landscape architecture goes back many decades and has traversed three continents. One of his first major projects was erosion control monitoring plots in Burkina Faso (sub- Saharan Africa) in 1979-1980. He is the principal of Williams Bay, Wisconsin-based Kelly Design Group, LLC. His current work focuses primarily in the Midwest. With a bachelor of science in renewable natural resources and a masters in landscape architecture, education is important to Kelly. This year marks 23 years of full-time teaching at the department of landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "It is easy in practice to get jaded, derivative or repetitive. When you're teaching students, they don't have that. I'm amazed by the energy they have, and it gives you energy," Kelly said. He encourages independent thinking and problem solving among his students. The first assignment he gives them is to come up with their own definition of Above: Pregrown native plant mats, stabilized DG path and new cedar steps and railings have rejuvenated this lakeside slope. "You do not plant a landscape; instead, you grow one," says Shawn Kelly. "This begins with the earth and courses its way through all that follows. Everything is a detail, and every detail must make sense for the project, place, time and context in which it exists." 44 Landscape Architect and Specifier News S T E W A R D to the Planet The Work of Shawn Kelly, FASLA, Focuses on Place-Based Design Left: Shawn Kelly is looking forward to beginning his tenure as ASLA president (Oct. 22, 2018). His goals include building membership, working to help ensure equity in the profession and encouraging students to become landscape architecture advocates at the local, state and national levels. Profile by Ifsha Buttitta for LASN

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